Veteran journo canned after making ‘racist’ joke about Coronavirus

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

A Canadian journalist with CTV has been fired after he joked about the coronavirus in a controversial (to some) tweet.

Peter Akman, who has reported from conflict zones in Afghanistan, Israel, Kuwait, and Libya, was let go from the company where he has worked since 2013 after a tweet shared on Sunday of a photo of himself along with a man wearing a mask and the caption “Hopefully ALL I got today was a haircut.”

Akman’s profile was removed from the CTV website as Bell Media, the parent company of CTV, confirmed that the senior investigative reporter was no longer employed by the company.

Akman was slammed on social media after his original tweet and targeted with accusations of anti-Chinese racism for his reference to what the World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency and for including the masked man who appears to be Asian in the photo.

Apparently, the man was a barber in Akman’s city of Toronto and, as explained in his subsequent apology tweets, had offered masks to customers coming in for services.

Akman deleted and apologized for his original tweet.

But the journalist’s attempts to smooth things over and apologize seemed to fall on deaf social media ears as he was slammed again and accused of not acknowledging the racism of his initial tweet.

Amid the firestorm of scathing responses to Akman’s tweets, some called out the cancel culture’s knee-jerk reactions.

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