The National Public Radio published an article about ESPN host Maria Taylor but mistakenly used a photo of fellow reporter Kimberley A. Martin for the story.
The story: The NPR story reported on Taylor’s departure from the network, which came weeks after a leaked audio phone call revealed comments that ESPN host Rachel Nichols made about her.
Nichols complained to Adam Mendelsohn, an adviser to LeBron James, that Taylor, who is black, was given NBA Finals hosting duties last year, suggesting that the move was due to Taylor’s skin color.
“If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity — which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it — like, go for it. Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away,” Nichols said.
Nichols later addressed the controversy in her opening remarks on “The Jump” on ESPN 2 and apologized to Taylor.
But, the story featured an image of Martin, instead of Taylor. Martin flagged the mistake in a tweet.
“Cmon guys…. We don’t *ALL* look alike,” Martin tweeted. “I promise you, @NPR… That’s *not* Maria Taylor. It’s me.”
NPR later corrected the mistake and changed the photo in the story.
The outlet apologized for the mistake and blamed the mix-up on the Associated Press, saying that the initial photo they used was taken from the publication’s archives and that the stock image was labeled as Maria Taylor.
“Because of an error in an AP caption, this post previously featured an image of ESPN reporter Kimberley Martin instead of Maria Taylor. We apologize for the error,” NPR tweeted.
Oklahoma Sports editor Jeff Patterson shared a screenshot of the AP image and the description.
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