Fox Sports has apologized to viewers after using the 9/11 Twin Towers’ Ground Zero sites for graphics promoting the Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees rivalry during its broadcast of Saturday night’s game. Aerial footage of the site that flashed on screen going into a commercial break showed Yankees and Red Sox logos superimposed onto the memorial reflecting pools at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center site.

The reflecting pools are where the North and South Towers once stood. Another graphic, Fox’s ‘Baseball Night in America’ logo, was also displayed over part of the memorial. Backlash on social media was swift. Fox News quickly issued an apology, telling The Daily Beast: ‘During tonight’s telecast, we used poor judgement on the use of a graphic. We sincerely apologize and regret the decision.’ 

The memorial pools (pictured) are in place of the North and South Towers that collapsed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The edges of the pools are etched with the names of those who died that day, along with those who died in the 1993 Worth Trade Center bombing. 

The graphic choice depicting the logos over the memorial during the broadcast of Saturday night’s game caused an uproar on social media. A local traffic reporter wrote: ‘Dear FOXSports, you should know better. After all I’ve seen with all my years in the business, not much offends me anymore. ‘But having been an eyewitness to the carnage of Sept 11, 2001, this most certainly did.’ 

Another twitter user wrote: ‘Fox sports really thought it was appropriate to virtually deface the World Trade Center memorial as a way to market a baseball game.’

Another local reporter chimed in: ‘Of all the NYC aerial shots Fox Sports could have used, they decided to superimpose their baseball logo over the 9/11 Memorial?’ The Yankees went on to win the game 14-1.