Mo Sports Network has apologized for recklessly faulting Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon for an incident that occurred near his house earlier this week, a dangerous accusation that has since been reported as false.
Monday night, shots were fired near Mixon’s home, with a minor reportedly suffering injuries. Per police records released on Thursday, Mixon is not a suspect in the shooting that allegedly caused a child to be shot in the foot.
According to the incident report, children were playing with nerf darts in the backyard of the victim’s home. At around 8:30 pm Monday night, shots were fired from the neighboring backyard, which is connected to Mixon. However, it’s not clear whether Mixon was even home at the time of the incident.
Shortly after the shooting, Mo Sports Network tweeted, “Joe Mixon shot a child in Ohio earlier today,” a report that turned out to not only be false, but wildly reckless.
After Mixon was not listed in the police report on Thursday, Mo Sports issued an apology.
“We here at MoSportsNetwork have seen the initial suspects do NOT include Bengals running back Joe Mixon. We’d like to apologize for our tweet on Monday night, as we were aware of the incident involving Mixon’s house not too long after it happened. These were allegations and nothing was confirmed, we were simply stating a report we were told and never sought ill intent with said tweet. Next time, we’ll use the word “allegedly.” We also want to apologize to Mixon and his family, and hope he can find some peace during this very unfortunate situation.”
— Mo Sports (@MoSportsNetwork) March 9, 2023
“Next time we’ll use the word allegedly” seems to be grossly downplaying the severity of the accusation that was spread. Most people who saw the tweet Monday night had never heard of the Mo Sports Network, but the tweet, unfortunately, gained a lot of traction on social media, garnering well over a million views.
Regardless of their level of credibility, that was a reckless accusation for anyone to tweet, let alone an account with the blue checkmark that was once considered a source of accreditation. But without any sort of vetting process, Elon Musk’s version of the blue checkmark has been rendered completely useless.
Initial reports stated the child’s injuries were non-life-threatening. As of Thursday, no charges have been filed, but two people were identified as suspects.
