INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Award-Winning TV News Anchor Fired Over Racist Post On Facebook

By Jacintha Webster
Published on: 11:50 PST, Mar 31, 2016

On Wednesday, WTAE-TV cut ties with the award-winning news journalist Wendy Bell due to a racist post she made on Facebook.

The anchor was fired over the post that was “inconsistent with the company’s ethics and journalistic standards,” according to Hearst Television, WTAE-TV’s parent company.

The fired news anchor had posted a comment in relation to a massacre on March 9, which left five people dead, including a pregnant woman and her unborn child, that shook Pittsburgh. Two weeks after the shooting, authorities still haven’t not made any arrests in relation to the murders and haven’t not issued any descriptions of possible suspects.

“It was premeditated, it was calculated, it was planned,” Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala, Jr. said of the shooting. “It’s just a brutal murder. It’s one of the most brutal I’ve seen. I’ve been the D.A. for 18 years, I haven’t seen something like this during my tenure.”

The police department has not made any arrests in relation to the killings or released descriptions of any suspects, so Bell took it upon herself to describe the shooters and wrote on her professional Facebook page, “You needn’t be a criminal profiler to draw a mental sketch of the killers who broke so many hearts.”

The original post, which has since been removed but was captured in screenshots before Bell could delete it, continued,

“They are young black men, likely teens or in their early 20s. They have multiple siblings from multiple fathers and their mothers work multiple jobs. These boys have been in the system before. They’ve grown up there. They know the police. They’ve been arrested.”

The racist post created a firestorm on Facebook and Twitter and the hashtag #youngblackmen was trending on Twitter by Thursday as people shared the post that got the news anchor fired.

Most people reacted negatively to Bell’s Facebook post, but a few came to her aid saying she was “honest.” Bell apologized for her racist comments and acknowledged that they “were insensitive and could be viewed as racist.” But went on to defend herself, saying she was talking about “African-Americans being killed by other African-Americans.”

The Pittsburgh Black Media Foundation released a statement about Bell’s post and the stereotype she had created. “The irresponsible statements demonstrate a persistent problem with how African-Americans are negatively stereotyped by too many journalists and news organizations.”

Not only did the fired news anchor write a post about the shootings, but she also took to social media to post about a “young, African American teen hustling like nobody’s business at a restaurant we took the boys to over at the Southside Works.” She wrote that a “…child balanced 10 glasses in one hand and a pile of plates in another. He wiped the tables, tended to chairs and got down on his hands and knees to clean the floor…He’s going to Make It.” This post also drew criticism and backlash.

“If that Black boy wouldn’t have met that back-pattingly well-meaning White lady, he might have ended up a murderer with a broke-a** Black mom hiding in a closet in the same house he just murdered eight people in,” Damon Young wrote, sarcastically mimicking Bell’s line of reasoning. “Now, though, he has a future.”

Bell wrote another post on her professional Facebook page to apologize for her posts. “I sincerely apologize for that post about the Wilkinsburg mass shooting and the restaurant employee whom my husband and I encountered…I now understand that some of the words I chose were insensitive and could be viewed as racist. I regret offending anyone.”

Bell said she wasn’t given a “fair-shake” from the Pennsylvanian news station WTAE before they ended their relationship with her. WTAE President and General Manager Charles Wolfertz III said he chose to take Bell off air due to her “egregious lack of judgment” according to Sky News.

WTAE has ended its relationship with anchor Wendy Bell. Wendy’s recent comments on a WTAE Facebook page were inconsistent with the company’s ethics and journalistic standards.

WTAE has chosen not to comment further since its statement on Wednesday and are also experiencing some backlash from the comments. According to the Washington Post, a group calling for the boycott of WTAE has been joined by nearly 5,000 people.

Bell had been with WTAE-TV since 1998 and has won 21 Emmy Awards in her term as a journalist and anchor.

[Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Getty Images]

Share this article: Award-Winning TV News Anchor Fired Over Racist Post On Facebook
Facebook
More from Inquisitr