MISFIRE

Tom Brokaw Says Sorry For Offensive Hispanic Comments in Series of Weird Tweets

Had urged Hispanic parents to teach their kids English.

He was nearly there. Tom Brokaw said sorry to Hispanics for his comments on Meet the Press Sunday that the community should work harder to assimilate—but then undermined his apology with a strange tweet saying comments “worked” because “I got your attention.” Brokaw was criticized Sunday for saying Hispanics need to do more to integrate by trying harder to teach their children English to make sure they “feel comfortable” in their communities. Panelist on the talk show, Yamiche Alcindor of PBS, told him: “The idea that we think Americans can only speak English, as if Spanish and other languages wasn't always a part of America, is, in some ways, troubling.” Brokaw later tweeted: ‘I feel terrible a part of my comments on Hispanics offended some members of that proud culture.” But in a series of bizarre and confusing tweets later in the night, he hit out at his Twitter portal for being “whack” and wrote: “It worked! I got your attention. Night.”