Ousted Yahoo News Washington bureau chief David Chalian apologized for what he called an “inappropriate and thoughtless joke” on Wednesday. Yahoo fired Chalian for saying during an ABC News/Yahoo News webcast at the Republican National Convention that Mitt and Ann Romney are happy to celebrate the GOP nomination while “black people” suffer through Hurricane Katrina.
Here’s Chalian’s full statement, via Ben Smith:
I am profoundly sorry for making an inappropriate and thoughtless joke. I was commenting on the challenge of staging a convention during a hurricane and about campaign optics. I have apologized to the Romney campaign, and I want to take this opportunity to publicly apologize to Gov. and Mrs. Romney. I also regret causing any distraction from the exceptional coverage of the Republican convention by Yahoo News and ABC News.
