Seven boss James Warburton apologises for racial post on 7 News Facebook page
James Warburton says a 7 News Facebook post pointing out the ethnicity of three English players in the Euro final was a ‘terrible mistake’.
Channel 7 boss James Warburton said a social media post which described three English players in the Euro final as “black” was a “terrible mistake”.
The station came under fire after putting a post on social media site Facebook about the English football stars Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford that read: “Three Black players failed in the penalty shootout which England lost 3-2 against Italy”.
The post pointed out the ethnicity of the three players and linked to a story on the racial abuse they had suffered after the missed penalties in their team’s final loss.
The post was made on Monday but after much uproar online a note was sent to all staff by Mr Warburton on Tuesday afternoon where he admitted the post was “unacceptable”.
“I wanted to touch on the post that was published on 7NEWS.com.au yesterday and to reiterate that what happened was a terrible mistake, unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” he said in the email.
“A public apology was issued as soon as possible.
“The post was inexcusable, embarrassing and clearly does not meet the expectations of our company and the values that we’ve all worked so hard on over the past 12 months.”
The post caused outrage on social platforms including Facebook and Twitter with many people voicing their outrage over the poorly-worded caption above a photo of the English star Marcus Rashford.
The picture and caption were linked to a story on Seven’s website that read: “Abhorrent abuse: England players cop racist taunts after shootout.”
Screenshots were taken of the post which caused a huge online backlash before it was deleted and recaptioned a short time later.
The updated version read: “Three players failed in the penalty shootout which England lost 3-2 against Italy.”
The players endured extensive criticism during the game that saw England lose the match in a 3-2 shootout loss and Prime Minister Boris Johnson was among those to condemn the vile attacks.
He tweeted: “This England team deserve to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media.
This England team deserve to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) July 12, 2021
Those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves.
“Those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves.”
He later said in a press conference at Downing Street, “They brought joy to this country and to those who have been directing racist abuse I say ‘shame on you and I hope you will crawl back under the rock from which you emerged’.”
Seven would not comment on whether any action had been taken against the staff member who made the post.
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