A Miami NBC affiliate identified the Republican Party of Florida as the “Reprehensive Party of Florida” in a graphic aired during a Thursday night segment on the gubernatorial race.

The GOP was not amused.

Lenny Curry, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, blasted WTVJ in a letter Friday, suggesting it may take legal action and demanding an immediate apology, according to Breitbart News.

The letter reads:

WTVJ – NBC MIAMI
Vice President of News Migdalia FigueroaWTVJ – NBC MIAMI

Mr. Olevitch and Ms. Figueroa,

I am writing to request your immediate action regarding the news segment you ran last night on our ad, “Ran Away,” that calls the Republican Party of Florida the “Reprehensive Party of Florida.” This blatant disregard for journalist ethics and impartiality is a complete abdication of your station’s professional duty to truth at best and slander at worst. We are currently reviewing our legal options against your station, but at minimum we demand an on-air apology for violating journalist ethics and public discipline for any employees responsible for the creation of this graphic.

We have attached the screenshots where the “Reprehensive Party of Florida” text appears. Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this serious matter.

Sincerely,
Lenny Curry
Republican Party of Florida Chairman

Here’s the graphic that caused the uproar:

Two employees of Capitol News Service, which supplied the graphic, have since been fired over the incident, Jim Romenesko reported.

In addition, Capitol News Service issued the following statement:

Capitol News Service takes full responsibility for an error that resulted in one of our clients, WTVJ incorrectly labeling on screen material. In a report in which we played a web ad by the Republican Party of Florida, our employees indicated it should have the on screen chyron “Reprehensive Party of Florida.” We deeply regret this incident. The people who made the error and reviewed it without catching it are no longer in our employ.

Here’s WTVJ’s statement:

We apologize to the Republican Party of Florida and to our viewers for our airing of a wrong graphic in a news story in last night’s 6 PM newscast. The story came to us from a news service we use out of Tallahassee that we have relied on for years with no issues. We do, however, know it was our responsibility to catch the graphic and we regret that we did not prevent it from airing. We are addressing this with our employees to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again. Once again, we sincerely regret this incident.

Watch the full news segment, via YouTube from the Republican Party of Florida, then check out “Watch employees react as they learn of Obamacare premium increases.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story reported the graphic to say “reprehensible.” The correct description of the graphic is “Reprehensive . . .”

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Michael Dorstewitz

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