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Live from the area's leading news station, this is News 4 at 11.
The shock jock known as the Greaseman has been fired.
Good evening, I'm Jim Bantz.
And I'm Doreen Gensler. His real name is Doug Tract.
His outrageous radio act has been a big draw for years in this market.
But tonight the Greaseman is gone after he ad-libbed a racist remark that shocked even some of his fans.
Jennifer Johnson joins us with details. Jennifer?
Well, Doreen, for years the Greaseman has made offensive comments,
but this time the Greaseman went too far and offended too many
when he joked about the gruesome, dragging death of a black man in Jasper, Texas.
I say to white America, if you had to have conversations about sex with your children
because of what President Clinton was doing, now you can have conversation about race
based on what the Greaseman has said.
That's very true.
WOL radio talk show host Joe Madison and his listeners spent the evening talking about the Greaseman
and the comment the country is now talking about.
Wednesday, after playing a song by Grammy award winner Lauryn Hill,
the Greaseman said, no wonder people dragged them behind trucks,
a reference to the killing of a black man in Jasper, Texas.
The Greaseman, for years an equal opportunity offender, later offered this apology.
I'm truly sorry for the pain and hurt I've caused with my unfeeling comment.
If I could take it back, I would.
This remark was a grave error in my judgment.
But this time the Greaseman had gone too far.
WARW fired him this afternoon issuing this statement.
WARW cannot be associated with the trivialization of an unspeakable act of violence,
now at the heart of the national debate on race.
It wasn't the first time the Greaseman made a racially offensive remark.
Back in 1986, the Greaseman was talking about the Martin Luther King holiday
and said, kill four more and we can take a whole week off.
His old station, WWDC, was picketed and the Greaseman defended his comments.
Anybody that listens to my show regularly and knows me personally knows that I'm not a bigot.
I despise racism.
But that is exactly what many are now calling the Greaseman.
He underestimated the pain that people felt about Jasper, Texas.
He undervalued Lauryn Hill's talent and ability.
And he did that all in one tasteless moment.
We made several attempts to talk to the Greaseman, even going to his house tonight.
But the man who answered the intercom would not talk to us. Jim?
In Jasper, Texas, John William King has been sentenced to death for his part in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr.
King showed no reaction as the verdict was read.
Even King's lawyer says his client never showed any remorse for the crime.
Byrd's sister was tearful.
It just kind of like summed up the total personality of this young man.
He has no remorse, even in the face of death.
Jurors deliberated for less than three hours before reaching the sentence.
Those who spoke to reporters say the evidence was overwhelming.
There is emotional reaction here tonight to the decision of the Israeli Supreme Court to block the extradition of a Montgomery County murder suspect.
18-year-old Samuel Scheinbein is charged in the dismemberment and burning of 19-year-old Alfredo Teo in 1997.
Scheinbein fled to Israel, claiming citizenship there through his father.
A lower court denied that claim, but the Supreme Court of Israel backed Scheinbein.
Montgomery County prosecutors and the victim's mother are outraged with the decision.
It's not the result the United States government wanted.
It's not the result the Israeli government wanted.
But he will be held accountable to the full extent of the law.
The only difference is it will be to the full extent of the Israeli law and not the United States law.
Each American should be very concerned, outraged, and angry at this outcome.
State's attorney Doug Gantzler also says his office will do what it can to help prosecute Scheinbein in Israel.
The FAA tonight is investigating a close call in the skies above the Quantico Marine Air Base in Virginia.
It happened shortly after 10 o'clock this morning and involved two fighter jets and a commercial commuter plane.
Shari Macias is at Dallas Airport now with the report. Shari?
Jim, air traffic controllers say the fighter jets were not cleared into the airspace,
and when they spotted them, they were seconds away from disaster.
It happened around 10 a.m.
According to a report filed to the FAA, a United Express commuter plane like this one
was flying 35 miles south of Dallas Airport on its approach to land.
Two F-18 aircraft arrived about two hours early to go into the Quantico practice area that they used,
and at the time, Dallas was still using it with general aviation aircraft.
The controllers put those two aircraft into holding at 5,000 feet, and at approximately 10 a.m.
the controllers noticed that the F-18s deviated out of the holding pattern.
The report says two F-18s that looked like this entered the airspace and started climbing rapidly,
coming less than 300 feet below the commuter plane and less than one mile behind it.
Air traffic controllers contacted the marine pilots on a military frequency and ordered them to make a sharp right.
The pilots followed the order, averting a mishap.
Normally, planes must be separated vertically by 1,000 feet and no less than three miles apart laterally.
It's very dangerous.
The speeds that the F-18 was closing on that commuter airline, it was very dangerous.
It was seconds from a catastrophe.
At this point, we don't know why the marine pilots left their holding pattern.
The commuter plane, which can hold a maximum of 31 passengers, landed safely.
No word on how many passengers were on board at the time.
Shari Macias, live at Dallas Airport, back to you.
Thanks, Shari.
Have you looked outside lately?
We've gotten some snow tonight.
To find out what's up for tomorrow, let's check in with Bob Ryan in the Storm Center.