Sean “Diddy” Combs is a lot of things: business mogul, entertainer, producer, rapper, haver of many names. But, apparently, members of one San Francisco news team aren’t impressed by Diddy, saying that they couldn’t take the multitalented entrepreneur seriously regarding his offer to buy the Carolina Panthers.
The train wreck occurred on a KRON-TV sports segment called “The World According to Darya,” and it was anchor Henry Wofford (who is black, for the record) who started off the round of insults, claiming that he did not consider Combs’ announcement and offer to buy the NFL team to be a serious offer, “joking” that Combs seemed high.
“The guy looks high right there in this video,” Wofford said. “He looks like he smoked a blunt and drank a 40. Come on, I’m not taking him seriously.”
Throughout his comments, co-anchor Darya Folsom continuously laughed. And it was Folsom who insinuated at the beginning of the segment that Diddy could not afford the Panthers.
“The problem is—I checked—Diddy is only worth $800 million, and the Panthers are valued at $1 billion,” Folsom said.
Because they don’t want Diddy to shine and step into greatness (insert DJ Khaled voice), Wofford added that Diddy should essentially stay in his comfort zone (yes, as that’s where so much growth happens) and stay in music.
“I don’t even know what Diddy does right now,” Folsom quipped. “What does Diddy do?”
“Diddy’s drinking and smoking right now,” Wofford said. “The man was in another world.”
Hmm, I don’t know, Darya. Diddy is busy being a mogul and definitely being worth more than you, but hey, what does Diddy do?
Needless to say, the backlash online was swift.
And, of course, soon the apology tour began, with Wofford taking to Twitter to insist that it was all a “misunderstanding.”
The news station itself then issued a formal state from Wofford, who added that his “joke” was not meant to “stereotype.”
Apparently, Wofford and team managed to pull up all of Diddy’s accomplishments for the apology and realized who they were dealing with.
“Dozens of Diddy’s Twitter followers have accused me of playing on racial stereotypes. That was not my goal. But I understand my comments had that impact and for that I sincerely apologize,” the statement on behalf of Wofford read in part. “Dozens of Diddy’s Twitter followers have accused me of playing on racial stereotypes. That was not my goal. But I understand my comments had that impact and for that I sincerely apologize.”
Although it was Wofford who made a majority of the comments that some found to be inappropriate, it didn’t escape Twitter’s sharp eye that Folsom’s apology or acknowledgment of the incident was acutely missing.