When KPIX 5 reporter Betty Yu went on air to cover In-N-Out’s vaccine checks, she never imagined the story would go viral because of racist remarks about her appearance.
Racist remarks: Yu was the target of racist verbal abuse by BlazeTV hosts Steven Crowder and Dave Landau when they exchanged discriminatory remarks about her appearance, a clip of which went viral.
- Progressive media watchdog group Media Matters shared a clip from an episode of BlazeTV’s “Louder with Crowder” where Crowder watches Yu’s coverage of In-N-Out’s vaccine checks and says, “Oh, that is an aggressively Asian face.”
- Crowder also said, “That just means if you were a skier it would be like a black diamond you’d have to drop in on a chopper.”
- Co-host Landau chastises Crowder but proceeds to ask, “Where’s Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz?” referring to the early 2000s movie franchise “Charlie’s Angels” in which actress Lucy Liu starred alongside Barrymore and Diaz.
- BlazeTV is a streaming channel founded by prominent conservative political commentator Glenn Beck.
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Outrage: Fellow journalists and news organizations have publicly supported Yu online against the hosts’ comments.
- Yu’s news channel, KPIX 5, addressed Crowder and Landau’s remarks on Twitter.
- “We stand in solidarity with Betty, an accomplished journalist and valued member of our CBS family. These hateful and offensive remarks are outrageous and destructive and reaffirm the importance of our work as journalists to shine a light on anti-Asian violence and hate speech when it occurs,” said CBS Television Stations President Jennifer Mitchell and KPIX-TV San Francisco President Kevin Walsh in a public statement.
- The Asian American Journalists Association also published a statement on their website in support of Yu.
- “It is unacceptable for any journalist to be targeted by such racist and sexist comments. It is never appropriate to treat a journalist in this manner,” the statement read. “We call on all employers in the journalism industry to pay attention to such hate aimed at our journalists, respond with empathy, swiftness and accountability, provide resources for journalists’ safety and well-being, and to support all journalists of color and women journalists in their news organizations.”
Featured Image via Media Matters (left), KPIX CBS SF Bay Area (right)
