A US radio station has sacked a talkshow host who used a racial slur to describe US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
In a slip of the tongue, Dave Lenihan, a presenter for KTRS radio, in St Louis, Missouri, used the word "coon" while arguing live on air that Rice should become the next commissioner of the National Football League.
"She's got the patent resume of somebody that has serious skill. She loves football, she's African-American, which would be kind of a big coon," Lenihan said. "Oh my God -- I totally, totally, totally, totally am sorry for that. I didn't mean that."
He later told a local television news channel he had meant to say "coup."
The general manager of KTRS, Tim Dorsey, said: "I apologize to Condoleezza Rice and to our listeners for having to hear a remark like that."
On air, Dorsey said: "It was a most unfortunate racial slur. There can be no excuse for what was said. Dave Lenihan has been let go ... there is enough hate. We certainly are not going to fan those flames. That is not what we're about."
The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People applauded his decision to sack the presenter.
The incident parallels the case of a TV weatherman sacked last year for an apparent racial slur against Martin Luther King.
Over a few hours under gray skies, dozens of combat planes and helicopters roar on and off the flight deck of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, in a demonstration of US military power in some of the world’s most hotly contested waters. MH-60 Seahawk helicopters and F/A-18 Hornet jets bearing pilot call signs such as “Fozzie Bear,” “Pig Sweat” and “Bongoo” emit deafening screams as they land in the drizzle on the Nimitz, which is leading a carrier strike group that entered the South China Sea two weeks ago. US Rear Admiral Christopher Sweeney, who is commanding the group, said the tour
Sitting in a lotus position, four men weave glittering beads through gold thread on an organza sheet, carefully constructing a wedding dress that would soon wow crowds at Paris Fashion Week. For once, the French couturier behind the design, Julien Fournie, is determined to put these craftsmen in the spotlight. His new collection, which showed in Paris on Tuesday, was entirely made with fabrics from Mumbai. He said that a sort of “design imperialism” means that French fashion houses often play down that their fabrics are made outside France. “The houses which don’t admit it are perhaps afraid of losing their clientele,” Fournie
A court in Thailand sentenced a 27-year-old political activist to 28 years in prison on Thursday for posting messages on Facebook that it said defamed the country’s monarchy, while two young women charged with the same offense continued a hunger strike after being hospitalized. The court in the northern province of Chiang Rai found that Mongkhon Thirakot contravened the lese majeste law in 14 of 27 posts for which he was arrested in August last year. The law covers the king, queen and heirs, and any regent. The lese majeste law carries a prison term of three to 15 years per incident for
INSTABILITY: The country has seen a 33 percent increase in land that cultivates poppies since the military took over the government in 2021, a UN report said The production of opium in Myanmar has flourished since the military’s seizure of power, with the cultivation of poppies up by one-third in the past year, as eradication efforts have dropped and the faltering economy has led more people toward the drug trade, a UN report released yesterday showed. Last year, the first full growing season since the military wrested control of the country from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, saw a 33 percent increase in Myanmar’s cultivation area to 40,100 hectares, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime report said. “Economic, security and governance disruptions
RSS