Hello, and welcome to another edition of “Apple From The Fox Tree” - an occasional segment in which we talk about inexcusable behavior from a Fox News affiliate. Last time, we talked about a San Diego affiliate portraying President Obama as a rape suspect. Before that, it was deceptive video editing of a #BlackLivesMatter protest. This time, we turn to Cleveland, where anchor Kristi Capel used a racial slur to criticize Lady Gaga… in front of her black co-anchor. Class act.
Now, for those of you who are about to google the word “jigaboo,” Raw Story explains: "According to Dictionary.com, “Jigaboo” is an “extremely disparaging and offensive” term for black people. Culture blogger Rafael Otto writes that the term was coined as description of dancing black slaves in the 1800s."
Here’s Capel’s comment:
“It’s hard to really hear her voice with all that jigaboo music — whatever you want to call it — jigaboo!”
Capel’s co-anchor, Wayne Dawson, laughed nervously. She tried to backpedal and redirect the discussion to Lady Gaga’s voice by saying that she never realized Gaga had a nice voice. There isn’t enough sarcasm in the world for what I want to put into my “Nice save” comment about that.
First, Capel tweeted a half-apology, saying, “I do apologize if I offended you.” As Politicususa noted, Capel did not say she was sorry for having used a racially offensive word.
Capel also claimed that she had no idea the word was a slur, or what it meant.
Here’s a screen grab of the “apology”:
Since then, Capel seems to have deleted that tweet and issued a proper apology:
Isn’t it a coincidence that all the “mistakes” these Fox affiliates make have to do with black people or race?
Watch Capel's comments below, via Raw Story.