WFAA called the remark \u201cinappropriate\u201d after viewers questioned the phrase used while discussing racial tensions surrounding the high-profile Texas case.<\/p>\n
Dallas news station WFAA has issued an apology after veteran reporter Rebecca Lopez described the racial tension surrounding the Karmelo Anthony trial as \u201cthe big gorilla\u201d during a live broadcast, according to the Atlanta Black Star<\/a>. Lopez apologized followed swift backlash online, with viewers questioning why she substituted \u201cgorilla\u201d for the common phrase \u201celephant in the room\u201d while covering the trial of a Black defendant.<\/p>\n As theGrio reported, Anthony was convicted of murder and sentenced<\/a> to 35 years in prison this week for the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf at a Frisco, Texas track meet in April 2025. TheGrio also covered the scrutiny over the jury<\/a>, which included no Black jurors despite Black residents making up over 12% of Collin County\u2019s population. Lopez made the comment Tuesday while describing the scene outside the courthouse.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s talk a little bit about the big, uh, gorilla so to speak,\u201d Lopez said on air. \u201cThere were people out here on both sides shouting racial slurs at one another. But it was very clear that the defense and prosecution did not want this to be about race. They said this was not about race.\u201d<\/p>\n The clip spread quickly after Threads user @sheajordansmith reposted it. \u201cWhen the case involves a Black defendant and the substituted term happens to be \u2018gorilla,\u2019 it raises legitimate questions about judgment, professionalism, and awareness,\u201d he wrote. Other commenters pointed to Lopez\u2019s experience \u2014 she has been WFAA\u2019s senior crime and justice reporter since 1998. \u201cShe is a seasoned reporter. She should know better,\u201d one wrote.<\/p>\n The apology came in a statement to Atlanta Black Star. \u201cYesterday while reporting on the track meet stabbing trial, our reporter used an idiom to describe dynamics in the courtroom that was inappropriate,\u201d the station said. \u201cWe apologize for that error and are committed to ensuring this doesn\u2019t happen in the future. This mistake in no way reflects the culture of our newsroom or tenure of our coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n The incident adds to the racial tensions that have surrounded the case from the start, including courtroom removals over racial slurs and national debate over the jury\u2019s makeup.<\/p>\n More must-reads:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WFAA called the remark \u201cinappropriate\u201d after viewers questioned the phrase used while discussing racial tensions surrounding the high-profile…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[119466,59198,102,104,103,119465,114711,116385,119464,126],"class_list":["post-334250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-atlanta-black-star","tag-black-americans","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-help-karmelo-official-fund-adobe-stock","tag-karmelo-anthony","tag-racial-tensions","tag-rebecca-lopez","tag-wfaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}