A reporter at a Houston television station apologized Thursday after making a Facebook post expressing joy at the outcome of Tuesday's presidential election and criticizing the Obama administration.
Scarlett Fakhar, a reporter at the Fox affiliate KRIV-TV, posted Wednesday saying, "I could barely sleep from how happy and relieved I was."
"I prayed for the best leader that will turn this country that has become more violent and racist under the Obama administration than ever ... into the America I once knew," wrote Fakhar, 25, in a post she has since deleted from her personal Facebook page.
Fakhar continued, saying that President Barack Obama "has made the entire country hate one another."
In a Facebook post Wednesday morning, Fakhar apologized for publicizing her opinion.
"I need to profusely apologize for making public my personal views on the outcome of the election and other issues," she wrote. "It was wholly inappropriate, as a journalist, to do that."
Journalism ethics seek to avoid media bias; the Society of Professional Journalists' code of ethics instructs journalists, for example, to "avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived" and to "distinguish between advocacy and news reporting."
Fakhar reported a story Wednesday night about a Houston-area elementary-school student who said he was attacked by his classmates after voting for Donald Trump in a mock election.
Claudia Russo, a spokeswoman for KRIV, said the station had no comment beyond Fakhar's apology on Facebook.
Fakhar joined KRIV in September 2015, according to her biography on the station's website. She previously worked at TV stations in Austin and Lubbock.
