January 19th, 2005
Rob Blair’s on-air FUBAR was not live. It was taped.
An official from the parent company of KTNV-TV, Channel 13, said Tuesday the station is investigating how the racial slur made by weather forecaster Rob Blair made it on air Saturday morning.
Jim Thomas, vice president of marketing and programming for the Journal Broadcast Group, which owns the station, said that the program had been taped before its airing and that several people were involved in its production.
“It was recorded, and we are in the process of meeting with each person on the crew and getting their account of what happened,” Thomas said.
The station is reviewing the system it has in place to prevent errors from getting on the air, he said.
Thomas declined to comment on whether any other Channel 13 staff members would be reprimanded or lose their jobs over the incident.
Blair, the station’s weekend weather forecaster, was fired over the weekend.
Being that the segment was pre-recorded, there was room for immediate correction. The segment producer and the technical director willfully failed to take corrective action by allowing the recorded segment to go “in the can” as-is. More pink slips should be handed out at Channel 13. Period.
Also, from the R-J’s Norm Clarke:
Black staffers were organizing a walkout at KTNV-TV, Channel 13 when it appeared weatherman Rob Blair might avoid discipline, according to sources.
Several nonblack staffers agreed to join the walkout over concern that Blair was getting special treatment, insiders said.
Blair was dismissed on Sunday for referring to “Martin Luther Coon King Jr. Day” during a Saturday morning forecast that, it turns out, was pretaped and went unedited by Blair and others in the control room.
Twenty minutes later, Blair made matters worse during an apology when he said, “Apparently I accidentally said Martin Luther Kong Jr., which I apologize about — slip of the tongue.”
Frustration grew when Blair was back on the job Sunday morning and News Director Craig Hume was “kind of rallying support” to keep Blair from being fired.
Many staffers were upset that Hume and Blair, a recent Hume hire, appeared to be too close.
One staffer vowed not to go on the same set as Blair, who could have retaped the forecast in which the initial slur appeared, but didn’t, the staffer said.
“Do you think if he called the pope a pimp, he would have stopped and done it over?” asked a source.
Hume should be axed too. As News Director, the buck stops with him.
Update (1/26): Christy of Redding, CA provided a link to the audio clip in question (see Comment #14).
Filed under Local News | Comments (18)
Indirectly related, Germany’s “Stern Magazine” featured the following article on MLK day:
[link]
The FCC should fine them then. It’s one thing if inappropriate words and/or behavior go out on a live broadcast, but they should never occur in a taped segment.
As to whether the production folks should be disciplined, it depends on whether they were listening to the audio feed. If the guys didn’t have their headphones on an missed it they should just be reminded that it is their job to listen to the audio on all segments no matter how trivial and routine.
I’m glad Blair was canned! In all the articles online about the incident, why can’t I find a picture of his sorry a**? Those responsible for allowing this to be aired need to be canned too, as does Hume. And why in the world did it take a group of staff, banning together, for Hume to realize just what had occurred. (He may still not get it.) This is waaaaay worse than CBS and the George W. National Guard story. Those involved appear oblivious to the hurt, pain, and anger generated by that slur, towards all Blacks and the late Dr. King and his family. How in the world can people even think like that? How can a meteorologist just gloss right over his highly disrespectful comment about a brave and spiritual man, one of the leaders of the mellenium, who changed the world, who took a bullet in the name of freedom? And how can others condone it? I’m glad he got caught because maybe now he’ll get a real education on discrimination, the totality of the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the consequences of insensitive and ignorant thinking.
Jenelle, Washington State
It just stops my brain… Every time I think I can no longer be amazed (in a vaguely misanthropic way) I have to recant.
HAS ANYONE seen this tape? Heard it ? Anybody TIVO the damn thing? It is entirely possible that this truly was an unintentional slip of the tounge. That angle on the story is not quite as as eye catching as – White-Devil Weatherman and his Klan of co-wokers…EXPOSED!!! So how bout waiting until the facts are all in before labeling someone as a racist and rushing to judgement. If one were to dig in to Google a bit they would find not only a PICTURE of Rob Blair, but video (not the broadcast in question – yet), and … what do you know? Many that know Rob Blair say he’s a genuine. well liked, all around nice guy. Racisim is just not part of his character and it is not like him to say anything that would intentionally hurt anyone. One would really have to see the tape to know for sure, but I dont think Rob Blair intended to offend or hurt anyone. He is paying dearly for it tho. I wish him the best…
So far, only one commenter in this thread and the Las Vegas Soul Patrol have called Blair a racist — a charge I personally think is over-the-top, IMHO.
