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Fox News under fire after using video of non-Korean Asians for ferry disaster coverage

Fox News is being slammed for their "racially insensitive" and some call "lazy" use of this video.

By Aileen Graef

NEW YORK, May 5 (UPI) -- Updated 4:07 p.m. EDT

Fox News sent a statement to UPI addressing the footage error. David Clark, Executive Producer, Weekend News and Programming said, "The wrong video was mistakenly pulled from the international feed. We regret this error and have corrected the footage online and will address it on air, as well."

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Original story follows:

Fox News is being slammed after they used a random video of mourning non-Korean Asians during their coverage of the South Korean ferry disaster.

The original news segment aired April 19, a few days after the Sewol ferry capsized and sank in the Yellow Sea, killing 260 people, mostly teenagers, with 42 still missing. It shows footage of crying people who are supposedly the families of those lost on the ferry, but a blogger at KoreAm pointed out that the people seen in the video during the segment were clearly not Korean.

Critics say it was racially insensitive of the news network to use just any Asians, who were clearly not Korean, in the clip about the tragedy. Some commentators speculate the people filmed may be Tibetan.

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Rick Phillips, a staff member from the Korean Cultural Center of Los Angeles, said that he received numerous complaints about the segment and has tried to contact Fox News to remove it. He and the consulate have not yet received a response and the video remains on the network's website.

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