CNN’s Kyra Phillips Apologizes For Coolio’s Use Of N-Word In Background Music

It’s rare that a news anchor has to apologize for the inappropriate language of guests—even rarer that they have to do so for their musical choices. CNN anchor Kyra Phillips had to do the latter earlier today after her producers decided to embellish a story about an elderly Pennsylvania woman’s love of fancy cars with 1990s rapper Coolio’s “Fantastic Voyage,” which included, predictably, language that was a little offensive for TV.

The music was played in tribute to 103-year-old Gladys Flamer, who still takes her Coupe DeVille for rides out on the town, and has yet to kill anyone with her driving. Phillips turns to the camera and says “Gladys Flamer, this shoutout’s for you!” before a montage of Flamer set to Coolio airs. Moments later, she apologized for airing the clip, telling her audience:

“We aired some music a few minutes ago, and, obviously for those of you that heard it, it was the wrong music that aired. We apologize for that. It was a terrible mistake. And we’re working very hard to make up for it.”

We already know Bill O’Reilly regularly plays ’70s dance classics to cut to break, but primetime “Disco Inferno” and midday “Fantastic Voyage” are worlds apart in terms of what sensitive viewers would deem appropriate. And from her comment, one wonders whether “the wrong music” refers to a lack of judgment on someone’s part or whether the music was actually not what was slated to play. Did someone play an embarrassing prank on the CNN Newsroom by replacing, say, the “Golden Girls” theme song with Coolio? The video of the Gladys Flamer feature (warning: contains offensive Coolio music) and Phillips’ apology below: