ESPN corrected an article after sparking backlash for falsely claiming Jacob Blake was “unarmed” when he was shot.
The original article reported that the NBA was telling teams to “be ready” for the Derek Chauvin trial verdict and went up on Sunday before it was corrected, Fox News reported Monday.
“The NBA and WNBA postponed a full slate of playoff games after another unarmed Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by police,” the original article reportedly stated.
Outkick founder Clay Travis said on Twitter that the network’s apparent inability to quickly clarify their error was an “indefensible journalistic error” and accused the network of wanting to “spread divisive lies,” concluding that it “doesn’t care about the facts at all.”
This may be giving too much credit to ESPN, by the way, to say this is simply an egregious error. Given the woke sports playbook it’s also possible ESPN just wants to continue to spread divisive lies and doesn’t care about facts at all. Equally as likely.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) April 18, 2021
Outkick also published an article on ESPN’s correction. Outkick claimed the error “promised to cause more racial division.” (RELATED: The New York Times’ Mara Gay: US Seems To Be ‘Invested In The Spectacle Of Black Death’)
“In 2021, it takes a lot of work to get an outlet to report the truth or even a portion of it,” writer Bobby Burack stated, also pointing blame at “those at the top” of the network for the error.
ESPN just can’t seem to get the Jacob Blake story right.https://t.co/BtBPRpCJGd
— OutKick (@Outkick) April 19, 2021
“ESPN incorrectly reported that Jacob Blake was unarmed when he was shot seven times by Kenosha, Wisconsin, police,” an editor’s note on the original ESPN piece now reads. The note adds that Blake had said in an January “Good Morning America” interview that he was carrying a small pocket knife which he dropped while being confronted by police. A knife was found in his car, as has been previously reported.
The officer involved in the shooting of Jacob Blake was recently reinstated to the police force after an independent investigation found that he “acted within the law and was consistent with training.”