Oh dear. Oh dear me. A US news anchor’s debut has also marked the end of his career after his first words on air were obscenities.
A.J. Clemente’s first night on the news desk at KFYR, an NBC network affiliate, “could not have gone any worse”, as he so astutely tweeted, after he was caught on air scanning his iPad and saying “f****n shit”.
Many also thought he used the word “gay” in a derogatory manner, but Clemente said he was trying to pronounce the London Marathon winner’s name, Tsegaye Kebede.
The gaffe momentarily threw his co-anchor, who tried to carry on with her introduction but began tripping over her words.
Things did not improve for Clemente, who also began stumbling over his script. A post on the channel’s Facebook page after the broadcast announced he had been suspended.
The station apologised and Clemente’s co-anchor handled things by herself the following day, read an apology.
News director Monica Hannan also issued an apology.
“To all of you who are writing in… I want to apologise for an incident that occurred prior to our early newscast this evening, when one of our employees used profanity on the air.
“He did not realise his microphone was on but, still, that’s no excuse. We train our reporters to always assume that any microphone is live at any time.
“Unfortunately, that was not enough in this case. We can’t take back what was said.”
She offered a “personal assurance” that she would do all she could to make sure it didn’t happen again.
Clemente had been fired after the station carried out an internal investigation, but he held no ill will toward his former employer.
“Unfortunately KFYRTV has decided to let me go. Thank you to them and everyone in ND for the opportunity and everyone for the support,” he said.
Ad Feedback
–
