It was probably a joke going around the NTSB and the intern probably thought the TV station knew about the joke.
The thing I don’t get is why this is racist. Sure, it makes fun of the way a language sounds, but is it really racist?
...and even though he did say it was racist, I first heard about this from a friend of Chinese ancestry because he thought it was funny.
Too bad the card reader at KTVU wasn't quicker on her feet. She could have made a joke about this being a Ron Burgundy moment and she just got 'punked'.