New York meteorologist fired after using racial slur on air

A television station in Rochester, New York, fired a meteorologist Sunday after he used a racial slur on air.

During WHEC-TV‘s Friday evening broadcast, Jeremy Kappell said “Martin Luther Coon Park,” when referring to a downtown Rochester park named after slain civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr.

In a video viewed by CNN, Kappell says “King” immediately after using the slur and continues with the broadcast.

Kappell said his use of the slur was a mistake caused by speaking too quickly.

“What happened on Friday, to me, it’s a simple misunderstanding. If you watch me regularly you know that I tend to contain a lot of information in my weather cast, which forces me to speak fast and unfortunately I spoke a little too fast when I was referencing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. So fast to the point where I jumbled a couple of words. In my mind I knew I mispronounced, but there was no malice. I had no idea the way it came across to many people,” he said in a video posted to Facebook Monday night.

Kappell said as soon as he heard the mispronunciation he “put emphasis on ‘King’ and moved on.”

“I had no idea what some people could have interpreted that as and I know some people did interpret that the wrong way. That was not a word I said, I promise you that. If you did feel that it hurt you in any way, I sincerely apologize,” he said.

Slur causes uproar on social media

Clips of Kappell using the racial slur made the rounds on social media over the weekend, prompting gtx_ads_conf.ads["ad-manager-118463"]= {"custom_css":[],"ad_details":[{"min_width":"","max_width":"","dfp_ad_sizes":[{"dfp_ad_width":"300","dfp_ad_height":"250"}]}],"ad_id":118463,"ad_container":"div-ad-manager-118463","ad_placement":"in-article","ad_name":"ad-manager-118463","position":"in_article","article_position":2,"out_of_page_ad":null,"lazyload":"global"};

Reingold said the station’s decision to fire Kappell was not influenced by the call from the city’s mayor.