Weatherman Jeremy Kappell Fired Over Racist Slur While Naming Martin Luther King Jr.

A New York state meteorologist has been fired after he appeared to utter a racial slur while referring to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during a broadcast weather report. Jeremy Kappell, a meteorologist for News10NBC in Rochester, was describing pictures of a park named after MLK on Friday when he appeared to say “Martin Luther Coon King Jr. park.” A clip of the incident was widely shared online over the weekend and Kappell was fired by the network Sunday. Kappell insisted he didn’t mean to use the word and had become tongue-tied. “I’ve probably said Martin Luther King Jr. a thousand times or more in my career,” Kappell told The New York Times. “You say the name so regularly. To my knowledge, this is the first time that it came off wrong.” Richard Reingold, the vice president and general manager of the station, apologized to viewers Monday and said: “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.”