TV Station Accused of Racism for ‘Braves Scalped’ Headline After MLB Game

Braves
Getty Images/Streeter Lecka
Warner Todd Huston

A Bay Area TV station was accused of racism for broadcasting the caption “Braves Scalped,” after Wednesday’s National League Division Series game between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cardinals trounced the Braves in a 13-1 final in Game 5 of the NLDS. But as soon as the game ended, KTVU broadcast a headline that some found offensive:

Even the Braves were working to head off charges of racism by announcing ahead of the game, that they would not allow foam tomahawks or the team’s “tomahawk chop” tradition during the series.

Despite the team’s effort to PC itself, KTVU “went there,” anyway.

Naturally, the complaints flooded the Internet.

For instance, Sporting News slammed the TV station saying, “There’s absolutely zero reason to ever use a headline like this, but considering Helsley already called both the tomahawk chop offensive during this exact series, this headline is at least in poor taste.”

Others also dumped on the TV station. Yahoo Sports called the caption, “a facepalm-worthy racially insensitive headline.” Sports Illustrated deemed the caption a flat out “racist headline.” And Awful Announcing screamed that the caption was ” at minimum tasteless and is racist and/or culturally insensitive.”

There were plenty of detractors on Twitter, as well:

The station eventually apologized for the caption.

“Wednesday evening, in our 6 p.m. newscast, we had a story about the Atlanta Braves that included a phrase that was racially insensitive toward Native Americans. It was not our intention to offend anyone, and we want to express our deepest apologies for the use of that phrase,” the station tweeted.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.

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