Posted on 11/14/2004 11:57:16 AM PST by Former Military Chick
LOS ANGELES (Nov. 13) - CBS News has fired the producer responsible for interrupting the last five minutes of a hit crime drama with a special report on the death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, a network source said on Friday.
Word of the dismissal came a day after CBS apologized to viewers for breaking into "CSI: NY," one of its top-rated shows, on Wednesday night.
"An overly aggressive CBS News producer jumped the gun with a report that should have been offered to local stations for their late news. We sincerely regret the error," the network said in a statement on Thursday.
The network, owned by Viacom Inc., declined comment on a report of the dismissal posted on the Web site of trade publication Broadcasting & Cable.
But a network source told Reuters that CBS fired the producer who decided to break into "CSI" with a report from "Up to the Minute" anchor Melissa McDermott.
According to the source, the producer failed to follow standard procedures that require a senior CBS News executive to be consulted before interrupting regular programming.
The fact Arafat already had been reported near death for several days also figured in the network's decision.
The source said the producer disregarded explicit, advance instructions that breaking news of Arafat's death -- if it occurred during prime time -- was to be reported with a news "crawl" at the bottom of the screen.
"Arafat had been literally on his deathbed for a week. Everyone knew he was going to die. It was just a matter of when," the source said.
Neither of CBS' two biggest rivals -- NBC or ABC -- interrupted regular programming to report Arafat's death.
NBC said it ran a crawl for affiliates in the Western states and Rockies, while leaving the story for local news in eastern and central time zones. ABC said it ran a crawl on the West Coast.
CBS News has been under intense scrutiny since veteran anchor Dan Rather ran a controversial report on President Bush's military record based on documents whose authenticity came under fire.
11-13-04 07:25 EST
I did a search and found another story she worked on: Lawsuit Seeks Casket Photos
If all this slime makes you feel like you need a shower, perhaps taking a moment to look at the faces of our Veterans will help you forget about CBS.
Veterans gather at memorials in D.C. area - Including AMAZING photo's of Vietnam Veterans Memorial
ROTFLOL! This just made my whole day. Woohoo!
Mapes' rectum is puckering.
NOW, where is NOW. This is blatant descrimination. Crickets...
Exactly. Really tells you where CBS’s priorities are.
Um...this links to an article entitled, "Sobered Gay Rights Groups Vow to Change Public's Mind (hello knock knock -- last election)"
This one cost them money. Rathergate was just, y'know, political.
Keep writing any company that advertises on See-BS that until Rather is tossed you'll by from someone else.
The masters of the MSM are getting more and more jumpy!
Of course by that standard it doesn't make sense.
The right call, in my book, would have been to just runs an NBC News ticker at the bottom of the screen, just saying that Arafat had passed away, and saying tune in at 11PM (only 10 mins later) for the full report.
Prepare a special 2 minute thingy for the local affils to run. It was probably 'in the can' anyway.
The producer made a very bad call. Rather made an even worse call, but he has more 'stroke' with the brass and that's what counts.
Actually, I would have chewed out the producer for the bad call and fired Rather. It appears that while the producer of the Arafat breaking news story got canned, I don't think Rather even got chewed out.
There is no justice in corporate or otherwise heirarchical environments. I worked in NYC law firms for eight years and they were run so poorly I can't begin to tell you!
Mind-boggling. The utter lack of critical thinking displayed by CBS bigwigs is no longer shocking- but always worth noting for reference.
Granted, Rather should've been gone the Friday after he "broke" (irreparably) the fake docs story. But in this case Melissa McDermott is just the reader, not the producer. CBS didn't name that dimwit, and whoever it is will just get kicked down to one of the CBS owned&operated stations or go across the street to another network. Melissa will keep reading whatever she's handed. Business as usual, so expect more of the same stupidity.
...but what she reported wasn't forged, I don't get it :{)
Veterans gather at memorials in D.C. area - Including AMAZING photo's of Vietnam Veterans Memorial
What a joke. So people missed three minutes of a TV show. CBS is acting like the Producer committed some sort of criminal act. All of this while they continue to bury their heads in the sand about the runaway bias in the news division, which is the real problem. Their priorities are still screwed up. Their ratings are already in the basement. You'd think they would get a clue at some point.
While I would say that you should be working at CBS, that might cut like a knife, but, you have a keen eye on what they should have done in both instances.
Frankly I think they fired the producer to show that in their inaction of Dan Rather that they do care about their viewers and will take action. For us smart folks out there we see through their sillyness and frankly it is still WRPONG! I think she errored.
But Dan's an old man prone to fits of delusion. He is a protected employee (even if he may be somewhat mentally unstable).
Grey Panthers and mental health types could rise to his defense if he was canned.
Heck, they even dragged their heels over the broadcast of a mutilated nipple as the grand finale of the Super Bowl half time show.
Haha! No offense on the 'CBS' complement! Thanks!
CBS's behavior is transparent, you are right! Screw these jackasses! I don't watch much on CBS anyway except Raymond, King of Queens and an occasional CSI!
Keep the faith!
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