Ernie Banks a White Sox legend? Error on NPR

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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.

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]

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