Orioles outfielder Adam Jones made a splash in the media with his claims that Red Sox fans yelled racial epithets at him in Boston this month. But, Sporting News is seemingly more interested in using Jones’ claims as a weapon to attack former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.
Jones claimed that during a game at Boston’s Fenway Park he was abused by Red Sox fans.
“A disrespectful fan threw a bag of peanuts at me,” Jones told USA Today after Baltimore’s victory on May 1. “I was called the N-word a handful of times tonight. Thanks. Pretty awesome.”
But, Curt Schilling, host of Breitbart.com’s “Whatever it Takes,” said he doesn’t believe Jones’ claims and thinks Jones has “an agenda” to push.
“If he wants to maintain the lie he made here, that’s fine,” Schilling told Boston’s WEEI. “No one denies racism exists, but when people like him lie about an incident and others just take him at his word, it perpetuates a mythical level of racism.”
This was enough set off Sporting News’ Sara Jane Harris, who jumped to her keyboard to slam Schilling for his assessment of Jones’ claims.
“Curt Schilling wasn’t there, but he’s sure acting like it,” Harris seethed in a May 17 article, pointedly headlined, “Curt Schilling says more dumb things about Adam Jones and racism.”
After relating the details of Jones’ claims and Schilling’s reply, Harris said, “The Red Sox believe Jones,” since the team offered Jones an apology.
“The team apologized to him for his treatment and issued a lifetime ban to a heckler for using a racial slur toward another fan during a game,” Harris insisted.
Harris didn’t seem to understand that a PR move like what the Sox indulged after Jones’ accusations is a different thing than real proof that anything actually occurred.
As Breitbart’s Curt Schilling said, as of this time, “still no one identified or kicked out for the event,” that Jones alleges happened.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.