US News

St. Louis TV station KMOV under fire after anchor uses ‘outdated’ racial term on air

By
David Propper
Published March 6, 2024
Updated March 6, 2024, 7:08 a.m. ET

A St. Louis television station is under fire after an anchor “mistakenly” described minority homeowners using an “outdated, offensive and racist” term.

issued an apology for using the term on Feb. 26 while previewing a s🐽tory about racial bias on home appraisals, according to reports.

“Tonight, colored homeowners are sounding the alarm when it comes to undervalued home appraisals,” anchor Cory Stark, who is white, said on air.

St. Louis TV station, KMOV, was forced to apologize after Cory Stark referred to minority homeowners as "colored homeowners" on air.
St. Louis TV station KMOV was forced to apologize after Cory Stark referred to minority homeowners as “colored homeowners” on air. Cory stark / Facebook

JD﷽ Sosnoff, KMOV vice president and general manager, and Stark tried to do d💫amage control over the apparent slip-up as criticism grew over the cringe remark.

“It was in an original script as ‘homeowners of color’ and was i🤪nadvertently changed and mistakenly read on air,” Sosnoff said,

The station regretted the error and quickly apolo🙈gized t🍒o viewers in a pair of broadcasts last week, he added.

One of those apologies came from Stark.

“The word should have never come out of my mouth, and it does not reflect who I am or what First Alert 4 represents,” the newspaper reported him saying.

Television station KMOV made an apology to viewers in a pair of broadcasts last week.
Television station KMOV made an apology to viewers in a pair of broadcasts last week. Getty Images
The station regretted the error and quickly apologized to viewers in a pair of broadcasts last week, he added.
The station regretted the error and quickly apologized to viewers in a pair of broadcasts last week. Cory stark / Facebook

The National As⭕sociation of Black Journalists , calling the term “outdated, offensive and racist,” while noting St. Louis’ population isꦺ 43% black.

T😼he organization said whil🍨e there have been multiple apologies by the station, it wants employees retrained and wants KMOV to better recruit and retain black staffers.

“We look forward to these discussions with KMOV’s managementཧ,” NABJ preside⛄nt Ken Lemon and vice president-broadcast Walter Smith Randolph said in a statement.

“However, this further shows the fig꧙ht for equal treatment and fair coverage is not over. We hope these discussions will be fruitful and yield documentable results.”

Whi💛le St. Louis County NAACP president John Bowman condemned ꦕthe incident, he doesn’t think there was offensive intent behind it.

“Trust me, I’ve had enough experieꦬ👍nce dealing with people who intentionally show discrimination or racist behavior,” Bowman said, per the Post-Dispatch.

“But I’ve interacted with Cory Stark, and at no time have I ever felt that aღbout him.”