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General discussion

CNN'S LATEST 'MISTAKE'

by Mark5019 May 15, 2006 10:11PM PDT

This is getting to be a regular thing over at CNN. Last night, CNN went to President Bush for his speech...but wait, it wasn't his speech. The president got a bad cue from the NBC pool cameras. The video they aired was 16 seconds long...just enough to embarrass George W. Bush. CNN called it a mistake. Sure it was. Not one other cable or broadcast news channel aired this false start ... but CNN did. Can you see where this might lead people to one conclusion: somebody at CNN did it on purpose. Of course, they've done stuff like this before...remember the black X over Cheney's face during a speech he gave?

Then again .. it could just be a lack of skill in the control room. Good help is hard to find these days

http://boortz.com/nuze/index.html

Discussion is locked

1 - 30 of 42 Posts
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The plot thickens.
by JP Bill May 15, 2006 10:17PM PDT

Circumstances are becoming very complex or mysterious.

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Only
by duckman May 15, 2006 10:22PM PDT

to the truly dim

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(NT) (NT) I agree
by JP Bill May 15, 2006 10:28PM PDT
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Don't forget Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice
by Dave Konkel [Moderator] May 15, 2006 10:54PM PDT

what can be adequately explained by incompetence or stupidity." (The two final words are found in different versions of the quote, so I combined them...)

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

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(NT) (NT) its just funny cnn makes mistakes i guess
by Mark5019 May 15, 2006 10:59PM PDT
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So then, what you are implying ...
by Bill Osler May 16, 2006 12:31AM PDT

CNN's staff are incompetent?
or
CNN's staff are stupid?

I don't know. It seems to me that neither of the above make CNN look any better than does the presumption of malice. After all, it's not like I'd want to get my news from stupid, incompetent people any more than I would from malicious people.

I think I'll just stick with NPR. At least I know where their biases are.

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(NT) (NT) all the above
by Mark5019 May 16, 2006 12:39AM PDT
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Actually, the mistake was NBC's -- they gave the cue
by Dave Konkel [Moderator] May 16, 2006 11:34PM PDT

too soon. How was the CNN director (or producer, or whoever) supposed to know they didn't really start early? They've done that on occasion, too -- or the President might have decided "I'm not restarting..." Under only slightly different circumstances, this could have been a coup for CNN...

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

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Apparently CNN's only "mistake".....
by Josh K May 18, 2006 4:00AM PDT

....was being ready to go before any of the other networks were. When NBC gave that false cue, the other networks were probably scrambling and thinking they'd blown it. CNN was the only network already ready to go.

So their professionalism was their only "mistake."

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Only network ready to go...
by J. Vega May 18, 2006 5:41AM PDT

Don't be silly, Josh, all the networks were ready to go. CNN just switched it to line early. I'd say that either the director panicked or the TD had the feed ready to switch in the preset chanel of the switcher and accidentally leaned on the "take" bar and put it on line. Since it had both audio and video I'd say that the former was probabily true.
Whichever it was, it was not "professionalism".

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They got a cue from NBC, J
by Josh K May 18, 2006 5:49AM PDT

How is taking their cue and going live based on it "panicking?"

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It's obvious...
by J. Vega May 18, 2006 6:08AM PDT

Josh, it's obvious that you've never observed such a feed in a TV network. It was a pool feed. It was scheduled at a certain time and about a minute before that time CNN switched to it. Normally, the circuit is live before the event for obvious reasons. It's best to closely monitor the feed as soon as it is up, but in this case they didn't and got fooled. In all the times that I have done a pool feed the pool did not call the switch. In most cases the Director at the places that are members of the pool are not in live contact with the director running the feed at the pool. Think about it, there is one director at the White House and many stations or networks taking the pool feed. The problem of connecting that White House director to all of those directors taking that feed is obvious.

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It's also obvious....
by Josh K May 18, 2006 6:14AM PDT

....that this was not "malice" as Mr. Boortz accuses.

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Probably...
by J. Vega May 18, 2006 6:20AM PDT

Probally just another example of stupidity. I find it interesting that you called it professionalism.

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(NT) (NT) Still not deliberate or malicious if it's "stupidity"
by Josh K May 18, 2006 6:34AM PDT
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Josh, don't you believe someone who's been a....
by Jack Ammann May 18, 2006 6:23AM PDT

...PROFESSIONAL in the broadcast industry...like J has...with hands-on experience. After all, J's credibility is way up on the "credibility scale". It just may even be a whole bunch higher than yours.

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nor was it when black x
by Mark5019 May 18, 2006 6:24AM PDT

seems incompentence

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Then what would you call..
by J. Vega May 18, 2006 6:35AM PDT

Josh, then what would you call CNN's "Tail Wind" story(about the U.S. gassing deserters) or their story about the power of AK-47s?

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I'm not familiar with the AK-47 story
by Josh K May 18, 2006 6:51AM PDT

Tailwind was obviously a mistake, in which the reporters initially got corroboration for the story but later learned that it wasn't true.

The real question is whether CNN has a higher incidence of having to retract stories than other news agencies. I don't know whether they do or not and wouldn't know where to look for such statistics, but it seems to me that that would be the measure of competence.

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Let's see...
by EdH May 18, 2006 7:43AM PDT
"their professionalism was their only "mistake."

Hmmm...nostalgic....

Do you know what the meaning of is is?
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Is it similar to the meaning of ''mission accomplished?
by Josh K May 18, 2006 7:56AM PDT
Devil
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No, that made sense when not distorted by liberals.
by EdH May 18, 2006 8:17AM PDT

See the difference? What IS the meaning of IS?

Nice attempt at changing the subject by the way. Too bad it didn't work.

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Me changing the subject?
by Josh K May 18, 2006 11:06PM PDT

You brought ''the meaning of 'is''' into a discussion about CNN and a televised speech by George W. Bush, not me. I was just following your lead.

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Yes, but mine was germane,,.
by EdH May 18, 2006 11:13PM PDT

yours was a feint in another direction. Hence, changing the subject.

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(NT) (NT) Not really
by Josh K May 18, 2006 11:43PM PDT
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(NT) (NT) Oh look! A flying squirrel!
by EdH May 19, 2006 7:58AM PDT
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Sounds like a pretty good explanation of Letterman.
by Kiddpeat May 18, 2006 5:30AM PDT

However, I think a lot of the rest of the left has a good measure of malice in the mix.

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(NT) (NT) CNN exposed in left wing conspiracy reports FNC
by WOODS-HICK May 15, 2006 10:39PM PDT
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How did it embarrass Bush?
by Josh K May 16, 2006 12:35AM PDT

What did he say or do during those 16 seconds that was embarrassing?

I didn't see the speech so I have no way of knowing whether the claim that "not one other cable or broadcast news channel aired this false start" is true or not.

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i just guess
by Mark5019 May 16, 2006 1:08AM PDT
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