Last week Iranian-American Muslim fashion blogger Hoda Katebi posted video of a five-minute interview she’d done on January 31 with WGN News. It had been pitched to her as a segment about her fashion book, Tehran Streetstyle, but turned into an interrogation of the 23-year-old’s politics by anchors Larry Potash and Robin Baumgarten—and some of their questions and comments had Islamophobic overtones, including Baumgarten’s suggestion that Katebi didn’t “sound American.”
WGN News news director Jennifer Lyons was also on the call, according to Katebi, and asked about how the station could make amends. Katebi claims that she and Lyons negotiated a five-minute on-air segment and a longer online video that would be published on WGN’s website and social media as well as on Katebi’s political fashion blog, JooJoo Azad.
So last week I was told, on live TV, that I “don’t sound American” because I refused to let the hosts turn a conversation about my book and work into a conversation about Iran’s supposed nuclear weapons. I published the clip, and some thoughts, here–https://t.co/BQa2j0hNTJ
— Hoda Katebi (@hodakatebi) February 11, 2018
When reached for comment, a WGN spokesperson e-mailed a statement: “We are committed to fostering education and a deeper understanding of race, religion and identity struggles. This is an important issue and we will continue to focus on this in our reporting. Both Robin and Larry have contacted Hoda personally and have apologized. WGN-TV management has also spoken with Hoda several times and has invited her twice to participate in a follow up interview.”
