Reporter says he was trying to use 'humor' with racial joke that got him fired

Hope Schreiber
·Writer
Kevin Dietz, a reporter with WDIV-TV for 26 years, has been terminated for a racial comment he made toward a fellow reporter. (Photo: Facebook)
Kevin Dietz, a reporter with WDIV-TV for 26 years, has been terminated for a racial comment he made toward a fellow reporter. (Photo: Facebook)

A longtime reporter for WDIV Detroit has taken to Facebook to address his termination from the station following a racial comment he made in regards to a fellow reporter. According to Kevin Dietz, he had attempted to use humor to address the "challenges it's been for our company, and many companies, to achieve diversity goals," and that his colleague, an African-American, was not offended.

While posing for a photo with the WDIV team, Dietz had said to the group, "We are probably going to have to crop the black reporter out of the photo."

Dietz, who has spent the past 26 years with WDIV-TV, an NBC-affiliated station licensed to Detroit, Michigan, said he had made the comment during a social event during the Investigative Reporters & Editors conference earlier this year in Houston.

He wrote on Facebook on Monday that he had tried to use humor to draw attention to the lack of diversity, and that the African-American reporter even went to human resources to defend Dietz.

"He expressed that we are friends, conveyed to them all the help I have given him throughout his career, and the long list of stories I have done on television fighting against racism in Michigan," Dietz shared in his post.

"Nevertheless, the station has a zero tolerance policy on racially insensitive comments and they determined, despite the intent and context of my statement, that it violated the policy," Dietz wrote. "I understand and support the need for such policies."

The longtime reporter said that he regrets making the comment, and he apologizes to anyone he might have offended.

WDIV released the following statement: "Kevin Dietz has resigned from WDIV effective immediately. We've had a long relationship with Kevin and we wish him well. Personnel issues such as this are respectfully private and we will have no further comment."

Since joining the station in 1993, Dietz has reported on high-profile topics such as the Oakland County Child Killer and the Flint water crisis and has won 15 Michigan Emmys. However, "his proudest moment came when he helped clear a 13-year-old girl of murder charges by showing how the 5-year-old neighbor whom she was accused of killing suffered from seizures and actually drowned in the bathtub," according to his profile on the station's website.

"I love Detroit and everyone who calls it 'home," Dietz wrote. "Every situation creates opportunity for personal growth, and that is how I view this event in my life... I am proud of my long standing efforts to support and showcase diversity in our community. I am even more proud of my 30-year record of broadcast reporting that has helped thousands of people without the voice, power or platform to help themselves."

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