U.S. Olympian Simone Manuel tied for gold on Thursday night in the women’s 100-meter freestyle. But in teasing a story on Olympic coverage for the evening, the San Jose Mercury News, however unintentionally, slighted the 20-year-old black swimmer, provoking a social media firestorm.
“Michael Phelps shares historic night with African-American,” read the story headline, tweeted early Friday morning from the Mercury News’s official Twitter account.
Twitter users excoriated the Mercury News for not using Ms. Manuel’s name in the headline, for which the newspaper subsequently apologized.
“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,” the paper said in an editor’s note, The Huffington Post reported. “We apologize for the original headline. The story has also been updated.”
While Mr. Phelps is a household name for who is seemingly invincible in the water, particularly in the Rio games, Miss Manuel is a newcomer who was not expected to medal in the 100-meter freestyle last night.
Oddly enough, as a current Stanford University student, the Texas-born Ms. Manuel might have provided a local angle to the Mercury News, given the paper is located about 20 miles from the Stanford campus.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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