Jeremy Kappell says the slur was a mispronunciation and Al Roker and Bernice King are among those calling for forgiveness

Last Friday night, Jeremy Kappell, a local weatherman with WHEC-TV in Rochester, New York, added a word to the name of a downtown ice rink. Kappell was reporting on “Martin Luther coon King Jr Park”, he said, his voice appearing to catch on “coon”.

The incident went unaddressed on air, but gathered steam over the weekend online. By Sunday night, Rochester’s mayor, Lovely Warren, called for Kappell’s dismissal. By Monday, WHEC had fired Kappell, who has maintained that the word was an innocent mispronunciation.

Snowballing online outrage has produced a statement in Kappell’s defense from Today show co-host Al Roker, an appearance on the Today show, and on Thursday afternoon, a statement urging caution from Martin Luther King Jr’s daughter.

“I believe that when these racial slurs occur, unless there’s a situation where it’s continual, that people need an opportunity to be rehabilitated,” said Dr Bernice King, the civil rights leader’s youngest child, in a video posted on TMZ. While she said there needed to be repercussions for using a racial slur, “I don’t think it should go as far, in this particular instance, as firing an individual.” Instead, she suggested other options such as demotion, another assignment off-air, or implicit bias training.

“Obviously, an apology is warranted,” she said. “And yes, he did apologize.”

Earlier this week, Kappell, accompanied by his wife, posted a video to Facebook explaining the slur as a “simple misunderstanding” borne out of speaking too much, too quickly. “If you watch me regularly you know that I contain a lot of information in my weather forecasts, which forces me to speak fast,” Kappell said. “Unfortunately I spoke a little too fast when I was referencing Dr Martin Luther King Jr So fast to the point where I jumbled a couple of words.”

“In my mind I knew I had mispronounced but ... I had no idea how it came across to many people,” continued Kappell. “That was not a word that I said, I promise you that. And if you did feel that it hurt you in any way, I sincerely apologize. I would never want to tarnish the reputation of such a great man, Dr Martin Luther King Jr.”

Kappell also expressed disappointment in WHEC for letting him go, a decision that has come under fire this week as several television journalists defended Kappell’s explanation of events.

Al Roker tweeted Wednesday that he thought Kappell “made an unfortunate flub and should be given the chance to apologize on @ news10nbc Anyone who has done live tv and screwed up (google any number of ones I’ve done) understands”.

Mark Taylor, a local news co-host with NBC4 in Columbus, Ohio, shared Roker’s sentiment.

Mark Taylor (@MarkTaylorNBC4) Well said @alroker. This is outrageous. It is shocking to me the way @news10nbc @CityRochesterNY dealt with this situation. @JeremyKappell https://t.co/e0C3VjtUCx

Kappell has shared on his social media channels three other instances of on-air talent making the same mistake with Martin Luther King Jr’s name in the past, including Mike Greenberg, co-host of ESPN’s Mike & Mike. One of them, a weatherman with KTNV in Las Vegas, was fired in 2005. Greenberg and the San Antonio weatherman Mike Hernandez, who both publicly apologized, were not.

In a statement posted to Facebook Thursday afternoon, as reported in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Mayor Warren quoted Martin Luther King Jr and urged empathy and forgiveness. “It is our job to recognize the divide between our beliefs and our actions and dedicate ourselves to change our actions so our intent is never called into question,” she said.

Regardless of intent, Bernice King urged change. “At the end of the day, I can’t question a person’s intent when they apologize. But we’re here now. It’s viral. The world knows about it. So he’s going to have to take some actions to show that he has made some effort at trying to insure something like this doesn’t happen again.”