Viewers watching the weather forecast in Washington, US, received a bit of a shock on Sunday evening after a local news channel accidentally aired a pornographic clip. KREM, a local CBS-affiliated news outlet based in Spokane, Washington, broadcast the 13-second explicit video during their 6pm newscast.
Meteorologist Michelle Boss was giving a weather update when the porn clip began playing over her shoulder. Neither she, nor her co-anchor, Cody Proctor, appeared to be aware of the clip. They both continued their report as the graphic video played out in the background before eventually cutting away to more weather footage.
KREM apologised for the "inappropriate" video during their 11pm broadcast, reports Adweek. "Those of us here at KREM 2 want to apologise for something that happened in our 6 pm newscast tonight," said the station. "An inappropriate video aired in the first part of the show. We are diligently working to make sure something like this doesn't happen again."
An executive at KREM's parent company confirmed that the channel had apologised for accidentally airing the X-rated footage. "We apologized to our viewers last night during our 11 pm newscast - Those of us here at KREM 2 want to apologize for something that happened in our 6pm newscast tonight," said Anne Bentley, the chief communications officer at TEGNA.
The Spokane Police Department is now investigating the incident after receiving several concerned calls from viewers.
"The Spokane Police Department Special Victims Unit responded to a local news outlet Sunday evening after a disturbing image/video appeared on the screens of viewers during the station's weather report," the department said in a statement released Monday.
"The incident generated numerous calls from concerned citizens in the city and county," the department said.
In a similar incident in 2017, an alert BBC viewer spotted an employee watching an X-rated clip at work. The BBC employee's screen was visible behind an anchor delivering the news during a live broadcast.
