ESPN, Adrian Wojnarowski Lie Again About Jacob Blake Being Unarmed

Less than three weeks ago, ESPN's Mark Jones interrupted a live NBA game to spread a lie that Jacob Blake was unarmed when he was shot by police. Despite OutKick pointing out to ESPN over email that this was inaccurate, ESPN refused to correct Jones' lie. As always, when executives act like cowards, it sets a new standard across the company. Sunday, Adrian Wojnarowski spread this same lie about Blake but in print.

Within twenty minutes of Clay’s tweet, ESPN had changed the article while providing no statement on the error or the correction. The article was up with incorrect facts for over four hours.

Even with the update, ESPN refused to mention that Blake was armed. It reads as follows:

"The NBA and WNBA postponed a full slate of playoff games after another Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during the NBA's restart in Orlando, Florida, in August 2020."

Instead of lying, ESPN is now misleading its readers, indicating police just randomly shot a black person who did nothing wrong.

ESPN’s error here is particularly egregious because Blake himself admitted to police he was armed with a knife when he was shot. "Yeah, I had my knife," Blake responded when asked.

There isn't a debate, he was armed.

UPDATE: ESPN tells OutKick it will not comment on saying Blake was unarmed.

How did Wojnarowski's error make it past the editorial process? How did ESPN, which aggressively promoted the story for hours, not notice the mistake, the same one it made just weeks ago?

Given what ESPN has allowed over the past few weeks (see it all here) it's more likely that ESPN and Wojnarowski knew Blake wasn't unarmed but opted for a familiar lie to cause more racial division in America. ESPN made the decision when it let go of Trey Wingo and Mike Golic to re-sign Bomani Jones, Pablo Torre, and Sarah Spain that it was now only concerned about the reaction on Twitter of non-sports fans. As expected, Wojnarowski got many thumbs up today.

This is not shocking on Wojnarowski's part, either. In the fall, this same guy sent a "Fuck you" email to Senator Josh Hawley after Hawley asked the NBA if “Free Hong Kong” was among the approved social justice slogans players could wear on their jerseys.

Has any company ever covered political and social issues worse and more recklessly than ESPN?