DRAMA

News Anchor ‘Suspended Indefinitely’ in Spat About Gabby Petito Coverage, Report Says

Frank Somerville, a veteran anchor of KTVU, reportedly wanted to call out the contrast between the coverage of a missing white woman vs. missing women of color.

A longtime Bay Area news anchor has reportedly been suspended following a spat with management over the network’s coverage of the Gabby Petito case. Frank Somerville, a veteran news anchor of KTVU, got into an argument with Channel 2 management over a tagline he reportedly wanted to include in reporting about Petito’s murder, Mercury News reports. Sources cited by Mercury News said Somerville had pushed management to point out the discrepancy between the attention given to missing white women vs. missing women of color. Somerville is the adoptive father of a Black teenage girl. According to sources, Somerville’s request to include the tagline at the end of the news report was denied when things got heated. Management reportedly suspended Somerville for an indefinite amount of time, marking his second suspension of the year. In May, Somerville was taken off the air for eight weeks following a stumbling newscast and bizarre on-air behavior.