In my mind, I knew I had mispronounced but there was no malice…I had no idea the way it came across to many people.” “So fast to the point that I jumbled a couple of words. Martin Luther King Jr.,” he said in a video posted on Facebook. And unfortunately, I spoke a little too fast when I was referencing Dr. “If you watch me regularly, you know I tend to contain a lot of information in my weathercast which forces me to speak fast. On social media, Kappell called the whole situation a misunderstanding and said he has “never uttered those words in my life.”įor the record, I’ve never uttered those words in my life. In a video posted on social media, Kappell talks over a picture of people ice skating at the park and calls it “Martin Luther Coon Park.” The video shows Kappell correct himself and say “King” immediately after the slur was used.

Jeremy Kappell, the former chief meteorologist of WHEC in Rochester, was giving his forecast during Friday’s evening broadcast when he allegedly made a slur while referencing a local park named after Martin Luther King Jr. He apologized and was allowed to keep his job.Ī petition calling for Kappell's reinstatement had 35,000 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.A meteorologist in upstate New York was fired from his job this week after viewers and city officials accused him of using a racial slur while he was on the air. But he’s far from the first person to use the same slur on national television.ĮSPN personality Mike Greenberg flubbed King’s name in the exact same way during a broadcast of “Mike and Mike in the Morning” in 2010. That year, he eventually took a job in Louisville. The Courier article stated he would handle weekend duties for the rest of the month. He was filling in for David Heckard, who shifted to “Daybreak.” In November 2011, thanks to reshuffling at News25, Kappell temporarily nabbed the role of weekend meteorologist. And according to the Evansville Courier archives, he briefly landed on Evansville TVs. Kappell has worked all over the country, including two stops in Louisville. Since then his story has rocketed around the Internet. “The individual responsible for the slur should no longer be employed at Channel 10,” she said.īy Sunday, WHEC-TV agreed, firing Kappell. Viewers of a Rochester television station were shocked this week when a meteorologist lobbed a racial slur about Martin Luther King Jr. That included Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, who issued a statement on Sunday castigating Kappell and the station, which she said took too long to respond. Watch Video: Reaction: Racist slur recalls brutal time for black people in the South Martin Luther King Jr.”īut WHEC viewers who rushed to social media to call for his firing didn’t agree. I would never want to tarnish the reputation of such a great man as Dr. If you did feel that it hurt you in any way, I sincerely apologize. “… That was not a word that I said, I promise you that. “There was no malice,” he said in an apology video posted to Facebook. After all, only a spectacularly brazen and/or stupid racist would say something that vile on purpose. Kappell has sworn over and over that it was a slip of the tongue sparked by talking too fast. 'Coon' has long been used as a racial slur against African Americans. “If you look out at Martin Luther Coon … King Jr. Park.īut instead of saying Martin Luther King, Kappell uttered the word that got him fired. The incident stemmed from a Friday broadcast in which Kappell cut to a live shot of an ice rink at Rochester’s Martin Luther King Jr. Jeremy Kappell, former chief meteorologist for WHEC-TV in Rochester, New York, who apparently appeared on News25 airwaves in 2011, was fired over the weekend when several viewers accused him of using a racial slur on air. Watch Video: Meteorologist fired for slur explains what really happenedĪ meteorologist making national news for horrible reasons briefly worked in Evansville.

Whec meteorologist racial slur