Chaos Outside of Courtroom Causes Two Networks to Get It Wrong (CNBC and MSNBC)

AP ^ | Mar. 5, 2004

[nuconvert]

Chaos Outside of Courtroom Causes Two Networks to Get It Wrong

Mar 5, 2004

By David Bauder / The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - In the chaotic rush to report the Martha Stewart verdict live on television Friday, at least two networks initially called it wrong and had to quickly correct themselves. CNBC and MSNBC at first reported Stewart was not guilty on some of the four charges against her in the stock-trading scandal. The jury convicted Stewart on all of the charges.

The culmination of a trial for a woman who built her homemaking empire in large part on television drew intense interest from TV networks. ABC, CBS and NBC broke into regular programming to report the verdicts.

With cameras not allowed in the courtroom, networks had to devise intricate plans to get the news out - involving scarves, placards, cell phones and quick feet.

Most networks had staff members in a courthouse room watching the verdict over closed-circuit television. When a verdict was read, the staffers raced to report it.

For CNBC and MSNBC, this involved producers who left the courthouse in lower Manhattan carrying placards - red for guilty, green for not guilty - with a number that corresponded to the specific charge against Stewart.

CNBC reporter Mike Huckman was standing outside the courthouse with two large posters listing the charges against Stewart and her ex-stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, and boxes marked "guilty" and "not guilty."

Huckman marked "not guilty" for the conspiracy charge against Stewart and went at least a minute before correcting it, scribbling over the wrong "X" with a red magic marker.

"I apologize," Huckman said. "The confusion out here is immense."

David Friend, CNBC's senior vice president for business news, said the incident should not overshadow strong work done by Huckman during the trial.

"It was chaotic," Friend said. "He had a hard time seeing the verdict as it was coming out of the courthouse."

On MSNBC, reporter Dawn Frantagelo reported that Stewart was found not guilty on the first charge against her. A graphic with the incorrect information was flashed for six seconds before being taken down.

"I don't know why it was wrong," spokesman Jeremy Gaines said. "It was very loud and it was quite chaotic. There was a small bit of confusion and we corrected it immediately."

Another network employed staffers who left the courthouse waving color-coded scarves frantically in the air to signal their reporters.

CNN used four separate staff producers, one for each count against Stewart, who ran outside and phoned a producer. That producer then shouted the verdict into the earpiece of correspondent Mary Snow.

[Luker]

A ridiculous zoo - acted out by a bunch of animals - with an audience of Neanderthals.

[Professional]

Coincidence? I think not. There was a ton of money to be made in MSO stock by "creating" confusion. I smell a rat.

[Texas Eagle]

Finally, a prominent DemocRAT is held accountable for lying.

[Professional]

Sure enough, in less than 2 hours, the stock first spiked up 3pts, 30%, then fell nearly 7 points, 45%. Throw in a bunch of leverage, and voila, you have caviar.

[Professional]

Historically, the conviction rate for celebrities is not too good. I'm amazed this wound up convicting her.

I'm a Financial Consultant, have been for 12 years. One thing that amazes me, is that I haven't heard anything about this "$60 stop loss" order.

Any investment company, especially Merrill, allows a broker to enter a stop loss electronically. In fact, it would be a violation not to do so. If a client gave me a stop, and I missed the sell for whatever reason, I'd be on the hook for anything the client lost.

Bottom line, stop losses are not on paper, probably haven't for some 30 years!

[perfect stranger]

After reading this I can only concur.

We have, for the most part, idiots and fools at many different positions in the media.

I hate when it comes down to one fact, but it ultimately does come down to one fact.

That fact is that the rest of the world is made up of countries that are to the far left of the US both on economic terms and political terms.

The right wing of American politics is vastly different because of the fact that we support the principles of the American Constitution including the Bill of Rights, and a Capitalist economy.

It's ironic that "Capitalism" and "Freemarket Liberalism" are the same thing. That just proves that they've takes another word and twisted it's meaning.

