Is TLC turning a blind eye to Anti Semitism for profits?

Saturday, February 09, 2008



If you're a fan of reality tv and tattoos, a few of the shows you've probably been watching are TLC's Miami Ink and TLC's new series LA Ink - and if you've been watching, you probably also know about the bad split between Ami James and Kat Von D where the latter ended up getting fired from the shop - only to later get her own show.

So what's happening now? Isn't it all good in tattoo land?

According to recent reports, before Kat Von D left, she handed another artist from Miami Ink (Chris Garver) an autographed photo of herself with some anti semitic comments on it - all of which were handed over to a handwriting analyst who said there was a 99% probability that Kat Von D wrote the message, and then over to TLC.

After receiving the letter and info from a Miami Ink lawyer, apparently TLC wrote a letter back that simply acknowledged getting the information, and then said "We trust that this information will be kept strictly confidential.”

Artist Kat Von D denies that she wrote it since it's made the news, blaming it on bad blood between her old shop (see video) - and TLC had this to say in a PR statement:

A publicity photo was brought to the network's attention eight months ago that contained extraordinarily offensive language. A full investigation was immediately conducted to determine whether anyone associated with the network was involved. Kat vehemently denied authoring the text and after completing the investigation, it was determined that insufficient evidence existed to conclude that she had. Therefore, no disciplinary action was taken. The network always takes these matters seriously and follows what we believe to be an appropriate course of action as dictated by the circumstances and available information.
So when two of the stars on a network's show bring something like that against a new star of a show the network's currently promoting (but which had yet to premiere) - what do they do?

From all accounts, it seems like they pretty much just swept it under the rug.