Openly Gay TV Reporter Fired After Crude 'Big Homo' Joke Inadvertently Goes Online
April 4 2013, Published 2:15 p.m. ET
And the winner of this week's "What were they thinking?" award goes to … Mark Saxenmeyer.
Saxenmeyer, an openly gay TV reporter based out of Minneapolis, Minn., was fired by ABC affiliate KSTP-TV this week after a joke in bad taste about a gay couple headed to this year's White House Easter Egg Hunt went live on the station's website.
Here's how it all went down: Saxenmeyer initially pitched the story, but wasn't available to follow up on it, forwarding the info to co-worker Katherine Johnson - inserting an inappropriate side remark that wasn't meant for the masses.
“She was in the process of writing her Web script on her computer, so I wrote a few things into the Web script to make her laugh. I said, ‘Make sure you delete that beca