CHICAGO, Sept. 23 (UPI) — Chicago’s WGN-TV on Wednesday apologized for using an inappropriate graphic in a newscast Tuesday night — which reported on the Yom Kippur holiday.
As anchor Tom Negovan began reading the intro to the story, an accompanying graphic over his shoulder showed a Star of David with the word “Jude” in the center. That symbol reflects a badge that Jewish persons were forced to wear in Nazi concentration camps and elsewhere in Germany during World War II.
The graphic was used during WGN’s 9 p.m. newscast Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, the station had issued an apology on its website.
“Last night we ran a story to recognize Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Regrettably, we failed to recognize that the artwork we chose to accompany the story contained an offensive symbol,” WGN-TV News Director Jennifer Lyons and General Manager Greg Easterly said in a joint statement. “This was an unfortunate mistake.”
The apology went on to say that whatever the reason for the error, it is unacceptable.
“Ignorance is not an excuse,” it said. “We are extremely embarrassed and we deeply apologize to our viewers and to the Jewish community for this mistake.”
WGN, which is owned by Tribune Media, is one of Chicago’s flagship television stations.
“We are investigating how this situation occurred, reviewing our in-house policies and making changes in order to avoid such mistakes from happening in the future,” the apology added. “Thank you for your understanding. We promise to do better.”
