A Chicago TV station used the image of a yellow star which the Nazis forced Jews to wear, when reporting on Judaism’s holiest day and then apologized for the “mistake.”
A Chicago news station created an uproar and subsequently apologized after using a symbol from the Holocaust era as a graphic in a segment on the Jewish Holy Day of Yom Kippur.
Reporting on Tuesday on the Jewish Day of Atonement, WGN-TV’s graphic showed a yellow Star of David with the German word for Jew, “Jude,” a notorious Holocaust symbol.
The star appears to be part of a blue-and-white striped concentration camp prisoner uniform.
The graphic was taken from an image bank, the station said in an apology issued on Wednesday. “Major correction tonight. We couldn’t see this from the set here, but in our story about Yom Kippur we apparently used a symbol that is extremely offensive to the Jewish community. We mistakenly showed a symbol used by Nazi Germany to identify Jews. We deeply apologize for that error.” WGN said in a statement.
“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.”
“We are investigating how this situation occurred, reviewing our in-house policies and making changes in order to avoid such mistakes from happening in the future. Thank you for your understanding. We promise to do better,” WGN General Manager Greg Easterly said.
The Yellow Star of David is one of the most notorious Holocaust symbols. Jews were forced to wear it as an identifying sign in the countries under Nazi occupation.
Viewers expressed their rage on social media.
“Holy crap, WGN News, this is your stock photo for a Jewish holiday?? Nobody thought that’s a bad choice of photo?” Mark Karlinsky, an editor at two Chicago law publications, wrote on Twitter.
“How could your employees in your newsroom be so ignorant they don’t know what this image means?” Duke Mantee commented on Twitter.
“Who are your editors Ann Coulter or Ted Nugent?” Arthur R. Marcus wrote.
By: United with Israel Staff