ESPN’s This Just In delivered this week’s shining example of what not to do yesterday, spending an entire segment breaking down a quote from Ja Morant that was very much fictional.
The fictional quote was courtesy of the “satirical” Ballsack Sports, the success of which has proven that people are willing to believe things that aren’t real if they’re posted on social media. (Which, uh, we didn’t really need more evidence of, but whatever.)
Host David Jacoby apologized on Twitter last night:
As the face of this I want to do three things:
1) apologize in general
2) apologize to @TaylorRooks and @JaMorant
3) Give a big shout to “Matty Ice” for watching from a what looks like a liquor store https://t.co/A0GrBV9KgV
— Jacoby (@djacoby) July 11, 2022
And on This Just In Tuesday, Jacoby offered an on-air apology to Morant, Rooks (who hosted a Bleacher Report interview with Morant that was misattributed as the source here), and viewers for the mistake.
ESPN's David Jacoby apologized for this fake quote on today's edition of "This Just In." pic.twitter.com/OJ3V8LWmve
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 12, 2022
“We made a mistake. We attributed a quote to Ja Morant’s appearances on Taylor Rooks’ show on Bleacher Report that he simply did not say. On behalf of the network, the show’s staff, and myself, I’d like to apologize to Ja and Taylor for our error. We will work hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
As far as apologies for silly mistakes go, that’s about as good as you can hope for. This entire episode should have obviously been avoided before it got to this point, and ESPN (and everyone else in media) should be held to editorial standards that prevent things like this from happening.
As our Joe Lucia wrote last night:
This is embarrassing, and ESPN really needs to straighten their standards out. Perkins and Stephen A. Smith have each gotten duped on the air, and it’s an absolutely wretched look. The company must do better, and maybe all of its employees should block and/or mute Ballsack Sports on Twitter.
That just about sums it up.
