Newspaper apologizes for ‘insensitive’ headline about Olympic gold medalist Simone Manuel
The San Jose Mercury News apologized for what it called an “insensitive” headline on its story about Simone Manuel winning an Olympic gold medal in swimming on Thursday.
Manuel became the first African-American woman to win an individual gold medal in swimming. The 20-year-old Stanford University student tied for first in the women’s 100-meter freestyle with Canadian Penny Oleksiak. They both set an Olympic record of 52.70 seconds.
Also on Thursday, American swimmer Michael Phelps won his record-setting 22nd Olympic gold.
The California newspaper reported both milestones online with one headline: “Phelps shares historic night with African-American.”
Social media shuddered.
She's an Olympic gold medalist. Her name is Simone Manuel. She isn't just some regular person, @mercnews. pic.twitter.com/QdSvdXM9ML
— Josh Shahryar (@JShahryar) August 12, 2016
"Michael Phelps wins gold and so does some black chick." Way to go, Merc! pic.twitter.com/pqWMCnDvGb
— Sean Keane (@seankeane) August 12, 2016
Headlines like this offensive one from @mercnews about Simone Manuel prove why all editing desks need Black folks. pic.twitter.com/5ja3bdZ4nh
— Evette Dionne (@freeblackgirl) August 12, 2016
Mercury News sports columnist Tim Kawakami was also moved to comment.
This is a terrible headline. It's my paper. I might get in trouble for saying it, but it's a terrible headline. https://t.co/ulQyf2eVnu
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) August 12, 2016
The paper rewrote the headline of the online story to say, “Olympics: Stanford’s Simone Manuel and Michael Phelps make history.”
It also added an apology on the story.
“Editor’s note: The original headline on this story was insensitive and has been updated to acknowledge the historic gold medal wins by both Simone Manuel and Michael Phelps. We apologize for the original headline. The story has also been updated.”
It tweeted the apology as well.
We apologize for an insensitive headline earlier on a story about Simone Manuel and Michael Phelps' medal wins. https://t.co/ykWvcddaKf
— Mercury News (@mercnews) August 12, 2016
This story was originally published August 12, 2016 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Newspaper apologizes for ‘insensitive’ headline about Olympic gold medalist Simone Manuel."