According to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, a weatherman at an NBC station in Rochester was fired for using a racial slur on air while mentioning Martin Luther King Day.
What makes the case even more strange is that the slur was the same exact one that ESPN host Mike Greenberg used on-air in 2010 — who kept his job.
Chief meteorologist Jeremy Kappell, of WHEC-TV was describing a photo showing Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park during a live broadcast when he allegedly said “Martin Luther C–n King Jr.”
While Kappell maintains he simply misspoke and called it “unintentional bubbling,” viewers and local officials heard the phrase and found it offensive. The Purdue grad was fired by NBC in the wake of the incident.
“As a result of that broadcast meteorologist Jeremy Kappell is no longer with News10NBC,” said station vice president and general manager Richard A. Reingold. “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. I regret that we did not immediately interrupt our broadcast and apologize on the spot.”
During a 2010 broadcast, however, Greenberg used the exact same phrase while talking to co-host Mike Golic. He apologized the same day.
“I’m sorry that my talking too fast — and slurring my words — might have given people who don’t know our show the wrong impression about us, and about me. I feel horrible about that, because nothing could be further away from who I am and what our show is about,” Goldberg said in a written statement. “I would never say anything like that … and I’m very sorry that my stumble this morning gave so many people the opposite impression.”
Kappell has been active on social media about the incident and shared this post on Facebook.
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