News 12 reporter Sean Bergin made a controversial statement about “young black men” on TV Monday and now he has reportedly been suspended.
The regional News 12 Networks, which serve New York and New Jersey, ran a story (above) about Jersey City Police Officer Melvin Santiago, who was fatally wounded in a shootout at a Jersey City Walgreens on Sunday. The network interviewed angry residents in the segment, many of whom weren’t very sensitive to the police officer’s death.
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“We were besieged, flooded with calls from police officers furious that we would give media coverage to the life of a cop killer,” Bergin said. “It’s understandable. We decided to air it because it’s important to shine a light on this anti-cop mentality that has so contaminated America’s inner cities.”
Then Bergin began editorializing.
“This same sick, perverse line of thinking is evident from Jersey City to Newark and Patterson to Trenton. It has made the police officer’s job impossible, and it has got to stop. The underlying cause for all of this, of course, young black men growing up without fathers. Unfortunately, no one in the news media has the courage to touch that subject,” he added.
Bergin’s on-air comments were enough to get him suspended, according to a report in The Blaze. The segment has since been removed from News 12’s website and, according to the report, Bergin was asked to stay home during the early part of this week.
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“It is News 12’s policy that reporters must be objective and not state personal opinions on-air,” said a spokesperson from News 12 in a statement to TheWrap. “In regards to the particular incident with Sean Bergin, the matter is being addressed internally and we don’t comment on personnel matters.”