You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
Ho Lee Fuk.
Yep I wrote it.
But I didn’t say it. Not out loud.
Because had I said Ho Lee Fuk, I would have felt uncomfortable, I would have paused and I would have said, is this for real?
I wouldn’t say it at a gas station to a guy bumming change. Ho Lee Fuk! I sure as hell wouldn’t say it out loud into a microphone hooked up to a live truck.
An Oakland, California TV anchor said it out loud on the air, forming every strident, errant, uncomfortable syllable. It was audibly painful, like listening to a frat boy eat glass.
Now the TV station is apologizing and well, they are also blaming the NTSB for the station’s mistake.
America’s Journalistic embarrassment this week is KTVU in the Oakland/San Francisco market.
The station was doing an update on the crash of Asiana 214, the plane that broke apart landing at the San Francisco Airport.
San Francicso is the 6th largest TV market in the nation. NY is 1. LA is 2. Chicago is 3. Houston is 4. Philly is 5.
To work in San Francisco / Oakland you need either a news director who is your uncle or you need years of experience. S.F. ain’t Peoria. But the mistake the Oakland independent station made is the kind you see in the hinterlands.
I said some dumb ass stuff once on a live shot in Greenville, N.C.
What I said was ridiculous and salacious, and I had no proof? I said it. The minute I said it, I knew it was trouble.
Why did I say it?
Because I was green. Because my producer told me to say it. Because I was an idiot. I should have known better. I made my mistake in a small place where, frankly, you go to make mistakes.
That blunder was in market 103. Luckilly only a hamster and an old man at the check cashing office saw my fatuousness.
I learned a valuable lesson that day. Don’t say anything you haven’t checked out yourself. Don’t listen to a stupid producer. Nothing you say is worth getting sued over.
At some point, a KTVU anchor broke all three of those rules. The woman, the symbolic face of the station, got on air and read the names of the flight crew. She didn’t have a clue what she was reading, or quite frankly, she wouldn’t have read the teleprompter.
The pilots are Asian, so there was an immediate disconnect. The names on the graphic certainly were not Bob and John and Pete.
Instead they were fake names like Ho Lee Fuk?
Really?
You are going to go on air and say that? How do you even say that name on TV?
Do you try and guess if the pilot’s sir name is pronounced FOOOK or Fuck?
It’s hard enough saying Norfolk and not feeling dirty.
The station management takes full responsibility saying it confirmed the names with the NTSB. The station admits it should have, and I’m quoting here, said the names out loud before going on air.
You think so?
Somewhere in the editorial process, someone should have stepped up and said, hold on a minute. The janitor could have looked over your should and said, “I wouldn’t say Holy Fuck on TV, but what do I know, I’m just the janitor!”
Instead, it was an episode of all in the family where Archie Bunker writes the mid-day news.
Edith you Ding Bat!!
Someone was asleep at the wheel people.
Anchor Tori Campbell of KTVU said on the air Friday that the Asiana jet crew, flying from Seoul, consisted of “Captain Sum Ting Wong,” “Wi Tu Lo,” “Ho Lee Fuk,” and “Bang Ding Ow.”
Sum Ting Wong sure sounds like Something’s wrong, does’t it. Like Sum Ting’s wrong with this story.
Wi Tu Lo sure sounds like We’re too low
Ho Lee Fuk? Enough said.
Bang Ding Ow? Is that a joke about the plane banging into the runway and someone saying ouch?
It’s hard to imagine how this even got on the air. These are experienced journalists. I can’t imagine hearing this on Comedy Central no less a live newscast.
I learned of this story today when the photographers at my station were laughing out loud and said “hey AC look at this.”
They called up the story and showed me the big blue graphic of the alleged flight crew’s names. I think it took me 10 seconds to say
“WTF? Is this for real?”
I said “how many people at KTVU got fired?”
It’s more than an anchor woman who said this. It’s more than a producer who wrote it. It’s more than a news Director who authorized it. It’s more than a teleprompter operator who rolled it.
Bob Smith is a name that doesn’t raise an eye brow. Ho Lee Fuk? That’s a fire storm of teleprompter insanity. Someone should have caught this insensitive mistake.
The NTSB confirmed to the Daily News in a statement issued Friday evening that a summer intern — and not an NTSB official — mistakenly confirmed the names of those on the doomed flight.
They said the intern “acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft.”
That’s one summer intern who needs to be fired.
As far as the news crew in market 6?
There are times when less is more.
What was the benefit of releasing the names of the pilots anyway?
Who cares? They are from Seoul Korea. Got any contacts in Seoul Korea?
Rush to be first and you look stupid.
Ho Lee Fuk!
Life’s Crazy™