KSTP reporter Mark Saxenmeyer was fired from the Minneapolis ABC affiliate this week after he made an “inappropriate gay reference” that was posted on the station’s website, according to The Star Tribune. Saxenmeyer, who is gay, explains the “bizarre ironic” incident in a lengthy interview with The Star Tribune’s C.J.:

On Saturday, Saxenmeyer wanted to do the story about gay Twin Cities fathers Paul Melchert and James Zimmerman being invited to attend the Obama White House’s 2013 Easter Egg Roll with their 3-year-old twins, Emmett and Gabriel. The interview was scheduled during a time of day that Saxenmeyer was not working, so he passed the story on to colleague Katherine Johnson.

“We were having a conversation about sensitivity issues when it comes to things like that. She was asking what are the appropriate questions to ask a gay couple? It was good conversation because, as a gay man, I like to help people better understand gay people, and oftentimes you can do that through humor.

“I’m an admitted jokester. Humor defuses awkward situations. Sometimes through humor you gain a better understanding. She was in the process of writing her Web script on her computer. So I wrote a few things into the Web script to make her laugh.

“She came over, looked at [what he’d written], laughed, and I said, ‘Make sure you delete that because obviously that would not be funny out of context.’ She deleted most of it. There was one little part she missed when she closed it.” Read more

Kelly O’Connell joins KCPQ in Seattle as an anchor and reporter. Previously, O’Connell was an anchor at KGAN in Cedar Rapids.

Meteorologist Iris Hermosillo joins KNXV in Phoenix from KCTV in Kansas City.

Bill Young jumps 47 markets as he becomes the morning anchor at KOKH in Oklahoma City. He will be leaving KFOX in El Paso. Read more

KLRT reporter Katherine Johnson was in Gould, AR on Thursday, covering heightened political tension in the city over a recent ordinance passed banning all public and private meetings discussing any city matters within the city limits. She had just returned to the KLRT newsroom in Little Rock when she got a call from Gould mayor Earnest Nash, who told her he had been attacked by city council members and their families and was on the way to the hospital.

“We packed up in a live truck and headed back to Gould — 90 minutes away — calling city council members for confirmation the entire time,” Johnson told TVSpy in an email. When Johnson and her photographer, Matt Rowe, arrived in at the Gould city hall, there were about 50 people outside, arguing. Johnson grabbed the mayor and began the interview. “We were just in newscast mode and too focused with getting on the air as soon as possible to worry about anything else,” she said.

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