CNBC apologizes for on-air music with the N word

A CNBC segment on Monday included music right before a commercial that included lyrics with the N word.

Hilary Lewis of The Hollywood Reporter writes, “CNBC made a similar, yet possibly worse, blunder when it teased a story about Starbucks with a rap song that included the N-word. Indeed, the offending word played before the business channel cut to a commercial break, loud enough for viewers to hear.

“Later, CNBC anchor Kelly Evans apologized for airing the offensive lyrics.

“‘We accidentally aired a piece of music this hour during a tease with inappropriate lyrics,’ Evans said on the air. ‘That obviously should not have been on the air and we deeply apologize for that and for any offense that it may have caused.’

“The song was B2K’s ‘Fizzo Got Flow.'”

Read more here. Last month, CNBC anchor Amanda Drury apologized for using a term on the air that was offensive to Asian Americans, while in July CNBC anchor Joe Kernen used a term derogatory to Indians.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.