ABC news station catches heat over major blunder on Olympics graphic
Pyeongchang is a county in South Korea with a population of over 43,000 that is hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics.
P.F. Chang’s is an Asian-themed restaurant with a little over 300 worldwide locations, including in South Korea.
Apart from both starting with the letter “P” and ending in “Chang,” the two are not the same.
Yet that slipped by a graphics producer for an ABC affiliate in Chicago.
WLS-TV mixed up the two names during a broadcast Saturday. When it was supposed to include “Pyeongchang 2018” in a morning newscast graphic, it accidentally subbed in “P.F. Chang 2018” instead.
Who knew the #WinterGames would be so delicious #PFChang https://t.co/nJdCzf3Bwh pic.twitter.com/5z0qBD9V4l
— M e r e d i t h L a n d (@MeredithNBC5) February 13, 2018
Jayme Nicholas, a spokeswoman for the ABC affiliate, told the Chicago Tribune that the error was due to a mix-up. She said the P.F. Chang graphic was created for a different “satirical piece” in which viewers were encouraged to invent their own Olympic sports.
Some people didn’t find the “satirical piece” explanation to be acceptable.
Juliet Macur, a New York Times sports columnist, thought that even if this was used for satire, the joke comes across as racially insensitive to people of Asian descent. She said someone at WLS should be fired for this mistake.
https://twitter.com/JulietMacur/status/963223815458205696
Not only did the station include the wrong graphic, but what’s up with those Olympic rings? One is missing at the bottom.
As is the case with these types of goofs, social media had a field day with the graphic …
https://twitter.com/AaronKlein/status/963433723717869568
https://twitter.com/PizzaPartyBert/status/963251294852079616
If the Olympic s were at PF Chang’s I’d win the gold medal https://t.co/5Rl0rOikAF
— nicky (@YUNJlNNIE) February 13, 2018
P.F. Chang’s didn’t seem to mind the free exposure …
We definitely see the resemblance. Eggroll bobsledding…now that's an idea. 🙂
— P.F. Chang's (@PFChangs) February 13, 2018
As for the actual Games themselves, Germany has the most gold medals so far with five, but Norway leads the overall medal count with 11.
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