Another example of Mona Charen's "useful idiots".

[pjb819]

I've been screaming this for weeks. So glad to hear someone in the know confirm that "stop/loss orders" are to be electronically entered when placed. The brokerage house can be sued for any loss if an order is legitamitely placed and they missed it. And if placed, the investor does not have to panic to get hold of their broker. Although usually done in good faith via phone, it's always followed up with a confirmation at least in the brokerage house's main ticket file - how else would they know to do so? And I doubt seriously that Martha wouldn't write it down and at least send an email confirming it the day the order was made. Their stories were a bunch of #$%! She is NOT a victim although you wouldn't know it from all her pals in the media/entertainment business. I don't care if she wasn't as important a catch as Enron bad guys. We still need to grab all of them, whether #100 or #1 on the deck of cards for corporate criminals. She should have cut a deal as was originally available to her but she is so arrogant, she wouldn't listen to her advisers. Who cares about the little guys she is continuing to hurt by not accepting responsibility? It probably could have been over with by now and the "Living" stock would be right back up there. I just don't understand her supporters. Oh, I forgot: she's a big ticket Democrat fundraiser!!!

[gorush]

I initially heard from national news that Stewart had been convicted of one of four counts, then, seconds later,local news reported that she had been convicted on all four counts. I knew that egg was covering the face of somebody at the minimun, everybody at the maximum.

[Future Useless Eater]

That specticle that occurred at 4 minutes after the hour was
incredible. FoxNews had been focusing on the steps of the
courthouse for most of an hour, knowing that a verdict had
been reached, but no one knew what it was.

No electronic communications were allowed from inside, so
it wasn't until 3:04 ET, that the doors flew open and
reporters FLEW out, running down the steps. Most of them
gave some type of SIGNALS to their camera crews as they
came into sight.

Some shook their heads YES, some raised their arms with
pre-arranged signals. Some carried out colored placards
with a large number (like figure skating judges).

Three or 4 producers for FoxNews each had red sweaters, and every one
of them came out swinging the sweaters over their heads
wildly, indicating to their camera crews what the results
were on each count.

I didn't see ANY of that specticle repeated on the evening
news, but I found THAT part of it just as amazing as the
story itself!

[Grampa Dave]

Shermy agrees with you that this misinfo may have been pre planned for short sellers.

[Future Useless Eater]

Some shook their heads YES, some raised their arms with pre-arranged signals. Some carried out colored placards with a large number (like figure skating judges).

Three or 4 producers for FoxNews each had red sweaters SCARVES, and every one of them came out swinging [them] over their heads wildly, indicating to their camera crews what the results were on each count.

"And now there's a great deal of activity outside of that courtroom"

"There's our producer holding a red scarf. This means that Martha Stewart HAS been found guilty of conspiracy..."

"Everybody is running out. We have three producers waving red scarves"

"Martha Steward has been found guilty of all FOUR counts"

[Steven W.]

Jim Cramer & Bob Pasani reviewed the MSO activity right after the market closed and again later in CNBC's evening show - their analysis, further confirmed in their subsequent review of trades was that there was a tremendous volume of chaotic arbitrage activity; the first calls that she was not guilty led to a panic by those shorting the stock and they began buying "out of the money calls" to try and hedge their positions. This led to increased speculation by the momentum investors who chased it up to the point the stock was put on hold ... then the first plunge. It'll drop again Monday AM and we'll see if it can hold $7 (its previous low) or whether it keeps going down to $5 ... $3; they have $4 in cash so that's a range where (FOOLISH) buyers will start to come in.

[SunkenCiv]

Let's review... Martha had 1000s of shares... dumped 'em... the next day the world was told that the company was gonna tank... who would have thought there was any criminal wrongdoing?

[NYCVirago]

New York 1, the local all-news station here, got it wrong, too. I was watching when they said "not guilty" and had to change that information!