![]() ![]() He left mid-broadcast, resulting in speculation over his health and well-being. KTVU news anchor Frank Somerville has been suspended indefinitely after he wanted to add a point on air that questioned the extraordinary level of media coverage devoted to the Gabby Petito. ![]() show, Somerville was seen slurring his words. In a May broadcast of the Fox-owned station’s 10 p.m. Frank Somerville, a veteran news anchor of KTVU, got into an argument with Channel 2 management over a tagline he reportedly wanted to include in reporting. His abrupt departure following the disagreement on coverage surrounding Petito came just a month after he returned to the airwaves in August. He became an anchor in 1992 and started co-anchoring the evening shows in 2008, succeeding longtime local newscaster Dennis Richmond. In Tuesday's interview, Somerville also lamented the number of years he served at the station before his unceremonious exit. The tension reached a fever pitch when the Oakland chapter of the NAACP condemned KTVU's decision to suspend Somerville, saying that the station should have been “elevating his example” instead of punishing him. I appreciate and admire what they do every day.” ![]() “I wish I could apologize to all of them in person,” Somerville said. The request was denied by KTVU news director Amber Eikel, who called the tagline inappropriate, according to the source. Somerville has a Black daughter, and wanted to add a note at the end of any news story on Petito about the rates of domestic violence Black women in America face, an unnamed source with knowledge of the situation told SFGATE in September. Somerville also expressed remorse over the “drama” that ensued over his desire to add a tagline regarding the media's tendency to focus on missing white women over missing people of color, a phenomenon coined by broadcast journalist Gwen Ifill as “missing white woman syndrome.” Ktvu again removes frank somerville from the air gabby petito suspended over case pressreader says he s done at sorry for drama news anchor indefinitely in. ![]()
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