(Credit: CBS)

Knoxville, Tennessee CBS-affiliate WVLT anchor Mark Packer used an anti-Semitic slur on air last week.

Packer apologized on air for his “highly offensive” remark, saying:

“I want to take just a moment … a few minutes ago, I said something — a slip of the tongue, inadvertently — that was highly offensive to a few people out there, and it was something that I should not have said. I want to apologize specifically to each of you and to everyone who heard what I said. It was something I did not mean to say at all. I apologize to you and I am deeply sorry for the comment that I made earlier in the show.”

The station posted on Facebook that the phrase was “inappropriate and offensive” and that the station “does not condone the terminology he used.

According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, “About 10 minutes into the 4 p.m. news show, longtime local news anchor Mark Packer used an anti-Semitic phrase while speculating about price negotiations at the end of a story on a “Shark Tank”-style business pitching event at Carson Newman University.”

iMediaEthics has written to WVLT for more information.