Western NY Meterologist Fired For Making Racial Slur On Air
I definitely see both sides to this story but I want to know what you think:
A Rochester meteorologist, Jeremy Kappell, was fired this past Monday. During WHEC-TV's Friday evening broadcast, he said "Martin Luther Coon Park," when referring to a downtown Rochester park named after the civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. He did say "King" immediately after using the slur and continued with the broadcast.
While the slip up by some may seem unintentional, many took notice of the accident.
The Rochester Association of Black Journalists (RABJ) issued a statement Sunday, according to CNN, commenting on the use of the slur on the broadcast. The organization's statement said it viewed a recording of the incident provided by a viewer.
"These words have no place on News10NBC's air, and the fact that we broadcast them disheartens and disgusts me; that it was not caught immediately is inexcusable," said WHEC's vice president and general manager Richard A. Reingold, in a statement with the news that Knappell had been fired.
Kappell said, in a video, posted on his Facebook page that he was not satisfied with the station's response to the incident.
"I'm so disappointed that my career could end this way and I'm extremely disappointed by my television station, whom I expect a certain level of support from and I did not receive at all," he said.
Numerous people have commented on the video Kappell posted, including someone who claimed they were a speech pathologist - and that it was clear he made "perseveratory speech error."
Do you think the slur was made on purpose - and that the station made the correct decision? Or do you think that it was made as an error of speech, and that the station took it too far?