An Oklahoma man has been awarded $25 MILLION in DAMAGES by a jury after a newspaper, The Oklahoman wrongly identified him as a high school basketball commentator who hurled racist abuse at players.
Scott Sapulpa was one of two men commentating on the March 2021 girls’ playoff game, between Midwest City High School and Norman High School.
While the national anthem was played, the Norman team took a knee, leading to second commentator Matt Rowan, a former youth pastor, to unleash a highly offensive racist rant against the girls, believing his mic was not turned on. Rowan later blamed the rant on his diabetes.
The Oklahoman – the largest newspaper in the state – wrongly reported Sapulpa made the racist remarks.
On Monday, Sapulpa was awarded the remarkable sum for its error.
‘We’re just so happy for Scott. Hopefully this will vindicate his name,’ said Michael Barkett, Sapulpa’s attorney.
The Norman High School girls’ basketball team are seen in March 2021 kneeling – to the anger of commentators Scott Sapulpa and Matt Rowan. Rowan then unleashed a racist tirade, which he later blamed on his diabetes
The Norman High School girls’ basketball team are seen in March 2021 kneeling – to the anger of commentators Scott Sapulpa and Matt Rowan. Rowan then unleashed a racist tirade, which he later blamed on his diabetes
Scott Sapulpa (left) was reported in The Oklahoman of making racist remarks, when in fact it was his colleague Matt Rowan (right) who hurled the abuse
Bob Nelon, representing Gannett, which owns The Oklahoman, said the company recognized it had made a mistake and corrected it swiftly, with Sapulpa’s name not appearing in the print version, and being quickly corrected online.
Nelon said that a high award would hurt smaller newspapers owned by the company.
‘Newspapers are made up of people, and people make mistakes,’ Nelon said. ‘Mistakes happen. Gannett is made up of people — over 11,000 people. When you punish Gannett, you’re punishing all those small-town newspaper editors.’
The Oklahoman published its article on the incident the next day about 11am, and it was updated at 12:37pm to falsely identify Sapulpa as the one who used a racial slur.
Two and a half hours later, at 3:05pm, Sapulpa’s name was removed.
Rowan then admitted it was him, and he was named at 5:35pm.
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