On Tuesday, NBC Chicago attempted to report on the passing of SHINee’s Kim Jonghyun; unfortunately, they confused Jonghyun with BTS’ Kim Namjoon — better known by his stage name, RM (formerly Rap Monster).

Those mourning Jonghyun’s death were outraged, calling for an immediate apology from NBC Chicago, even trending #NBCChicagoApologize on twitter.

You are very disrespectful

and unprofessional.

We want you to apologize not only in twitter, but you must apologize on news broadcast!!#NBCChicagoApologize@nbcchicago — 민미 SOiO (@Mi99762794) December 21, 2017

@nbcchicago, you’re lousy journalists, and you don’t earn and deserve that name, You should be ashamed of you. Keep relating news’ about your country when you completly disrepect the memory of JongHyun, SHINee and K-Pop. You are cancelled #NBCChicagoApologize — Thank You 🌟 (@FREAKNee) December 20, 2017

@nbcchicago how could you report the wrong person dead on LIVE tv???? all you had to do was search Jonghyun. It would have taken you 5 seconds. Y’all are so halfassed… This is disrespectful to Shinee and BTS. You guys need to apologize now. #NBCChicagoApologize pic.twitter.com/Ud9fGCzTph — 아미나 (@AminaKens) December 20, 2017

This is pure racism straight up (that “all look alike” shit)…never seen this with white,black or Latino ppl.

So not only apologize for this screw-up but apologize for the bigotry implied,too.#NBCChicagoApologize — You are loved,Eric Nam. (@jagr4life) December 20, 2017

On Wednesday, NBC Chicago released an apology on Twitter.

Yesterday, while reporting on the death of Kim Jong-hyun, a member of the popular South Korean boy band SHINee, NBC 5 mistakenly aired video of the band BTS during our morning newscast. We sincerely apologize for this error. pic.twitter.com/b4ciVSLDlL — NBC Chicago (@nbcchicago) December 20, 2017

“So yesterday, we told you about the death of a popular South Korean boy band singer — Kim Jonghyun died from an apparent suicide,” the voiceover began, the video featuring a clip of SHINee’s Tell Me What To Do. “We mistakenly reported that the band recently appeared on ‘The Ellen Show’; that was a different band, BTS. I apologize for that.”

The clip received numerous responses, the overwhelming majority rejecting the apology. Some pointed out that the video clip confusingly focused more on Jonghyun’s bandmate, Taemin, while others mentioned the ad carelessly left in the middle of the video. Ultimately, fans felt that the apology felt fake and didn’t address the real issue, which was that NBC not only mixed up SHINee and BTS, but mistook RM for Jonghyun — something they believed wouldn’t happen if the singer was non-Asian.

This is still super incorrect. Wrong person. RESEARCH YOUR STUFF. — Kaley Smith (@littleredgirl89) December 20, 2017

For such major Korean news to be broadcasted in the U.S. was a big deal on it own but having it disrepected just showed your knowledge and respect for South Korea and the Kpop community in general. For this and future international news please careful actually do your research. — ♡yoonkookie (@ssugachu) December 20, 2017

doesn’t seem sincere. there is an ad in this clip, and the majority of the mv clip does not have jonghyun in it. you should be ashamed. he was a person. — you did well, jonghyun xx (@bigdick4bighit) December 20, 2017

this doesnt seem sincere. You guys seriously can’t type in this name into youtube and actually download the footage and use clips of his face. You would do that for a western artist, why not do the same for him. — ✨개행복✨Yoongis Gal✨ (@prplminyoongi) December 20, 2017

Culture insensitivity? In my racism??? Take that apology and walk lmao. We all know you all wanted buzz through kpop stans you all don’t care. pic.twitter.com/LAdMOS1PMr — ☆boss ass mitch☆ (@MitchieAneke) December 20, 2017

NBC Chicago also emailed a statement to NextShark:

“Thank you for reaching out. We sincerely apologize for this error and issued a correction on our newscast this morning as well as on our social media pages. We truly appreciate your feedback.”

Featured Image via Twitter / NBC Chicago