WWBT weekend anchor and reporter Riley Wyant has apologized to West Virginia after tweeting about a stereotype aimed at its residents’ dental care.
Wyant sent out a message about last week’s football game between the West Virginia Mountaineers and the Virginia Tech Hokies saying, “My friends and I ordered 145 tooth brushes to hand out WVU fans because ‘they don’t have dental care in the state.'”
West Virginia beat Virginia Tech 33-10 in Thursday’s game. Wyant apologized on Saturday by saying, “I want to apologize for an insensitive post that I made yesterday about West Virginia that was unprofessional, careless, and has hurt many people. It was behavior that honestly isn’t just unacceptable for a journalist, but for anyone.”
The original tweet has since been deleted. We asked WWBT parent company Gray and the station about it, but haven’t heard back.
“My comments do not reflect the values of any of my colleagues or NBC12,” said Wyant, who has worked at the station since 2021. “I am embarrassed and promise to do better to work hard to regain your trust.”
The story was first reported by FTVLive.