Justin Tucker broke his silence on Wednesday, providing a new statement regarding the many allegations of sexual misconduct that have been made against him by Baltimore area masseuses.
The statement was first published by OutKick.com’s Bobby Burack, who also obtained comment from Tuckers’ wife. It marked his first public statement on the matter since he first issued a denial via social media on Jan. 30 after the story first broke.
Considering the high profile nature of the story, which was first reported by The Baltimore Banner, Tucker’s new comments were certainly notable. And unsurprisingly, they were aggregated by several news outlets on Wednesday night, including here.
The Associated Press was among those to cover Tucker’s new statement regarding the allegations, but initially opted not to cite the Fox Corporation-owned OutKick. Rather, the AP’s initial story merely stated that the All-Pro kicker “has released a new statement maintaining that he did not act inappropriately while receiving professional bodywork treatment” and provided a significant portion of the statement without mentioning where it was originally published. The Associated Press story did, however, cite and link to The Baltimore Banner‘s reporting on the accusations, as well as Tucker’s original social media statement from Jan. 30.
Burack called attention to the AP’s omission via social media late Wednesday night. At 10:16 a.m. ET on Thursday, the Associated Press updated its story to credit OutKick, with an AP spokesperson telling Awful Announcing: “This was an oversight. We updated the story to note that Outkick first reported Justin Tucker’s new statement.”
Say what you will about OutKick — and the site and its founder have certainly said plenty about us — but this was clearly a scoop the site deserves credit for. And while it’s unclear how the initial oversight came to fruition, the AP did the right thing in ultimately correcting the issue and citing OutKick.
In the backdrop of all of this is the Trump administration’s ongoing issues with the Associated Press over the outlet’s refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” As a right-leaning outlet, OutKick hasn’t been shy to criticize the AP, with Burack recently publishing a column titled “The AP Is A Mouthpiece For The Progressive Movement That Trump Was Right To Ban From Oval Office.”
As the AP failed to cite OutKick for the Tucker exclusive, it was fair to wonder whether the outlet’s coverage of the situation had played a role. That, however, doesn’t appear to be the case, with the AP joining the likes of ESPN in crediting the Fox-owned outlet for its scoop.
Meanwhile, further analysis of the matter can be found in the latest edition of Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter, The A-Block.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.