An Oklahoma broadcaster for high school basketball was awarded $25 million in a defamation lawsuit filed against a local newspaper that accused him of muttering racial slurs on the air after members of a team took a knee to protest against America during a game.
The incident occurred in March of 2021 when members of the Norman High School girls basketball team took a knee to protest against the United States during the national anthem ahead of the game. The broadcast team of Scott Sapulpa and Matt Rowan was in the booth at the time, and listeners were shocked when one of them began blasting the girls in a racial epithet-tinged tirade.
“They’re kneeling? F–king n—-s. I hope Norman gets their ass kicked. F–k them. I hope they lose. They’re gonna kneel like that?” one of the broadcasters was heard saying on the livestream of the game. The comments naturally caused an outrage.
In its reporting on the offensive broadcast, The Oklahoman newspaper reported that it was Sapula who was heard on the air making the racist comments. The report fingering Sapula was live for only a few hours before the paper corrected the story and properly identified Rowan, Sapula’s broadcast partner, as the one who actually made the comments.
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The paper published its first story identifying Sapula as the ranter at 11 a.m. It updated the story at 12:37, adding Sapula’s name, but by three p.m., Sapula’s name was removed when doubts were raised. By that evening, Rowan admitted it was his voice heard dissing the high school girls for taking a knee, and he made the comments during an adverse diabetic reaction.
Despite the correction, Sapula sued, saying that his reputation was irreparably damaged as a result of being wrongfully identified as the on-air racist ranter, the New York Post reported.
On Jan. 5, a jury agreed with Sapula and awarded him a $25 million settlement against newspaper chain Gannett, owner of The Oklahoman. The jury ordered the chain to pay Sapula $5 million in actual damages and another $20 million in punitive damages.
“Their entire culture, we’ve seen in this case, is profits over people,” Sapula’s attorney, Michael Barkett, said as he argued the case. “Their power is what blinds them from telling the truth. They think they can get away with it.”
Gannett’s attorney, Bob Nelson, warned that such a huge settlement would damage small newspapers everywhere.
(John Giustina/Getty Images)
“Newspapers are made up of people, and people make mistakes. Mistakes happen,” Nelson exclaimed. “Gannett is made up of people — over 11,000 people. When you punish Gannett, you’re punishing all those small-town newspaper editors.”
Gannett spokesperson Lark-Marie Anton also blasted the ruling, saying, “There was no evidence presented to the jury that The Oklahoman acted with any awareness that what was reported was fake or with any intention to harm the plaintiff in this case.”
Regardless, Sapula celebrated the ruling and noted that he and his kids had their names cleared.
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