Obviously an image can speak volumes, especially when a person's character is in question.
Franchise QB Colin Kaepernick has been under heavy media scrutiny over an investigation that might involve sexual abuse. And that's obviously being covered by ESPN.
Early Saturday morning while reporting on the case, ESPN used two different photos of Kaepernick for its report, one with him in his 49ers uniform and another with him in a backwards hat and headphones draped around his neck.
Now the picture with Kaepernick in his backwards hat only appeared on screen once around one in the morning Saturday. The next time, ESPN reported on the 49ers QB it used the photo of him in his uniform and never reverted back.
The question here is if ESPN using a picture of Kaepernick in his informal clothes rather than in his uniform like most other players, paints the QB in an unfavorable light.
The change, intentional or not, has been noticed by a few outlets online. Deadspin by no means accuses ESPN of anything sinister but does want more info saying "why was the switch made in the first place? If you know something, shoot us an email."
Sports World News also makes note of the change, and while we don't know if this qualifies as a controversy for ESPN just yet, the article on the matter says "The World Wide Leader in Sports owes Colin Kaepernick an explanation."
Major media outlets have made some questionable calls in their coverage of the Kaepernick investigation before.
TMZ broke the Kaepernick story with this headline, "Colin Kaepernick Investigated for Sexual Assault" Shortly after the story broke, Kaepernick tweeted out a response to the story where he said among other things "The charges made in the TMZ story and other stories I’ve seen are completely wrong."
When TMZ reported on Kaepernick's tweet, it wrote this somewhat vague statement, "a woman claims she was naked in a bed with Colin after smoking marijuana — and the next thing she knew she was in a hospital."
The story fails to mention that in the report, the unidentified woman says Kaepernick left and they did not have sex. (Via USA Today / Miami Police Department)
A Miami police spokesman, also accused the celebrity gossip site of taking the report out of context. (Via San Jose Mercury News)
As it stands, Kaepernick has not been arrested, and no charges have been filed against him. ESPN has not commented on the two different pictures.
