TV anchor was fired over allegedly sharing a Facebook post that stereotypes “young black men”.
WTAE Pittsburgh anchor Wendy Bell was fired for using racial stereotypes after a mass killing. Pittsburgh news anchor was fired after a public outcry over a recent Facebook post in which she used racially stereotypical words while talking about “young black men”. From TheWrap:
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Bell had been associated with WTAE for 18 years but could not withstand the outcry over her rant on the station’s own social media account speculating on the perpetrators of a then-unsolved murder.
“WTAE has ended its relationship with anchor Wendy Bell,” Hearst Television, the station’s owner, said in a statement. “Wendy’s recent comments on a WTAE Facebook page were inconsistent with the company’s ethics and journalistic standards.”
Wendy Bell is trending nationally. Yay Pittsburgh! She was fired for this awful, barely-coded-racist Facebook post pic.twitter.com/pIEtEi5xYy
— Eric (@MrEAnders) March 30, 2016
Bell was removed of her position last week and WTAE president and general manager Charles Wolfertz aired a public apology calling Bell’s Facebook post an “egregious lack of judgment.”
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The controversial Facebook post was posted after a mass shooting in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, in which six people were killed. But, before police made any arrests, Bell said, “You needn’t be a criminal profiler to draw a mental sketch of the killers who broke so many hearts,” Bell wrote. “they are young black men, likely in their teens or 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. They’ve made the circuit and nothing has scared them enough. Now they are lost. Once you kill a neighbor’s three children, two nieces and her unborn grandson, there’s no coming back. There’s nothing nice to say about that.”
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People took to Twitter to bash Wendy Bell’s comments:
Sharing “I stand with Wendy Bell” is pretty much saying “I stand with racist news outlets.”
— Justice Gum (@JGum58) March 31, 2016
Its funny now everyone was suddenly a fan of wendy bell now that she got fired for being racist
— Ty (@TyL_412) March 31, 2016
How are ppl saying Wendy bell isn’t racist when she said all black young males don’t have fathers and have been in trouble before lol
— Anna Banana (@annacreee) March 30, 2016