I’ve watched Blair locally on TV, and recently watched accounts of his colleagues (including one black man) come to his side in the past days. A majority of people who’ve penned opinions don’t consider Blair to be a racist — but an idiot who had an opportunity or two in production to stop the tape and fix his “slip of the tongue” but chose to blow it.
Channel 13 had no other choice but to fire him for stupidity. Personally, I think several others involved in the taping should’ve been fired too.
Rob Blair will survive this when all’s said and done, but he’s probably going to be damned to small-market hell for the rest of his TV career.
You all know that Rob Blair is GAY.
Hello? Do you not think that he’s undergone prejudice in his life and knows prejudice. Has anyone researched this guy to find out about him, and that maybe this was a terrible slip of the tongue. So quick to be the judge and jury aren’t we. Is that what MLK stood for???
L.M.: No, we all DON’T know that.
Mr. Blair’s personal life is his own business, and IMHO irrelevant to the facts.
They played the audio on Howard Stern. He does not ever complete “coon”. It came out at “Martin Luther Ku—King Junior”. It should have retaped anyways because it was a flub, but Blair doesn’t exactly come off as Klansman. There needs to be an explanation for the Martin Luther Kong, Jr. “apology”, but if this is all there is I’d expect KTNV will lose the breach of contract case.
Rob Blair was the weatherman for a TV station in Chico, CA, for about three years. He is a bright, funny, and personable young man. I refuse to believe that he is racist. In addition to his job as a weatherman, was also the co-host of a morning show, on the same station, and was always friendly to EVERYONE. He’s NOT a racist. In his statement, which I read online in the Las Vegas paper, he said that he accidently used the word “Kong” and that it was an accident…a slip of the tongue. After watching Rob on TV and enjoying his banter with co-workers, for many years, I just felt it necessary to defend him. I agree with the decision of the station to terminate him…sorry Rob, I think that it had to be done. I would just hope that he is given a chance somewhere else. I’m sure that he is sincerely sorry for having offended people, for what they thought they heard. I just don’t believe that what some people thought they heard, is what he actually said. I think that the rumor mill has gotten way out of hand. I doesn’t sound like him at all! He’s one of the GOOD guys!
Rob Blair was a co-worker of mine at an Indianapolis radio station many years ago. In that time I got to know him fairly well. The Rob Blair I know was far from a racist. The station we worked for was an urban station and many of the people we worked with and socialized with were black. Rob never once made any sort of comment that could be construed as racist in my presence. I suspect that Rob genuinely did not realize that he made such a drastic slip of the tongue. At times Rob had a bit of an Indiana drawl which might have had the effect of the inadvertant racial slur. However,that being said, I cannot possibly condone that fact that it was allowed to pass “as is” if it indeed sounded so offensive. I know a lot about a person can change in that kind of time but not the essence of a person, and the essence of the person I knew was NOT that of a person who would willfully hurt anyone in any way. At least that is one person’s opinion.
I listened to the audio and I don’t see at all how he was misconstrued this a s ‘coon’. First of all, he didn’t even finish saying the word. Secondly, I can see how this could have been a transposition of the words King and junior. You jnow, like a spoonerism. We all have done that. I’m trying to find the link to the audio so you all can hear. I’ll post again when I find it.
Dan K: Please let us know. I’ve been trying to find audio or video of the clip for some time now.
Here’s a link to the Rob Blair audio file. If you have pop-ups blocked, they need to be unblocked to download the file. Personally, I’d bet that he mixed “King” and “Junior” to get the “KU” sound. He never finished the word. I think it was just a slip of the tongue, as he said.
[Link]
Thank you, Christy.
Having listened to the clip, I concur that it was a slip-up, and not a slur.
As for everyone else, their mileage might vary.
MLK Slur Update, Part II
The controversial audio clip isavailable for download and review.
Found a site with the VIDEO to view/download if anyone is interested. Not sure how to post a link in here – kinda new at this. Anyhow, the vid is here:
[link]
At first I thought this forum was going to just be more Rob Blair bashing – until reading the recent comments on this topic. Now I must say I am impressed by the overall discernment and intelligent thoughts of the ones posting here! The interest in finding the truth beyond the spin is a beautiful thing.
Thank you.