Las Vegas weatherman fired after on-air racial slur
 

Monday, January 17, 2005

(01-17) 11:20 PST LAS VEGAS (AP) --

"A weekend television weatherman was fired after he made an on-air racial slur about Martin Luther King Jr., station officials said.

Rob Blair of KTNV-TV was delivering the extended forecast Saturday morning when he said: "For tomorrow, 60 degrees, Martin Luther Coon King Jr. Day, gonna see some temperatures in the mid-60s."

Jim Prather, vice president and general manager of the ABC affiliate, said Blair stumbled but the excuse was not enough to save his job.

"This kind of incident is not acceptable under any circumstances, and I'm truly sorry that this event occurred," Prather told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Blair apologized during the station's 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Saturday newscasts.

"On a weather report earlier this morning, I made an accidental slip of the tongue when talking about the Martin Luther King holiday, and what I said was interpreted by many viewers as highly offensive. For that I offer my deepest apology. I in no way intended to offend anyone. I'm very sorry."

Blair worked at the station for about three months. He declined comment Monday when contacted by The Associated Press through a friend. "



Haha! Dumbass!

lol thatrs funny shit :1orglaugh :thumbsup

Does ANYONE have audio of this??

amazing that its 2005 and people still think this way. With as far as we've come as a society/people we haven't really gone that far

When are the White Folks getting a Holiday.

Oooh, he's really gonna regret that.

the fucker owned himself deserved to get fired

Has anyone considered he might have made an actual mistake? Remember, there are entire blooper reels of news people saying the wrong thing.

Columbus Day

Hahaha! What a dumbass!

he probably says it like that around friends, so when on the air he reverted to it without thinking.....idiot

Stupidhead!

it was probably a freudian slip, either way they had to fire him or there probably would have been thousands of protestors.

That's terrible . . . and fantastic! Dumbass gets his dues! Love seeing that!

Can you say... oops?

coon and king are pretty close. I mean, he could have just made a mistake...

I would have to hear the audio clip to pass judgement. These types of stories get passed around and blown out of proportion all the time. Perhaps when we hear the real thing it will sound like a genuine blooper.

Anyone have a clip?

That's one helluva slip.

You can't mix coon and king..and anybody who thinks so is an idiot.

Pretty dumb...

Are you really suprised that we haven't come that far... I mean really surprised?

If America is a melting pot, no one is bringing the pot to a boil

I haven't heard the clip and can't comment on if it is a slip of the tounge or not but as you read some of the posts - so many have already passed judgement on the sincerity or accidental slip of the tounge.

The news media certainly doesn't want to turn the heat on under the pot. If you listen to the news it's always a "white man did such and such and such to a black man" or the police arrested two black youths for such and such"

Why can't it just be "a man did such and such to another man" or "two youths were arrested for such and such"?

So much of the way people think are influenced by the news media and I truely believe that the NAACP should go after all news media outlets who present the news in the white/black man format.

If you want to change how the sermon is presented - you have to talk to the preachers.

i dont get it, what did he say?

and the dumbass of the year award goes to...

idiot, i hope he never gets another job in media

I am sure it was a mistake, however, people do not accidently call blacks coons on air unless they are in the habit of saying it off-air as well.

Poor guy, I know i´ve sometimes said some strange stuff. But then again, without hearing the clip, you can´t know if it was a slip or what.

It was obviously a mistake as he wouldn't risk his job.

I bet when he was going through his broadcast before he said to himself..

"Now I better not make any racist remarks in here while talking about MLK. I definitely wouldn't want to say something like "coon". Shit that would get me fired for sure. Don't say coon.. don't say coon....." :)

I still want to hear the tape :winkwink:

I've made MUCH worse slip ups through the years, lol!

what a dumbass ... serves him right!

Is the term "Coon" racist???
Heh, it actually took me a few reads before I was able to see what the problem was... thought it had something to do with the '60's'