Serena Williams calls out NYTimes after paper erroneously prints photo of Venus
CNN
By Frank Pallotta, CNN Business
Serena Williams called out The New York Times Wednesday after the paper published an article about her venture fund but used a photo of her sister, Venus.
The story was about how Serena Williams raised $111 million for a new venture fund, “Serena Ventures.” The incorrect photo did not appear in the online version of the story.
“No matter how far we come, we get reminded that it’s not enough,” Williams said on Twitter on Wednesday. “This is why I raised $111M for @serenaventures. To support the founders who are overlooked by engrained systems woefully unaware of their biases. Because even I am overlooked.”
Williams ended her tweet by saying, “You can do better, @nytimes.”
The Times responded on Twitter saying, “This was our mistake.”
“It was due to an error when selecting photos for the print edition, and it did not appear online,” the NYT Business account tweeted. “A correction will appear in tomorrow’s paper.”
Williams’ tweet, which included a picture of the incorrect photo, quickly racked up more than 3,000 retweets and more than 10,000 likes.
The Times reported that “Serena Ventures” will invest in founders with “diverse points of view” and that the firm led by Williams is “already an active angel investor with a portfolio of 60 companies that includes SendWave, MasterClass and Daily Harvest.”
There are countless examples of news outlets in recent years incorrectly and embarrassingly mixing up African Americans.
A KTLA journalist apologized to Samuel L. Jackson in 2014 after interviewing him and mistakenly thinking he was fellow actor, Laurence Fishburne.
And in 2018, Fox News apologized after using a photo of Patti LaBelle in a tribute to the late Aretha Franklin.
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