Soccer star Mbappé apologizes for Mao comment after Chinese backlash

🗞️ Story file #1009

Soccer star Mbappé apologizes for Mao comment after Chinese backlash

Oct 27, 9 AM ET to Oct 29, 6 PM ET

18outlets carried it
🫏7 · 4 · 7🐘left · center · right
2.4 dayson the front pages
17front pages at once, at its peak
8 minof TV captions
1radio newscast
8people retold it online

📰 read it at: The Guardian AP Business Insider CNBC CNN NBC News Time BBC Bloomberg Reuters Voice of America The Epoch Times The Washington Times Fox News IJR New York Post Newsmax The Daily Caller

👣 How this story traveled: from the front pages that broke it, out through TV, radio and the shows, into what people retold and what fact-checkers examined, and on into the saga it is part of. Everything here is matched to the story by our tools, so a link can be wrong; the trackers' pages say how each is made.

Oct 27, 9 AM ETfirst on a front page: The Guardian
Oct 27, 9 AM ETfirst on TV: BBC News
Oct 28, 9 AM ETpeak: on 17 front pages
Oct 28, 3 PM ETfirst on the radio: NPR News Now
Oct 29, 5 AM ETretold online by 8 people

the front pages that ran it, hour by hour

Front pages carrying it at each hourly run, Oct 27, 9 AM to Oct 29, 6 PM ET (peak 17), by the outlets' lean: left · center · right

Who carried it and when: each outlet in the order it picked the story up, a bar for each headline from when we first saw it on the front page to when we last did, in the outlet's lean color (dashed: not rated); a dot marks a new headline, and a headline swapped for a new one between our hourly looks runs on to it. A gap means a look found the story gone from that front page. Beneath, its captions on TV, the radio newscasts that carried it (bigger: the lead) and when people were found retelling it. Hover for details.

📡 Wire copy

1 outlet ran the AP, Reuters headline nearly word for word

The Washington Times

💬 Quoted

“dictator”3
“ill-judged”1
“seriously”1
“Chinese dictator”2
“Dictator”3

phrases its headlines put in quotation marks; the bar is how many outlets did

🗣️ Only one side says

🫏 left
star kylian mbapp

🐘 right
nothing of its own

phrases three or more outlets on one side used and none on the other

✏️ 5 outlets ran more than one headline on it (reworded, or a follow-up)

AP (2 wordings): “Soccer star Kylian Mbappé apologizes for apparent reference to Mao as a ‘dictator’” → “China takes Mbappé's apology 'seriously' after backlash over his ‘Chinese dictator’ comments”
CNN (2 wordings): “Soccer star Kylian Mbappé apologizes for remark about ‘Chinese dictator’” → “Soccer star Kylian Mbappé seeks to defuse anger in China after Mao ‘dictator’ comment”
Newsmax (3 wordings): “Chinese Brands Cut Ties with French Soccer Star Mbappé over ‘Chinese Dictator’ Remark” → “Real Madrid Issues Public Apology to China over Mbappé's Mao Zedong Comments”
Reuters (5 wordings): “Mbappe apologises to China for 'ill-judged' Mao meme comments” → “Mbappe's Mao remarks expose costs of crossing China's red lines”
The Guardian (2 wordings): “Mbappé apologizes after being dropped by Chinese brands for Mao comment” → “Kylian Mbappé’s China crisis shows how sensitive Mao’s legacy remains”

📰 Every outlet's headline 18left to right by AllSides rating

The Guardian🕒 Oct 27, 9 AM ET Mbappé apologizes after being dropped by Chinese brands for Mao comment
AP🕒 Oct 27, 1 PM ET Soccer star Kylian Mbappé apologizes for apparent reference to Mao as a ‘dictator’
Business Insider🕒 Oct 27, 11 AM ET Global soccer star Kylian Mbappé is losing sponsors in China after he joked about Chairman Mao
CNBC🕒 Oct 28, 12 AM ET CCTV warns Mbappé as Chinese sponsors cut ties over Mao meme
CNN🕒 Oct 27, 9 AM ET Soccer star Kylian Mbappé apologizes for remark about ‘Chinese dictator’
NBC News🕒 Oct 27, 3 PM ET Mao, memes and Mbappé: Chinese brands drop soccer star in fury over ‘dictator’ joke
Time🕒 Oct 28, 7 AM ET Mbappé Apologizes After ‘Dictator’ Mao Comment: What to Know
BBC🕒 Oct 27, 9 AM ET Mbappé sorry for 'ill-judged' Mao remark after backlash in China
Bloomberg🕒 Oct 27, 10 AM ET Mbappé Apologizes for Perceived Mao Insult After China Backlash
Reuters🕒 Oct 27, 9 AM ET Mbappe apologises to China for 'ill-judged' Mao meme comments
Voice of America🕒 Oct 29, 1 PM ET Mbappé, Real Madrid forced to apologize over 'dictator' comment about China's Mao Zedong
The Epoch Times🕒 Oct 27, 10 PM ET China Turns Mbappe’s Mao Meme Joke Into Political Controversy
The Washington Times🕒 Oct 27, 2 PM ET Soccer star Kylian Mbappe apologizes for apparent reference to Mao as a 'dictator'
Fox News🕒 Oct 28, 9 AM ET Real Madrid surrenders to Chinese demands amid Mbappe's meme controversy
IJR🕒 Oct 27, 4 AM ET Two Chinese Brands Drop Mbappe Over Mao Clip
New York Post🕒 Oct 27, 11 AM ET Soccer star apologizes for calling communist dictator Mao a ‘dictator’
Newsmax🕒 Oct 27, 5 AM ET Chinese Brands Cut Ties with French Soccer Star Mbappé over ‘Chinese Dictator’ Remark
The Daily Caller🕒 Oct 27, 12 PM ET Sponsors Dropping One Of World’s Biggest Soccer Stars Over Chinese Dictator Comment

TV, radio, and the shows that talked about it

leans left
center
right

minutes its captions were on screen, by channel; the disc is the network's lean

hourly newscasts that carried it, by show; beside the count, how often it was the lead story, or the highest it came in the running order

🫏 NPR News Now 1× · best #6

podcasts, newsletters and streams that talked about it, by show; the bar is episodes; the disc is the show's lean by reputation

⚖️ Reuters World News 1

🕵️ investigative reporting on it and 🃏 satire joking about it (jokes, never counted as coverage); the bar is pieces

🕵️🤷 No investigator or satirist matched to it yet.

what people online made of it

🧩 How it's being told

The stories under this news, from our motif index, and who told each: the shows we follow by their lean, people online, fact-checkers. A story people tell, not a claim that it's true; claims are matched to this story by our tools, so a link can be wrong.

🧩 Hurting the feelings of the Chinese people 🧶 online
“Kylian Mbappé apologized for referring to Mao Zedong as a dictator.” and 1 more

🧶 Retold online

Kylian Mbappé apologized for referring to Mao Zedong as a dictator. Oct 29: told by 8 people; told before on Oct 28

On Folklore: the latest in full, with their motifs and who is telling them.

🗣️ Names in it

Kylian MbappéChinaChinese BrandsMaoFrench Soccer StarChinese Government

what the fact-checkers looked into

🧐 No fact-checker has taken it on yet.

the running story it belongs to

🌱 A story of its own so far: no saga yet.