A CHICAGO TV station has apologised after it used a photograph a Nazi Holocaust symbol to illustrate a news story about Yom Kippur.
WGN TV broadcast a story on Tuesday marking the beginning of the Jewish festival that’s considered the holiest in the Jewish calender.
But viewers were shocked and angry by the choice of image broadcast by WGN TV to begin the story about the Jewish day of atonement.
Introducing the package, the station used a still of the badge Jewish prisoners were forced to wear inside Nazi concentration camps.
The six-pointed star has the word ‘Jude’, written inside it. Jude is the German word for ‘Jew’.
Viewers were angry.
After the reaction from viewers the station was forced into an apology.
Poynter reported that the WGN TV expanded on their apology later saying that they are “extremely embarrassed” by their mistake:
Last night we ran a story to recognize Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. The artwork chosen to accompany the story came from a graphics image bank. Regrettably, we failed to recognize that the image was an offensive Nazi symbol.
“We are extremely embarrassed and we deeply apologize to our viewers and to the Jewish community for this mistake. Ignorance is not an excuse. ”
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