ESPN's 'racist' Jeremy Lin headline: Did the writer deserve to be fired?

The worldwide leader in sports cans the editor responsible for a controversial headline, even as he claims that it was all an "honest mistake"

Jeremy Lin
(Image credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

At 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, hours after the New York Knicks' loss to the New Orleans Hornets broke a seven-game winning streak by the Knicks' new Asian-American superstar Jeremy Lin, ESPN editor Anthony Federico wrote a "racist," career-ending headline: "Chink in the Armor: Jeremy Lin's 9 turnovers cost Knicks..." The headline, which ran on the mobile version of ESPN's website, was yanked after 35 minutes, and ESPN quickly fired Federico. The sports news giant also doled out a 30-day suspension to anchor Max Bretos, who had used the same racially insensitive phrase on the air. Federico apologized for his "honest mistake," saying he wasn't trying to be "cute or punny," and had used the same phrase "at least 100 times" in headlines, and simply didn't notice that "chink" is a racial slur for Chinese people. Lin accepted the apology. Is this a case of "political correctness run amok," or did ESPN make the right call?

ESPN overreacted: I really doubt Bretos or Federico "meant to denigrate or degrade Lin in any way," says Palash R. Ghosh at International Business Times. They are guilty of carelessness, not "malicious racial hatred" of the sort aimed at black baseball stars Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron many decades ago. ESPN's crackdown "disguises and trivializes acts of real, authentic racism against Asian-Americans and others." If ESPN had simply apologized, "I think most everyone would be satisfied."

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