ESPN Fires Employee Over Jeremy Lin Headline

By - Kris Fletcher

Earlier today, ESPN announced disciplinary action imposed on two employees for separate incidents of racial-insensitivity related to the company's coverage of New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin.

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The employee responsible for the "Chink in the Armor" headline that ran on ESPN.com's mobile site after the Knicks lost to the New Orleans Hornets on Friday night has been fired.

On Saturday, ESPN apologized for that headline, plus a similar reference made last week by anchor Max Bretos, who uttered the phrase "chink in the armor" while interviewing Knicks television analyst Walt Frazier. Bretos has been suspended 30 days without pay for the remark.

ESPN also said it has been made aware of a third incident, which occurred on ESPN Radio, but the radio commentator who made the statement is not employed by the network.

"We apologize, especially to Mr. Lin," ESPN’s statement says. "His accomplishments are a source of great pride to the Asian-American community, including the Asian-American employees at ESPN. Through self-examination, improved editorial practices and controls, and response to constructive criticism, we will be better in the future."

The thing I don't get is, why did the network choose to fire one person and only suspend another for basically the same mistake? I say mistake, because I honestly don't believe in either case that the person responsible actually meant anything by it, but rather it was just a poor choice of words on their part.

I understand the whole zero tolerance-type policies that most companies abide by, but I would think both people should have received the same punishment, which I don't believe should have been termination in either case.

But hey, that's just me.