TV weatherman fired after uttering racial slur on air
A TV meteorologist at an NBC affiliate in Rochester, New York was fired after being accused of using an on-air racial slur in reference to Martin Luther King Jr. However, WHEC chief meteorologist Jeremy Kappell says he simply "jumbled" his words during Friday's broadcast. A video posted to social media of Kappell's broadcast shows him apparently calling a park named for the slain civil rights leader "Martin Luther Coon King Jr. Park."
WHEC general manager Richard Reingold wrote on the station's website that the station made a "staffing change" Sunday.
In a rambling video, Kappell says is was a misunderstanding, a mispronunciation, "if it hurts you I sincerely apologize," and then criticizes his station.
"What happened on Friday, to me, it's a simple misunderstanding. If you watch me regularly, you know that I tend to contain a lot of information in my weathercast, which forces me to speak fast and unfortunately I spoke a little too fast when I was referencing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - so fast to the point where I jumbled a couple of words. Now in my mind, I knew I had mispronounced. But there was no malice."...
I'm so disappointed that my career could end this way and extremely disappointed and the decisions made by my television station my expected a certain level of support from and I did not receive at all
Not the recommended way to apologize, sure, but you can't say he didn't do him.