A Texas TV anchor managed to turn a harmless cookie segment into a full-blown culture-war food fight — and BTS fans are absolutely melting down over it.
James Eppler, an anchor at FOX 34 in Lubbock, was chatting with co-hosts Tuesday about Oreo’s new limited-edition collaboration with K-pop supergroup BTS when he suddenly veered into deeply weird territory on live television.
The segment started innocently enough. Eppler explained that the cookies feature a cream filling inspired by hotteok — the beloved Korean brown sugar pancake snack — and noted that BTS members grew up eating the treat as kids.
“The cream is supposed to taste like the South Korean treat hotteok, which is a brown sugar-stuffed pancake that some of the band members say they ate as kids,” Eppler said.
“That sounds good,” one co-anchor replied.
And then came the line that detonated online. “That does sound good, right?” Eppler continued. “The cookies’ wafer is the BTS signature color purple. Wafers are also engraved with one of 13 designs, which spell out a message to fans when put together that is ‘Death to America,’ which I think is really strange.”
The studio instantly froze.
“No, it’s not,” Eppler quickly added while laughing after his co-anchors looked stunned by the comment. “Somebody could just be tuning in,” one co-anchor awkwardly replied — a line that probably summed up the mood of viewers everywhere.
The bizarre moment spread fast online, where outraged BTS fans accused the anchor of dragging politics and xenophobia into what was supposed to be a fluffy entertainment segment about cookies and pop music.
One fan blasted the anchor online, writing: “You need to train your news anchor better after you [have] fired this one, this was supposed to be a wholesome collaboration between Oreos and BTS.”
Another posted: “There is no room for ignorance, xenophobia, prejudice, racism or anything in between in journalism. If James Eppler cannot report news without being unprofessional, he doesn’t need a platform.”
Others simply seemed baffled that the joke made it to air in the first place.
“What about this is funny,” one user wrote.
“What the hell did I just hear?” another asked.
The outrage machine kicked into overdrive especially because BTS is riding high after a monster week in the music world. The seven-member South Korean group — RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook — swept the 2026 American Music Awards, taking home artist of the year along with two additional trophies.
During the group’s acceptance speech, RM thanked the band’s famously loyal fan base.
“Armys, we did it once again!” he said. “It’s an honor to have this precious award. Our biggest thanks and gratitude, as always, go to Armys all over the world, who stood by us for the past 13 years. Thank you so much.”
Meanwhile, Oreo has leaned hard into the BTS partnership, describing the collaboration as “deeply meaningful” because the group placed “a piece of their Korean heritage inside an iconic cookie they’ve always loved.”
Which makes Eppler’s oddball ad-lib all the more bizarre. One minute: sugary snack talk. The next: mock anti-American messaging hidden inside sandwich cookies. Even by local-TV standards, that’s a pretty impressive derailment.
Texas news anchor under fire for BIZZARE ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’ joke over BTS-themed Oreos
BTS fans demand an apology and host James Eppler firing
Oreo called the collab ‘DEEPLY MEANINGFUL’ pic.twitter.com/LhtGpec8pM
— RT (@RT_com) May 28, 2026
