NPR White House correspondent Ari Shapiro is used to turmoil. He works in Washington D.C.
But come political stalemates, government shutdowns and Republican – Democrat wrangling, he’s likely never seen backlash from a story like he did today.
This morning, Shapiro, in a setup piece before President Obama bestowed Presidential Medals of Freedom, said Ernie Banks was a White Sox. Specifically, he “played for the Chicago White Sox, President Obama’s favorite baseball team.”
Oh. No. He. Didn’t.
So yeah, here's how my day started: http://t.co/y8UDHInoe4 #MeaMaximaCulpa #MissOtisRegrets
— Ari Shapiro (@arishapiro) November 20, 2013
The good people and Cubs fans of the Internet were quick to point out the error – something Cubs fans have become quite used to pointing out the last few seasons. But while they can put up with a lot of mess – for decades, centuries, even – they will not stand for the icon of Cubdom being usurped but the South Side nine (in fact, Sox fans were likely none-too-pleased being saddled with the most public face of their bitter rival).
NPR did do a correction – a fantastic one and fairly quickly. But not before the Twitters got fired up. A sampling of the firestorm:
[View the story “NPR oops: Mr. Cub Ernie Banks is not a White Sox” on Storify]