A local Somali activist group led a protest against KVLY on Sunday after the Fargo, N.D., NBC affiliate did a story the group says is xenophobic and inaccurate.
The group called for the resignation of the station GM, the news director, and Bradford Arick, the reporter who did the story about the risks of latent tuberculosis in refugee communities. The station says it stands by the report and criticizes local newspaper The Fargo Forum for its coverage.
“The Fargo Forum newspaper criticized Valley News Live’s reporting as blatantly false,” says KVLY. “Forum Communications owns our competitors WDAY and WDAZ.”
“Our story presented data and facts from the CDC, State of Minnesota and State of North Dakota on the numbers of latent TB cases in the refugee population,” writes KVLY. “The State of Minnesota says 22% of refugees in that state carry latent TB while only active TB cases bars someone from entering the country.”
KVLY said some protesters were removed from station property and a station photographer was confronted while she was trying to shoot the protest.
The mayors of Fargo and Moorhead, Minn., also spoke at the rally.
Click here to watch the WDAY story about the protest.