TSN issued an on-air apology one day after an offensive tweet made its way to broadcast on its trade deadline show.
“In spite of TSN's protocols to prevent unfounded and inappropriate tweets from making it to air, a false, and inappropriate tweet was allowed to run,” read host James Duthie before the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers game on Tuesday.
“There was no basis for the false allegation made in this tweet,” he said.
Peter Gall, a Vancouver-based lawyer representing Leafs players Dion Phaneuf, Joffrey Lupul and actress Elisa Cuthbert told CP24 the apology serves as “a wonderful first step.”
The public mea culpa comes hours after a lawsuit was threatened against TSN and Twitter user Anthony Adragna, ordering them to issue a formal apology for airing the “false and defamatory tweet.”
They were also demanded to “pay a significant amount of damages” for their actions.
“It is bad enough that there are people who spend their time using social media to publish such false and malicious stories, but it is made much worse when a reputable media outlet like TSN gives broad circulation and credibility to these false stories by republishing them as TSN did,” read the statement by law firm Gall Legge Grant & Munroe LLP.
Lawyers are still trying to reach out to Adragna, who tweeted a series of unapologetic messages after his now-infamous comment went to air.
“We’ve got his name, we’ll find him,” said Gall to CP24. “And he’s going to take appropriate steps to make amends too.”
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