Akin's Fateful 'Misspeak' on KTVI St. Louis

KTVI St. Louis is getting mega web traffic after Congressman Todd Akin “misspoke,” he said, regarding his stance on victims of rape and resulting pregnancies.

“It’s been quite a buzz for us,” says Spencer Koch, the GM at KTVI-KPLR.

Typical Sunday web traffic is around 77,000 page views, says Koch, and yesterday was around 111,000–though the major traffic probably lands today, as word of Akin’s quote, which included the phrase “legitimate rape”, dominates social media and mainstream media.

Akin, who is running for Claire McCaskill’s senate seat in Missouri, was on KTVI’s Jaco Report yesterday. The clip that set off the controversy appears around 4:20 into Part 2 of the interview.

Charles Jaco hosts the Sunday political talk show.

Local TV owns KTVI, a Fox affiliate.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.