News Anchor Fired On First Day For Dropping F-Bomb On Air

by Samantha Lile
Posted in Humor 22 Apr 13
Share5
Tweet
Pin
Reddit
Share
WhatsApp
Email
5 Shares

NBC-affiliate KFYR in Bismarck, N.D. fired A.J. Clemente, its new evening news anchor, after his first day on the job. That’s some fucking shit, right? Why yes, it was—quite literally, in fact. Within seconds of the start of Clemente’s first live telecast, he quite profoundly stated, “fucking shit,” on the air, just as his co-anchor was introducing him. Apparently Clemente didn’t know his mic was already on. But the entire viewing area did!

To make matters worse, some viewers caught Clemente’s full statement, which was “Gay fucking shit.” The now-former KFYR anchor adamantly tweeted he was actually trying to pronounce the name of one of the London Marathon winners, Tsegaye Kebede, however, and would never disrespect anyone in such a manner.

The station not only canned Clemente, but also issued an apology to its viewers.

“To all of you who are writing in… I want to apologize for an incident that occurred prior to our early newscast this evening, when one of our employees used profanity on the air,” KFYR news director Monica Hannan wrote. “He did not realize 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. The person involved has been suspended until we resolve the situation. All we can do at this point is ask for your forgiveness, and I can offer my personal assurance that I will do my best to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again under my watch.”

Interestingly enough, however, most of KFYR’s Facebook followers were supportive of Clemente and urged the station to give the young news reporter another chance. Sadly for Clemente, management felt he simply wasn’t ready—or maybe they just couldn’t get over the FCC fine I’m sure the station received for Clemente’s faux pas.