ESPN Fires Employee, Suspends Another After Lin Slurs SHARE: Tweet </noscript> UPDATE: Now-unemployed web editor Anthony Federico spoke out for the first time on Wednesday to apologize. His apology and explanation seems genuine and moving. What do you think? First came Fox Sports commentator Jason Whitlock’s tweet about the size of Jeremy Lin’s pecker. Then came all the race-baiting idiots on Facebook champing at the bit to talk about what really matters in all this Linsanity: his taste for fried rice, whether or not Asians can drive a car, whether or not Asians can play basketball, his skill at math, and whether Jeremy Lin can pronounce the letter L. Classy. Now, in the wake of the New York Knicks’ first loss of the Lin Dynasty, a disappointing 89-85 defeat to the lowly New Orleans Hornets in which Lin turned the ball over 9 times, ESPN has decided to beat them all and post the single worst possible headline it could have posted: “Chink in the Armor.” The unemployment rate is about to rise after this one. Seriously, ESPN? Seth and Amy are standing by right now for a Really?!?! segment. That’s no unhappy accident. There’s just no way. That’s two frat bros sitting at the controls during on the skeleton crew that comes to work in Bristol on Friday nights, riffing off each other, making terrible joke after terrible joke in private, and someone being dumb enough to post it to the public site. Here’s a view of what ran on the mobile site: Both headlines were obviously taken down. These screenshots will linger, however. Oh, and the “chink in the armor” phrase got turned on ESPN News, too. This seems, somehow, more harmless, but Max Bretos was suspended for 30 days nonetheless: </noscript> While there is certainly no excuse for this behavior, it should be noted that Lin’s handle on his heavily scrutinized Xanga page from 2004 was “Chinkballa88.” That doesn’t exonerate ESPN for its idiocy, but it’s at least worth it to consider that Lin has like heard much worse and called himself similar slurs. ESPN posted this weak apology more than seven hours after the fact: “Last night, ESPN.com’s mobile web site posted an offensive headline referencing Jeremy Lin at 2:30 am ET,” the statement says. “The headline was removed at 3:05 am ET. We are conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologize for this mistake.” UPDATE I: The ESPN employee responsible for the headline has been dismissed, ESPN said Sunday. The employee, 28-year-old Anthony Federico, told the NY Daily News that the racial slur never entered his mind. “This had nothing to do with me being cute or punny,” he said. “I’m so sorry that I offended people. I’m so sorry if I offended Jeremy.” UPDATE II: Lin responded on Sunday after the Knicks’ huge victory over Dallas, in which the Internet sensation scored 28 points and dished out 14 assists: “They’ve apologized and so from my end, I don’t care anymore. You have to learn to forgive, and I don’t even think that was intentional.” UPDATE III: SNL addressed the media’s struggles with the Lin stereotypes on Saturday: (via Jim Romenesko and SBNation) OTHER STORIES YOU MAY ENJOY: • Meth Makes Strange Bedfellows: White Supremacist & Black Gang Member Pair Up • Headlines That Suck Weekly Round-up: Crack! Cain! Coronary Failure! • 25 Cringewrothy Examples of ‘I’m Not Racist, But …’ Posts on The Facebook • Why Sudden Coward Chris Christie’s Coming Gay Marriage Veto Is Utter B*llsh*t • Heavy Mayo, or The Greatest Thing I’ve Seen in Los Angeles PREVIOUS LINSANITY: • Racists Flock to Facebook to Celebrate ‘Jeremy Rin’ • Even Dr. Ruth Is Feeling the Linsanity • Mimic Headband Photos From Jeremy Lin’s ‘Chinkballa88′ Xanga Page in 2004 • Watch the Most Linteresting Man in the World Hit Game-Winning 3 • How Long ’Til Jason Whitlock Gets Fired Over This? Slade Sohmer Slade Sohmer is editor-in-chief of HyperVocal and co-host of SiriusXM's daily "Politics Powered By Twitter" program. Tweet him at @SladeHV.
Styles Loophole 5pts The "organ" reference would have resulted immediate dismissal, if it were legal o fire black person. But to fire a human being over a chink in the armor, shows how irrelevant our society has become. Western Civilization is so close to collapsing. Who needs it any more?
William 5pts I don't think that they did it purposely. If I were to believe that then it means I believe people are just naturally bad. I'm sure it was done by mistake not really thought through in the middle of the night. I don't think the espn people were trying to squeeze by a racial slur. Jay 5pts First of all it is very very racist....and I can't believe it made it to the headlines...if someone wrote this story then it had to go through several hands before it was put out there...and all those hands that it went through probably thought it was funny or witty....and these are educated adults...just think how people that are uneducated or even children will act when they see this crap....and NO WE ARE NOT WAY TOO SENSITIVE AND THIS IS NOT OVERBLOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I used to get beat up constantly, chased home from school, called rice cake, soy sauce, chink, everything they could think of.....and yes it messed with my head and emotions.....and these kids think that it is ok especially when parts of the national media writes stupid sh*t like this!
Jay 5pts First of all it is very very racist....and I can't believe it made it to the headlines...if someone wrote this story then it had to go through several hands before it was put out there...and all those hands that it went through probably thought it was funny or witty....and these are educated adults...just think how people that are uneducated or even children will act when they see this crap....and NO WE ARE NOT WAY TOO SENSITIVE AND THIS IS NOT OVERBLOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I used to get beat up constantly, chased home from school, called rice cake, soy sauce, chink, everything they could think of.....and yes it messed with my head and emotions.....and these kids think that it is ok especially when parts of the national media writes stupid sh*t like this!
Seer 5pts way overblown - we're too sensitive and too concerned about stuff that doesn't change the world
Guest 5pts wow... ignorant folks are still around... calling someone a "chink" is like calling a black person a "nigger"... wake up people! it's 2012 stop the racial slurs... not everyone in America are Native Americans.... everyone is NOT "white"... drop the racist "sh*t* Jeremy 5pts Right but the word chink also means "crack" or "hole." And the the term a chink in the/their/etc armor has existed for a very very very long time. It's not an uncommon term at all.
Jeremy 5pts Right but the word chink also means "crack" or "hole." And the the term a chink in the/their/etc armor has existed for a very very very long time. It's not an uncommon term at all.
yogi168 5pts One can be self deprecating and call themselves idiots, Chinkballa88 or other monikers. Other people calling other people idiot or moron or ethnic slurnames especially on the air or in a public forum is totally different. Funnygerp03 5pts It's not really different at all. People are just too sensitive. No matter what someone says, somebody will get offended. Saying only one group can say this or that just separates us more.
Funnygerp03 5pts It's not really different at all. People are just too sensitive. No matter what someone says, somebody will get offended. Saying only one group can say this or that just separates us more.
VERY OFFENDED!! 5pts Very offended! Why say something like that? I could not believe that ESPN approved the post and allowed the commentator to even say it on National television. I very upset with this kind of behavior and I sure hope that there is proper discipline following up and I want to hear from ESPN that action has taken place. Dumb move on their part.
Mattdana 5pts Did you just say "Lin Dynasty" in a post about racism? Lisa 5pts C'mon, that's totally different. One's an obvious slur, one's a cultural nod.