‘I’m so over it’: Columbus TV reporter’s comments on search for missing boy draw outrage

A WXTX Fox 54 reporter covering the weeklong search of a missing 4-year-old boy presumed drowned in the Chattahoochee River has come under intense social media criticism for insensitive remarks accidentally broadcast Tuesday before the 7 p.m. newscast.

Sharifa Jackson could be heard on-air saying, “I am so over this. I don’t know. I don’t think they are going to find him.”

Her remarks were posted to a Facebook neighborhood watch page that focuses on crime in Columbus. There were dozens of comments, many calling for the news station to terminate her.

One of the commenters on the post was the mother of the boy who Columbus Fire & Emergency Medical Services and Georgia Department of Natural Resources rescue workers have been searching for since March 28.

“They will find my baby! Some Reporters are so vultures I’m realizing,” the mother posted.

After the social media uproar began, WTVM issued an apology for Jackson’s remarks.

“We apologize that those comments were broadcast live,” the statement read in part. “They do not reflect the views of that reporter or our news team when it comes to our approach covering this tragic story.”

The boy was fishing from the bank on a rocky stretch of the Chattahoochee River just below Oliver Dam when witnesses reported he fell in the swift water and his father, 27-year-old James Rabon of Bonneau, S.C., went in after him. The father’s body was recovered on Sunday after five days of an intensive search.

Jackson, who also reports for WTVM, has covered most of that search and the station has had her posted outside the search area between the 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. media briefings that have been given by officials.

One person on the comment thread on The Watch Facebook page posted what appeared to be a Facebook message from Jackson. The woman asked the reporter how she could be so “cold hearted.”

Jackson responded that she was told her mic was live before the broadcast.

“I understand what may have come across the airwaves may have been insensitive,” Jackson responded. “I was answering a question that was asked to me.”

Jackson said the comment did not reflect how she felt.

“I have put in long hours for the past week — hoping the family would find their loved one. If you knew me personally, you would know my heart. But know I do apologize,” Jackson wrote.

Jackson has drawn a number of high-profile assignments for WTVM and WXTX in the last month. She covered the execution of convicted Columbus Stocking Strangler Carlton Gary last month in Jackson, Ga. She was one of five reporters to witness the lethal injection death. She was scheduled to report the execution from outside the death chamber but was called to be a witness hours before it happened when an Atlanta television reporter was denied access because of a death-row phone interview of Gary.

This story was originally published April 4, 2018 at 10:37 AM with the headline "‘I’m so over it’: Columbus TV reporter’s comments on search for missing boy draw outrage."