TV Station Apologizes for Showing Nazi Symbol on Yom Kippur

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It's hard to imagine how such a mistake could happen. A Chicago TV station showed a Nazi image when talking about Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. "Jude" is the German word for Jew, and the blue stripes were used on Jewish uniforms in concentration camps. 

Yom-kippur-wgn

The station issued apologies live and on Twitter.

"Last night we ran a story to recognize Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.  Regrettably, we failed to recognize that the artwork we chose to accompany the story contained an offensive symbol.  This was an unfortunate mistake.  Ignorance is not an excuse.  We are extremely embarrassed and we deeply apologize to our viewers and to the Jewish community for this mistake.

"We are investigating how this situation occurred, reviewing our in-house policies and making changes in order to avoid such mistakes from happening in the future.  Thank you for your understanding. We promise to do better."

  WGN TV News Apology

Discussion Starters:

  • The station said it would investigate how the mistake happened, but it hasn't followed up yet. How do you think it happened? Under what situations would they not respond with a reason?
  • Assess the apology. How effective are the video and written statement?