"Your comments were hurtful and ignorant"
NBC has fired Olympic analyst Joshua Cooper Ramo after he made insulting comments towards South Koreans.
The BBC reports that NBC Olympic analyst was commenting on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s attendance at the Pyeongchang Games when he made the comments.
After describing Japan as a “country which occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945”, Ramo added,“but every Korean will tell you that Japan is a cultural, technological and economic example that has been so important to their own transformation.”
Many responded on social media to express their anger.
“You owe a formal apology to the Korean nation for diminishing and ridiculing our painful history during the years of Japanese colonization,” said one commenter on NBC’s Instagram page.
“Many of our grandfathers and grandmothers were killed by [Japan] and young girls forced to be comfort women. NBC should not say that,” another added, referencing the controversial use of South Korea women, many of them forced, in Japanese military brothels.
“Your comments were hurtful and ignorant. Put in some effort to study the country hosting the Olympics,” one Instagram user said.
NBC apologised for Ramo’s remarks and later confirmed he would not be returning for the rest of its Olympics coverage.
“It was possible for him to do more with us here; now it is no longer possible,” an NBC spokesman told the Korea Times.
However, many are still demanding a direct apology from Ramo himself.
“There still needs to be an official apology from that feeble minded prick named Joshua Cooper Roma,” wrote one Instagram user. “He needs to apologize to all Koreans.”
In other Olympics news, it was recently revealed that a record for the number of Asian Americans in Team USA’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics figure skating team was set.