ESPN admitted to a mistake in its handling of NBA veteran Jason Collins' coming-out story, and then passed the blame to one of its reporters.
After Collins' admission that he is gay in a Sports Illustrated article, ESPN aired an "Outside the Lines" segment to discuss the significance of Collins' comments. The show sparked controversy when one of its NBA reporters, Chris Broussard, publicly shared his Christian view that homosexuality is a sin.
Several hours after the show's conclusion, ESPN released a statement, apologizing only for the distraction that the comments caused in overshadowing the larger news of Collins coming out. But on Wednesday, ESPN president John Skipper clarified the network's stance on Broussard's comments to a group of reporters in New York.
According to Richard Deistch of Sports Illustrated, Skipper said:
"I think we did great other than we made one mistake: The mistake was not being more careful with Chris Broussard, and there is a collective responsibility there. Chris Broussard's job was to come on and talk about the news of the league, how the league was representing it, and through a series of events he made personal comments, which was a mistake."
As RealGM.com reports, however, Skipper transfers the blame onto Broussard in his next series of comments as he explained a meeting with Broussard and Outside the Lines Producers after the episode.
"I had a discussion with everybody. They said, 'Look, we brought [ESPN.com columnist] LZ Granderson on to talk from a personal point of view, and we brought Chris on as a reporter and it was a mistake for (Broussard) to cross the line into a personal point of view there.'
"We don't quarrel with his right to have any personal point of view, although we do assert as a company that we have a tolerant point of view, we are a diverse company, and that does not represent what our company thinks."
Both Collins and Broussard profess to be Christians.
Watch the "Outside the Lines" segment below:
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