Sean "Diddy" Combs made waves earlier this week when he made a case for why he should be the next owner of the Carolina Panthers.
But two San Fransisco-area newscasters are coming under fire for comments they made regarding Combs' video announcement that he was in the market for an NFL team.
The upsetting comments started during a Monday morning KRON-TV sports segment called "The World According to Darya" when anchor Darya Folsom doubted that the music mogul could afford the Panthers, saying, "The problem is—I checked—Diddy is only worth $800 million and the Panthers are valued at $1 billion."
Sports reporter Henry Woffard added his two cents, joking that the music mogul couldn't possibly be taken seriously.
But things took a turn when Woffard commented on Combs' appearance, saying, "The guy looks high right there in this video. He looks like he smoked a blunt and drank a 40. Come on, I’m not taking him seriously."
Folsom laughed throughout Woffard's comments, adding, "I don’t even know what Diddy does right now. What does Diddy do?"
"Diddy’s drinking and smoking right now. The man was in another world," Woffard responds.
The offensive comments quickly made the rounds on Twitter, and many found them to be not only upsetting for perpetuating racist stereotypes, but also because Woffard himself is also black:
Many called for Woffard and Folsom's firings:
It would appear that both Wofford and Folsom have since deleted their Twitter accounts, but not before Wofford tweeted out: "Diddy is a businessman who has the work ethic, success & contacts to run an NFL team. My response to @DaryaKRONFolsom question was regarding if he's serious about buying the team. She laughed at my joke. The snippet takes things out of context. Sorry for any misunderstanding."
He also made a statement on KRON on Tuesday, saying in part, "Dozens of Diddy’s Twitter followers have accused me of playing on racial stereotypes. That was not my goal. But I understand my comments had that impact and for that I sincerely apologize. Dozens of Diddy’s Twitter followers have accused me of playing on racial stereotypes. That was not my goal. But I understand my comments had that impact and for that I sincerely apologize."
He also lamented that fact that Folsom (who had an apology posted to the KRON website) was getting a lot of backlash for her part in all of it, saying, "The negative feedback she’s receiving is unfortunate because Darya is a very professional journalist and I would never want to see anyone blamed for something I said."
Wofford promised viewers he "will learn from this mistake."
But for many, it was too little, too late:
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H/T: The Root, KRON 4
