A.J. Clemente was in the national spotlight following his first day on NBC affiliate KFYR, a North Dakota station, after cursing at the anchor desk.
While swearing isn’t uncommon in the workplace—a recent survey reported that half of the respondents admit to using profanity at work—letting f***** s*** slip on air got this anchor fired.
Clemente, embarrassed by his blunder, took to Twitter:
That couldn’t have gone any worse!
— A.J. Clemente (@ClementeAJ) April 21, 2013
That day, the station issued a statement via its Facebook page: “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.”
Clemente apologized the next day:
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
Despite his contrition, Clemente was fired. While his first words were a mistake, he chose his departing words carefully:
Unfortunately KFYRTV has decided to let me go. Thank you to them and everyone in ND for the opportunity and everyone for the support.
— A.J. Clemente (@ClementeAJ) April 22, 2013
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