A North Dakota newscaster who uttered a profanity to begin is debut as anchor has been suspended, but online support for the young newsman is growing as the clip goes viral.

A.J. Clemente made his debut as co-anchor for Bismarck NBC affiliate KFYR on Sunday, but the University of West Virginia graduate was seemingly unaware his microphone was on as colleague Van Tieu began the newscast.

“F—— s—,” Clemente said seconds after Tieu kicked off the broadcast and mumbled incoherently. He later stammered through introducing himself at the station.

“Ummm, thanks Van, I’m very excited,” he said. “I graduated from West Virginia University and I’m used to, um, you know, from being, from in the East Coast.”

Clemente then reports on a fatal ATV crash in Williams County. He later summarized his performance on Twitter.

“That couldn’t have gone any worse!” he wrote.

Clemente did not join Tieu for the following newscast and has been suspended, according to a post on the station’s Facebook page.

“He did not realize his microphone was on, but still, that’s no excuse,” said KFYR-TV news director Monica Hannan. “We train our reporters to always assume that any microphone is live at any time. Unfortunately, that was not enough in this case. We can’t take back what was said. The person involved has been suspended until we resolve the situation. All we can do at this point is ask for your forgiveness, and I can offer my personal assurance that I will do my best to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again under my watch.”

Clemente, who briefly erased his Twitter account late Sunday, later thanked viewers for supporting him through the “tough” debut.

“I’ll try my hardest to come back better and learn from this,” he wrote.

Many fans on the station’s Facebook page, meanwhile, have asked management not to fire the young newscaster.

“While this is definitely spreading across the country, please consider not firing him,” one posting read. “The kid screwed up big time, but he shouldn’t have to have his early career ruined because of it, especially after moving all the way to North Dakota from West Virginia.”

Another user wrote: “I really don’t think suspension is going to help anything. The kid is super green, and he needs practice more than anything. If you yank him off the air immediately, that’s going to create a huge obstacle for him to climb. You hired him. He needs to know he has the support of his station when he makes a mistake. Not to have the carpet pulled out beneath him. Get him back on the air, so he can learn from this and get better.”

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/FLYwhQG09uQ/