WAPA TV: There’s ‘No Place’ for Employee Who Sent Offensive Email
WAPA continues to apologize for comments made by their employees.
The Puerto Rican television station that hosts the controversial puppet La Comay seems to be changing its tune after a recent boycott has prompted more than 40 advertisers to pull their ads during SuperXclusivo, the highest-rated show in Puerto Rico.
On Wednesday, NBC Latino’s contributor uncovered that an employee of WAPA responded to a letter from a viewer with an offensive remark — poor timing for a company that is currently fighting allegations that it promotes anti-gay and racist messages. WAPA confirmed to NBCLatino that the response came from an employee:
“[A] reader wrote to the program and was told in an e-mail from the show ‘anyone who criticizes the program is being influenced by gays,’ adding, ‘We don’ t know whether you are gay or not but you give us the impression you are.’ WAPA has confirmed that the emails were authentic and also added that José E. Ramos, the company’s president, personally apologized to the individual who submitted the original email to ‘SuperXclusivo.’”
On Thursday, HuffPostLive host Alicia Menendez pushed Ramos, asking why the author of the email hadn’t been fired for the comment. Ramos responded ambiguously, neither confirming or denying that he or she would be fired.
But, later on Thursday afternoon, a WAPA spokesperson made it pretty clear in an email to ABC/Univision that the employee would be let go if they hadn’t yet been already:
“While WAPA can’t discuss private personnel matters publicly, please let it stand that no employee of WAPA who sends an email like that has a place at the company.”
Ramos also conceded on Thursday that the show, which has aired in real-time on his network for over a decade, would no longer be live.
“It’s no longer going to be a live show,” Ramos said on HuffPost Live. ”It’s going to be taped at least one to two hours in advance. So we’ll have the opportunity to review it and make sure we can reduce the amount of material that could be sensitive to some parties.”
(Photo Credit: Primera Hora)
