James Warburton: Seven post was “a terrible mistake, unacceptable & will not be tolerated”

Seven CEO James Warburton has described yesterday’s Seven News online post as inexcusable and reminded staff such reporting would not be tolerated.

In a note to staff he wrote, “I wanted to touch on the post that was published on 7news.com.au yesterday and to reiterate that what happened was a terrible mistake, unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

“A public apology was issued as soon as possible.

“The post was inexcusable, embarrassing and clearly does not meet the expectations of our company and the values that we’ve all worked so hard on over the past 12 months.”

It follows Seven online filing AAP copy on racial abuse after England’s Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho, all missed their penalty shots.

While the story slammed the online racism, the headline by Seven took a different angle, which effectively laid the loss at the three players: “Three Black players failed in the penalty shootout which England lost 3-2 against Italy.”

It later amended the headline to: “Three players failed in the penalty shootout which England lost 3-2 against Italy.”

Seven’s apology last night read, “Earlier on Monday, a 7NEWS.com.au social media post was published with a regrettable mistake,” Seven later said in a statement.

“The post linked to an article condemning the racial abuse of England football players following the team’s loss to Italy in Sunday’s Euro 2020 final.

“The caption on the post was swiftly rectified as soon as it was identified.

“We sincerely apologise for the offence the post caused.”