News Anchor Opens First Ever Broadcast With The Words ‘F***ing S***’ [Video]
As first days at a new job go, A.J. Clemente’s stint at NBC affiliate KFYR-TV was a howler.
Sunday saw the young news anchor make his first ever on-air appearance, only for a microphone to pick up a nervous A.J. muttering the words “F–kin’ s–t.”
Worse still, those were his very first words.
Clemente’s exclamation came as he and co-anchor Van Tieu appeared on screen. In the NSFW video below, A.J. can be seen finishing his cuss, just prior to realizing his mistake and wanting the earth to swallow him up.
Van Tieu realizes her colleague has been caught swearing, but soldiers on professionally, allowing A.J. to say a few non-swear words about himself. To say it’s awkward would be an understatement.
Depressingly, KFYR-TV has now suspended Clemente. A message posted to the network’s Facebook page by News Director Monica Hannan reads:
“To all of you who are writing in…I want to apologize for an incident that occurred prior to our early newscast this evening, when one of our employees used profanity on the air.
“He did not realize his microphone was on, but still, that’s no excuse. WE train our reporters to always assume that any microphone is live at any time. Unfortunately, that was not enough in this case. WE can’t take back what was said. The person involved has been suspended until we resolve the situation. All we can do at this point is ask for your forgiveness, and I can offer my personal assurance that I will do my best to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again under my watch.”
Clemente took to his Twitter account after the broadcast to deliver a frank assessment of his live TV debut:
That couldn’t have gone any worse!
— A.J. Clemente (@ClementeAJ) April 21, 2013
Indeed. He also thanked people who sent him messages of support:
Tough day,Thanks for the support,We all make mistakes. Im truly sorry for mine. I’ll try my hardest to come back better and learn from this.
— A.J. Clemente (@ClementeAJ) April 22, 2013
You can watch Clemente make his memorable debut below, and also see the subsequent apology offered by KFYR-TV (33 seconds into the second video). I, for one, hope the station sees sense and reinstates A.J.
