In an attempt to be sensational, ESPN, the flagship news channel in the United States, has run a confusing story about Serge Ibaka, the star defender of Oklahoma City Thunder. This story was apparently first run on May 25, 2012 and placed on Youtube but it has since been removed. The main problem with the piece is that it confuses the Democractic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo. It mentions the Republic of Congo and its capital Brazzaville but discusses the history of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. ESPN should have contacted someone who knows the distinction between the two Congos. They need to apologize for this mistake and correct their story.
2 comments:
That's the story Serge told to ESPN reporters. He spoke about what he witnessed during the war and his father was a political prisoner. If those are the events that he says he witnessed then why should ESPN apologize?
So Serge told ESPN that he is from both the Republic of Congo and The Democratic Republic of Congo? There have been wars in both of these places but both wars were not the same. ESPN has to make that very clear rather than confusing two different stories. ESPN needs to apologize for conflating two stories into one and perpetrating the negative image of Africa which is the stock in trade of the Western media.
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