Unsigned professional football player Colin Kaepernick didn’t tell CBS he would stand for the national anthem if he was signed to an NFL team. But, CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora said on CBS’s The NFL Today Sunday that Kaepernick, free agent, is “not planning on kneeling” and is “planning on standing for the anthem if given the opportunity,” CNN reported.
The story would have been a huge get, given Kaepernick’s controversial protest of not standing for the anthem, stating it was in order to draw awareness to racial issues, police violence against people of color and “bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” The CBS claim seemed legitimate because La Canfora’s had spoken to Kaepernick the day before. But, after the show, La Canfora tweeted to “clarify” that he actually never talked to Kaepernick about his intentions. Instead, La Canfora said his comments about Kaepernick and the anthem were based on “what had been reported about him” and that he couldn’t “say if they are true or not.”
iMediaEthics has written to CBS Sports to ask what reports were being cited, why it wasn’t made clear on air that the source for La Canfora’s claim was news reports and not his conversation with Kaepernick, if CBS heard from Kaepernick over the error, and if CBS aired or will air any correction or clarification.
Kaepernick re-tweeted the AP’s correction of the claim he would stand and an ABC News story on the correction. He also tweeted a quote attributed to Winston Churchill: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
La Canfora walked back his on-air segment with a series of tweets: “Wanted to clarify one thing regarding @Kaepernick7. When I was asked about whether or not he would sit or stand for anthem…Standing for Anthem wasn’t something I spoke to Colin about sat. I relayed what had been reported about him standing in the future…Reports about @Kaepernick7 standing for anthem had not been refuted.”
He went on, “However, I cant (sic) say if they are true or not. Colin and I didn’t discuss. Colin would have to address any future demonstrations. I didn’t ask him if he would sit or stand. Our chat primarily about his will to play. I know @Kaepernick7 is fully committed to playing football and helping those in need. What he would do during the Anthem I do not know.”
The Associated Press, for one, reported on the on-air segment and the claim Kaepernick would stand, attributed to CBS, and had to correct. The AP tweeted a correction and deleted its original tweet. The correction reads, “We deleted a tweet about Colin Kaepernick saying he would stand for national anthem if he returned to NFL. A corrected tweet will follow.”