San Jose, California’s daily newspaper The Mercury News mistakenly referred to John Cho as Steven Yeun’s character Glenn from the “Walking Dead” series.
The outlet committed the error in a photo caption for a story on Aneesh Chaganty’s “Searching,” a modern thriller starring Cho.
“Filmmaker and San Jose native Aneesh Chaganty, middle, with actor John Cho, Glenn from ‘The Walking Dead,’ left, and producer Sev Ohanian are ready for an interview about their new movie, ‘Searching’ at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.”
The error quickly drew outrage on social media.
Hey @mercnews actor @JohnTheCho did not play Glenn on #WalkingDead that actor was @steveyeun Anyway, everyone please go see @SearchingMovie ! pic.twitter.com/XDFjV8N2V3
— Michael Sun Lee (@MichaelSunLee) September 5, 2018
😡 Lame mistake! I hope they hire a factchecker!
— Serena Kim (@goserenakim) September 5, 2018
Holy crap, the @mercnews called John Cho “Glenn from ‘The Walking Dead’” and I want to cut a bitch.
(Page B1)
— Diane Patterson (@DianePatterson) September 4, 2018
The SAN JOSE Merc did this, for fuck’s sake? At least one-third of the city is Asian-American. Not a stellar endorsement.
— Wagner James Au (@slhamlet) September 5, 2018
— Mr. Cara Patricia (@CaraPatricia) September 5, 2018
It’s progress when there are two actors to mistake.
— Jason Wong (@wong1880) September 5, 2018
OMG that is beyond embarrassing for The Mercury News. pic.twitter.com/EiITDZkdiK
— Principia wants this service to ban Nazis (@Principia) September 5, 2018
— Maatie (@MaatieAlcindor) September 6, 2018
— Vivian (@LivelyVivian) September 6, 2018
— Anthony Hau (@andyl8u) September 5, 2018
Cho, who caught wind of the news, shrugged with laughter.
Hahahahhahhahaha
— John Cho (@JohnTheCho) September 5, 2018
The Mercury News has since published a correction notice.
“A photo caption for a Local News story Tuesday identified actor John Cho as playing Glenn on ‘The Walking Dead.’ Steven Yeun played that character.
“Setting the record straight: The Mercury News corrects all significant errors that are brought to the attention of the editors.”
This made me laugh out loud: the Bay Area News Group ran this correction for a photo caption incorrectly identifying John Cho as Glenn from ‘The Walking Dead’ pic.twitter.com/GLlcYNkEou
— Ashley Wong (@wongalum) September 5, 2018
It’s unclear how the outlet committed the mistake, but netizens have reached a common reason.
And the weird thing is that this paper is based out of San Jose where there’s a large Asian population that should know who is who
— Sims💟 (@SSho1992) September 5, 2018
I’m your host and this is “Casual Racism That Everyone Pretends Not To Notice Because It’s Just About Asians”
— 🌼KNR🌼 (@awkwardkris) September 5, 2018
We all look alike to them. We are from Mars and they are from Jupiter. Sad.
— Von White (@VONSTERFITNESS) September 6, 2018
Oh my god. They look nothing alike!
— LL is a constituent (@spockerel) September 5, 2018
They don’t look anything alike either! OMG.
— Sarah Bastien (@SarahBastien1) September 5, 2018
