Minutes before the 7p.m. show on WXTX, the Fox affiliate in Columbus, Ga., Tuesday night, reporter Sharifa Jackson was talking to her photographer about the story she was covering. But her mic was hot and viewers heard her commentary.
“I am so over this. I don’t know. I don’t think they are going to find him,” she said.
She was referring to the search for a 4 year old boy who had gone missing in the Chattahoochee River. His father jumped in to find him Sunday. He died while trying to save the boy. Viewers were understandably upset.
“Those comments should never have been voiced in the first place,” the statement released on Wednesday read. “Although my news team wrote and aired an immediate apology for the mistake, it’s important to us that you know we take this matter very seriously,” said WTVM-WXTX general manager Holly Steuart.
WTVM posted Steuart’s apology on the station Facebook post. It has received more than 300 comments.
Jackson has not responded to the incident on any of her social media channels.