MMMM # 390 -Newsroom Errata

    

     The folks at the Asian American Journalists Association were beyond kind on Friday when they commented on the anchor at the San Francisco TV station who read those racist fake pilot names on air:

AAJA is embarrassed for the anchor of the noon broadcast, who was as much a victim as KTVU’s viewers and KTVU’s hard-working staff, including the journalists who produced stellar work covering the crash.

      I suppose. If the anchor was handed the copy as they were going on the air and had zero opportunity to read it aloud....but after she read the first name? How would one of the network anchors have handled it...not that the net would have allowed the names to get that far in the first place.
     Did the entire  KTVU apparatus really never read them, if not aloud, to themselves? And nobody thought anything was wrong? And they obviously had the names long enough for someone else to write them into a graphics generator. How did that person not get it?
     It was especially embarrassing because earlier in the week, KTVU had criticized its cross town ABC-affiliated competitor for being SLOW on the story.
     As for the intern at the NTSB, no name released right now. But newsrooms need to read the riot act to interns. They are interns, not employees.
     The lesson for the non-interns is the same one Scott Pelley mentioned a few months ago in a speech accepting a journalism award: getting it right is more important than getting it first.
     On Sunday, CBS reported the airline may seek damages against the TV station.
[UPDATE: CBS reports the airline WILL sue the station.]

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of TimLennox.com.]