News station apologizes for 'racially insensitive' headline about Atlanta Braves loss

A California news station apologized this week after displaying a chyron declaring "BRAVES SCALPED" in reporting the Atlanta Braves' loss to the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday night.

What are the details?

Online critics were quick to accuse the Bay Area's KTVU-TV of being out-of-touch for using a term associated with Native Americans to describe a team with a Native American mascot, the New York Post reported, citing tweets from two sports writers.

Hey @KTVU, anyone who saw this headline before it aired should be fired. https://t.co/8Ei9OziNai

— Caleb Turrentine (@CalebTurrentine) October 10, 2019

Without repeating the headline, KTVU issued an apology tweet the next day, apologizing for using "a phrase that was racially insensitive toward Native Americans." Anchor Pam Cook also apologized for the station's use of the term in her Thursday morning broadcast.

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. pic.twitter.com/5mXFeQKi79

— KTVU (@KTVU) October 10, 2019

Anything else?

The drama over KTVU's headline occurred after Braves fans continued their tradition of chanting the "tomahawk chop" when Native American Cardinal's pitcher Ryan Helsley took to the mound Wednesday night — despite the Cherokee nation member commenting days before that he believes the chant is insulting.

"I think it's a misrepresentation of the Cherokee people or Native Americans in general," Helsley told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Just depicts them in this kind of caveman-type people way who aren't intellectual. They are a lot more than that. It's not me being offended by the whole mascot thing. It's not. It's about the misconception of us, the Native Americans, and how we're perceived in that way, or used as mascots. The Redskins and stuff like that."