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  • 2018-09-10 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Nike Fire Colin Kaepernick After an Arrest? (en)
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  • The September 2018 announcement of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick's endorsement deal with Nike, Inc. was a boon to junk news websites who capitalize on controversy by fabricating clickbait content to promote on social media platforms. Some of the most notorious of these sites, members of the America's Last Line of Defense network of junk news sites (LLOD), published articles within days of the announcement saying, for example, that Nike scotched the deal after Kaepernick launched into an anti-white rant in public (false), that Nike lost an $80 million U.S. government contract because of the deal (false), and that former NBA star Michael Jordan had resigned from Nike's board of directors in protest of the Kaepernick deal (also false). Milking the theme further, LLOD reported on 9 September that Kaepernick was arrested for trespassing after running onto the field during the national anthem as a publicity stunt at an NFL game in San Francisco: This item was followed by an update saying Nike had fired Kaepernick because of the stunt: None of this was true. Kaepernick wasn't present at the 9 September game between the 49ers and Minnesota Vikings (nor did that game occur in San Francisco). In fact, the closest Kaepernick got to an NFL game that weekend was tweeting a message of solidarity with two Miami Dolphins players who took a knee during the anthem before a game against the Tennessee Titans: Unless he was tweeting from a jail cell, that in itself proves that Kaepernick wasn't arrested. And if he wasn't arrested, Nike had no cause to cancel the endorsement deal. In point of fact, despite all the controversy surrounding Kaepernick because of the take a knee protests he started in 2016, Nike has shown no signs of reneging on the endorsement deal, which has been good for the company. Their online sales were up 31 percent over the previous year according to one estimate, and Bloomberg reported that Nike's stock price had recovered from a temporary dip in the immediate aftermath of the announcement of the deal. America's Last Line of Defense is a political trolling misinformation network that bill themselves as purveyors of satirical fiction aimed at mocking conservative political viewpoints. (en)
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