A St. Louis television station is under fire after an anchor “incorrectly” used an “outdated, offensive and racist” term to describe minority homeowners.
TV station KMOV On February 26, the company reportedly apologized for using the term while previewing an article about racial bias in housing appraisals.
“Tonight, homeowners of color are sounding the alarm about undervalued home appraisals,” anchor Cory Stark, who is white, said on the air.
As criticism mounted over the offensive remarks, KMOV Vice President and General Manager J.D. Sosnoff and Stark attempted damage control for the apparent gaffe.
“The original script depicted them as ‘homeowners of color,’ but they were accidentally changed and misread during the broadcast,” Sosnoff said. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The station added that it regretted the mistake and immediately apologized to viewers during two broadcasts last week.
One of those apologies came from Stark.
The newspaper reported that he said, “Those words should never have come out of my mouth and they do not reflect who I am or what First Alert 4 stands for.” Ta.
National Association of Black Journalists attacked the errorcalling it “outdated, offensive and racist,” noting that 43% of St. Louis’ population is black.
The group said despite multiple apologies from the station, it is calling for employee retraining and hopes KMOV improves its recruitment and retention of Black staff.
“We look forward to these discussions with KMOV management,” NABJ Chairman Ken Lemon and Broadcast Vice President Walter Smith Randolph said in a statement.
“But this is further proof that the fight for equal treatment and fair protections is far from over. We hope these discussions will be fruitful and produce documentable results.” Masu.”
John Bowman, president of the St. Louis County NAACP, condemned the incident but does not believe there was any offensive intent behind it.
“Trust me, I have enough experience dealing with people who exhibit intentional discrimination and racist behavior,” Bowman said, according to the Post-Dispatch.
“But I’ve interacted with Cory Stark, and I’ve never felt that way about him.”
