Fox Sports apologises for using footage of 9/11 memorial in baseball game promo

Murdoch-run sports broadcaster says it showed ‘poor judgement’ in using the reflecting pools of National September 11 Memorial in New York City for a jazzy graphic

Family members of 9/11 victims stand at the edge of one of the memorial pools in New York City on the attack’s 10th anniversary in 2011 (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Fox Sports has apologised for using footage of a memorial to the 9/11 attacks in its promotional video for a baseball game on Saturday Night.

The Murdoch-run sports broadcaster said in a statement on Sunday that it had shown "poor judgement" in using the reflecting pools of the National September 11 Memorial in New York City as a backdrop for a jazzy graphic.

The promotion, which appeared during a match between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox on Saturday night, superimposed the teams’ logos onto the two reflecting pools in aerial footage of the landmark.

The September 11 memorial was opened in 2011 to commemorate the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center ten years earlier, which killed 2,977 people and launched the US and its allies into devastating wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Each reflecting pool marks the spot where one of the Trade Center’s twin towers stood, before both were struck by passenger jets hijacked by members of the Islamic fundamentalist group Al Qaeda and crumbled to the ground.

During last night’s telecast, we used poor judgment on the use of a graphic," a Fox Sports spokesperson told The Daily Beast. "We sincerely apologize and regret the decision."

The company’s right-wing sister station Fox News has been accused of exploiting the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to spread fear about Muslims.

The Independent has asked Fox Sports for any additional comment.

Journalists and baseball fans swiftly objected to the graphic on social media on Saturday night, calling it "horrible", "beyond offensive", and "egregious and tone-deaf".

"My goodness. That is incomprehensible," said New York baseball commentator Howie Rose. "Offensive doesn’t even begin to describe it."

Former Fox Sports anchor Keith Olbermann said: "F*** you, Fox Sports. It was always shameful to work for you but this eclipses everything else."

One Twitter user simply asked: "Fox, WYD" – meaning "what are you doing?”