Karl’s mea culpa: ‘I was an ignorant tool’

VIEWERS were divided after a controversial segment on yesterday’s episode of The Today Show. Today, Karl didn’t pull any punches when admitting he was at fault.

TODAY Show host Karl Stefanovic has offered a heartfelt on-air apology after peppering a segment during yesterday’s program with a torrent of jokes about transgender people.

In the original segment, a cross to Nine reporter Christine Ahern in Rio where she’d been mugged by a group of, in her words, ‘transvestites’, Stefanovic couldn’t conceal his mirth as he repeatedly made jokey references to ‘trannies’.

“I know that you have gone to see the police about this tranny. We have a confit made up and we know they don’t all look the same. Is that the tranny they are talking about it?” he asked, as a picture of Hugo Weaving’s character from Priscilla Queen of the Desert flashed on the screen.

Today, following a social media backlash from viewers offended by his use of the outdated term, Stefanovic offered a full apology, pleading ignorance but saying he was educating himself,

“As we all know, I can be a complete tool, right? Well, yesterday I was worse — I was an ignorant tool,” he began.

"As we all know I can be a complete tool. Yesterday, I was worse, an ignorant tool." - @KarlStefanovic #9Today https://t.co/EYFvt33Twu

— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) July 28, 2016

“I pride myself, in my own weird way, of being across things. Yesterday I wasn’t. Yesterday, I got it very wrong. I used a word which I will now say for the last time ever. By using the word ‘tranny’, I offended an awful lot of beautiful and sensitive people. I honestly didn’t know the negative and deeply hurtful impact that word has, not only on members of the LGBTQI community, but on their family and their friends,” he said.

“Therein lies part of the problem, I think: I’ve never bothered to ask. Like so many other words we’ve used in the past, it’s time to throw that one in the bin.”

Stefanovic said that he spoke with a friend after the show — a member of the LGBTQI community — who echoed the sentiments of many, telling Stefanovic he had “crossed a line.”

“I didn’t know that line even existed. Well, I do now. I take this very seriously, because I actually don’t know what it’s like to feel apart from the rest of mainstream society. I don’t know what it’s like to feel you are born in the wrong body, or the extreme courage it takes to accept yourself and live the life you have always wanted to live,” he said.

Yesterday’s segment.

Stefanovic also directly addressed those viewers who had defended the segment yesterday.

“To anyone who found the segment funny, please understand why it was the exact opposite: an ignorant jibe at the expense of a beautiful community already battling against the odds for mainstream acceptance.”

“I get it wrong — I probably always will. But as a result of yesterday, I truly have learned a lesson. People, my brothers and sisters in the community who love and respect me, have told me to educate myself. I have started to.”

It’s the second time in as many weeks that a Today host has been forced to address earlier controversial comments on air — earlier this month, Today Extra host Sonia Kruger offered an emotional explanation after her calls to ban Mulsim migration to Australia sparked a firestorm of criticism.