A CBS affiliate television station in Spokane, Washington, appeared to air a pornographic clip for ten seconds during a weather update on October 17.
The Station KREM 2 allegedly aired a pornographic clip on a screen behind meteorologist Michelle Boss as she gave a weather update during the 6:00 p.m. broadcast, according to Adweek. The explicit clip appeared to show a woman’s rear end and was not acknowledged by Boss or anchor Cody Proctor, the outlet reports.
WARNING – EXPLICIT VIDEO:
Later in the evening, on the 11:00 p.m. broadcast, the station apologized, KREM told Adweek.
‘Those of us here at KREM 2 want to apologize for something that happened in our 6 p.m. newscast tonight,” the station said, according to Adweek. “An inappropriate video aired in the first part of the show. We are diligently working to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.'”
The Spokane Police Department says it has opened an investigation into the matter after receiving multiple calls from viewers about the incident. Spokane Police estimated the video lasted 10 seconds.
“The Spokane Police Department’s Special Victims Unit (SVU) and Technical Assistance Response Unit (TARU), responded to the local station to conduct an investigation as to how the image appeared and where it came from,” the department said in an October 18 statement. “The station’s personnel are cooperating fully with SPD in the attempt to determine what happened. ”
The department added that “at the time of this release, the investigation is ongoing and no culpability of any kind has been determined.”
KREM 2 could be hit with heavy FCC fines for airing the pornographic footage, the Spokesman-Review reports.
In 2012, a similar incident occurred at news station WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia, when the station briefly aired sexually explicit content. In 2015, the station was fined $325,000 for the incident. The FCC found the station violated federal law by showing “indecent programming from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience,” according to the Roanoke Times.