Bobby Burack
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Earlier Sunday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski inaccurately wrote that Jacob Blake was unarmed when he was shot by police in 2020. Blake went on record months ago to say, “Yeah, I had a knife,” yet ESPN has said twice in the past month he didn’t. Mark Jones, unsurprisingly, was the first to spread the lie on ESPN airwaves during an NBA game:
OutKick was the only outlet to point out on Sunday afternoon that ESPN was again trying to spread this lie, one that promises to cause more racial division. We also requested an official comment. Moments later, ESPN oddly reworded the story. Instead of lying, ESPN opted to mislead its readers. In the first update, ESPN omitted the line that Blake was unarmed but refused to mention he was armed, which makes it seem as if Blake was not a threat.
So @espn was caught in a blatant lie by @outkick and now they won’t comment on their lie. Perfect. How can you trust anything this network says or does? Put simply, you can’t. https://t.co/s2za1jbRVk
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) April 18, 2021
ESPN responded to our request by pointing us to the “correction” and said it would not comment on the matter. So, as we always do, we added ESPN’s decision to decline comment into our story. Soon after, ESPN updated Wojnarowski’s story for the second time, finally admitting that it “incorrectly reported that Jacob Blake was unarmed when he was shot seven times by Kenosha, Wisconsin, police.”
In 2021, it takes a lot of work to get an outlet to report the truth or even a portion of it.
ESPN has made several errors in judgment on this and a host of other issues. First, Wojnarowski’s original phrasing is indefensible. No excuse. ESPN was called out once for this, did nothing, and yet did it again. ESPN is a sports outlet, and many of its consumers may be unaware of news stories that aren’t related to sports. Thus, ESPN should go into each of these stories assuming its consumers are unaware of details and are perhaps hearing the story for the first time. ESPN added a correction five hours later, after most of the readers already read the story. The correction will have minimal impact unless Wojnarowski tweets the line was wrong to his five million followers.
Second, how did no one at ESPN catch this “error”? The story got home page treatment for four hours. The original line likely made it past several editors and ESPN.com employees. How many knew but didn’t want to acknowledge it?
Finally, if the executives at ESPN were not such cowards who are petrified of social media backlash and leaks, they would’ve addressed this problem when Mark Jones first stated Blake was unarmed. If ESPN would have done so then, it likely would not have happened again, especially not a few weeks later. I gave ESPN several chances to correct Jones, but the network did nothing. Even a simple “this was incorrect” would’ve sent a message to ESPN employees, but the network wouldn’t even say that.
Many individuals are to blame for Wojnarowski’s story, but those at the top should be first.
The first story is what the vast majority of ESPN viewers read or heard. And they will believe it. The “correction” will not get top billing and the masses will continue to be fed lies 🙁
ESPN’s balls haven’t dropped yet.
They identify as not having any
during some of the *peaceful protests” this year there were scenes where cult like groups of purple haired white kids were chanting the “hands up don’t shoot” lie about the Michael Brown story where Michael Brown violently attacked a cop. We all know the leftist playbook is to keep repeating lies until perception becomes reality so the scumbag BLM peaceful protesters will surely be repeating these Jacob Blake lies when they destroy more of our neighborhoods which they surely are going to. they are coming for all of us if we don’t stand up.
that’s the play^^
Just keep repeating the same lie over and over and over and over and over and over again….
Until people believe it. SMH
Exactly right.
ESPN and the left want the lie to be seen as the truth. The people there draw meaning in their dog-vomit lives from demonizing other citizens and patting themselves on the back for it.
Any sports “fan” who still gets their news from ESPN are likely too stupid to even care whether Blake was armed or unarmed. ESPN knows this…they just assume their readers lack the intellectual curiosity to pick up on factual errors in their stories. It is why they keep pushing social justice narratives: you can do that when your base demo is dumbed down meat heads and left wing sports journalists.
ESPCNN is pathetic. Just pathetic. They knew Jacob Blake was armed. They just didn’t want to say it hoping that people would miss it. Glad Outkick caught them in the act.
no one ever reads the retractions.
They throw a verbal frag grenade. The lie explodes. After it has done it’s damage a small correction is issued.
Just look at how absurd and out of hand the Georgia voting bill got. To be fair, people are still running with the Jim Crow 2.0 bulls—-
Calling what Jacob Blake had a “small pocket knife,” as ESPN now claims, would seem to depend on whether it’s sticking into you or into someone else. A knife stuck into me would never fit the description of “small,” and I don’t blame any police officer who feels the same way.
Correct the White guys lie(Woj), but let the black guys lie(Jones), slide. Way to stay slyly woke ESPN
It’s a struggle for them. With the Woke, you eventually paint yourself into a corner against reality.
How does the entire SEC have a partnership with ESPN? there is absolutely NO reason to partner with ESPN; or NIKE.
they are playing with Fire and the SEC is an all American Conference playing on the Disney CCP channel?
students at these schools should demand to broadcast and stream their own games. Fuck EsPn.
The media isn’t the worst enemy this country has…but it is one of the biggest because they are the bullhorn for the oligarch’s agenda.
I don’t have ESPN. It’s on at the gym. Lots of people on small screens shouting at each other, laughing, or waving their arms. That’s about it.
That’s the only place I see it. I think the only reason Mina Kimes is on there is to do her agony and offened faces.
The left wing media does this all the time. Lie over and over to push their agenda. Even our moron President was repeating the Charlottesville lie during the debates. There are a lot of stupid, gullible Americans that believe everything they hear or read. The so called msm are despicable.
The AP is notorious for this
This is why I stopped watching woke ESPN!
The usual from the race and sex grifters at the four-letter network… can we get a chant of “Kill whitey!” from them?
Never watch ESPiN except for live sporting events; your life will be much better!
Stating the ESPN is a sports news organization is inaccurate at best. Any organization that employs a racist like Mark Jones is a race based media organization. They’ve led the way down the path to WOKE.
I used to enjoy watching Obermann on Sports Center…Yes, I’ve been watching cable TV for a VERY long time.
What’s important about Outkick stories like this, is they refuse to let ESPN, and other woke outlets get away with lies like that. They have to apply the pressure and hold them accountable, because if they don’t these stories will continue to spread, and be consumed unchecked. I applaud Outkick for never letting up. One of the many examples of how unique they are, and why they continue to thrive.