Israel missing on ESPN, but 'Palestine' present
Joe Kovacs
Non-existent country has name listed throughout online sports site
The country of Israel is missing from at least part of ESPN’s website, while Palestine is included throughout, raising the eyebrows of some sports fans since Israel is an existing country and Palestine is not.
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Israel is not included among countries in part of ESPN's TV listings, while "Palestine" is.
The portion where Israel is missing is in the TV-listing section of ESPNAmerica.com.
A drop-down menu at the top right of the page has countries listed in alphabetical order. On the list are Hungary, Iceland, Iran and Ireland, immediately followed by Italy, Jordan and Kazakhstan.
Though Israel might be expected to appear between Ireland and Italy, it’s not found anywhere on the list, though Palestine is included, between Oman and Poland.
Despite Israel’s absence from that portion of ESPN’s site, the country is found in other places where it’s included in other drop-down menus, including here.
Israel also appears on ESPN’s contact page, in a long list of countries.
Ironically, in that contact-page list, ESPN lists “Palestinian Territories,” and not “Palestine” as it does elsewhere on the site.
“ESPN America is not available in Israel, which is why it is not listed on the TV Schedule page on the website for that network,” network spokeswoman Kristie Chong told WND. “However, there is a separate ESPN channel distributed on the two biggest TV platforms in Israel, which is why an online destination exists for that.”
Meanwhile, some online messageboards have been discussing the situation.
One commenter wrote: “I emailed a complaint with a few angry words. I’m sure they will get right on it. But, seriously, this is pathetic on their part.”
http://www.wnd.com/2012/03/israel-missing-on-espn-but-palestine-present/print/