ESPN faced backlash on Tuesday afternoon over a tweet that claimed that a “noose” was found in NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace’s garage last year, despite the fact that the FBI concluded that it was a garage door pull.
ESPN made the claim in a nearly three-minute preview video that it posted to Twitter about a documentary that the left-leaning sports organization released today on Bubba Wallace and a controversy that emerged last year when a crew member reported finding a “noose” in his garage.
Nowhere in the short video clip did ESPN disclose the fact that NASCAR had said in a statement that the FBI concluded that the “noose” was a garage door pull down rope.
“The FBI report concludes, and photographic evidence confirms, that the garage door pull rope fashioned like a noose had been positioned there since as early as last fall,” NASCAR said in its statement. “This was obviously well before the 43 team’s arrival and garage assignment.”
Last year, a noose was found in Bubba Wallace's stall at Talladega Superspeedway. The next day, the NASCAR community stood with him in unity.
"I was like, 'Holy s—, it's the whole garage.' … That's when I lost it." pic.twitter.com/Zh5HWumagX
— ESPN (@espn) December 14, 2021
Notable responses to ESPN’s claim included:
- Sean Davis, The Federalist: “It was a garage pull cord that had been there for months, you dishonest, race-baiting, race-hoaxing clowns.”
- Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA officer: “Totally fake news. Didn’t happen.”
- John Cardillo, political commentator: “You lying motherf***ers. It was a garage door pull and you know it, but you are lying your as*es off to fan the flames.”
- Stephen Miller, political commentator: “ESPN itself reported this to be false.”
- Eric July, political commentator: “Was this story not proved to be like a garage pull or some shit? Hahaha”
- Seth Dillon, The Babylon Bee: “It was a pull rope that long predated Wallace’s assignment to that garage. Pretending it was more than that is evil.”
- Rich Lowry, National Review: “Who’s going to tell them?”
- Jim Hanson, defense expert: “OR A rope pull for a garage door was used to play Woke BS.”
- Gerry Callahan, radio host: “It was a wonderful show of support and all but … it wasn’t a noose. Doesn’t that kind of matter?”
- Curtis Houck, NewsBusters: “Except it wasn’t true. It was a garage pull that people thought looked like a noose. The FBI cares more about investigating that and parents who attend school board meetings than investigating the likes of Larry Nassar, Nicholas Cruz, etc.”
- Kylee Zempel, The Federalist: “You’d think these clowns would want the world to forget that they had the FBI investigate a garage door pull cord. NOPE 🤡”
- Will Ricciardella, Fox News: “I don’t think the person who tied that rope with the propose of pulling a garage door down could’ve possibly seen this coming. But here we are.”
- Chris Bedford, The Federalist: “This was debunked a year ago…Are we celebrating the courage to see a garage pull-cord now?”
- Tom Shattuck, radio host: “What a bunch of pure horse sh*t. There was no noose. This was a pathetic theatrical performance.”
- Jesse Kelly, political commentator: “Here’s the biggest sports network in America producing an entire documentary about another race hoax as if it was real.”
- Kurt Schlichter, attorney: “This is a giant lie, Race Car Jussie.”
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Wallace found the rope. It was found and reported by a crew member.