Posted on 11/23/2005 1:56:25 AM PST by RWR8189
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - CNN apologized on Tuesday and offered a rare explanation from its control booth for a technical glitch many viewers failed to notice -- a large "X" the network flashed over Vice President Dick Cheney's face.
The wayward graphic, which CNN said lasted for about one-seventh of a second, appeared during the network's live coverage of Cheney's speech on Monday addressing critics of the Bush administration's conduct of the war in Iraq.
Word of the snafu quickly surfaced on the Internet, including still photos of the image posted by online columnist Matt Drudge, along with a story suggesting that some who saw the momentary "X" thought it might have been deliberate.
CNN, a unit of Time Warner Inc., later issued a mea culpa saying an investigation by senior management concluded "this was a technical malfunction, not an issue of operator error" and expressing regret for the incident.
The network followed up with a special on-air segment during its "CNN Live Today" broadcast, in which anchor Daryn Kagan joined the network's technical manager, Steve Alperin, in the control room to offer a fuller explanation.
The "X" image, a place-holding marker used by technicians to cue up graphics, is not supposed to be visible to viewers but was inadvertently projected onto the screen by a malfunction in a "switcher" device, they explained.
"So, for all the conspiracy theories out there," Kagan said, " ... that's not what this is about. It's a computer bug that people deal with everyday. It's just that ours was in front of millions of people."
A spokesman for the vice president said Cheney had no comment on the incident.
Don't flatter yourself darling...
A bug that has yet to appear on a CNN broadcast before, nor a MSNBC, nor a FOX nor any national network broadcast...
Someone just accept the blame for 'making a mistake' and be done with it. Trying to give us empty explainations of 'computer errors' is just plain stupid.
Then again, for the Communist News Network, being stuck on stupid is a common condition.
A malfunction, or a techie with a wry sense of humor?
CNN can only dream of such ratings.
I read this explaniation, and a black graphic "stupid" appeared on my forehead. So now I believe them.
Actually, I'd like to see the writing below the x that was mixed up with the graphic below. something was there, but I can't get it to come out.
I heard on the Laura Inghram show, that they were laughing about it in the control room. Some glitch.
Thanks, I appreciate it.
I only listen to Rush, Levin, and our local guy here in NC, Jason Lewis who is a market capitalist. He smokes the libs, big time!
I'd put him up against the "Dumb One", Sean Hannity, at the drop of the hat.
I'd like to see someone explain the dick on CNN's face
Having worked as a newscast director for over 25 years in control rooms, it was no equipment malfunction. There is no such thing as an invisible 'X' marker in your graphics machine. It was clearly a character generator created 'X' and not a graphic, which is a different piece of equipment altogether. Neither employs 'X' markers to separate graphics (what you see over an anchors shoulder), name keys or full screen information. An 'X' of that style and size might be used in pre-production of a reporter package, but pre-production is done in an editting suite and not a control room.
There are only two possible ways that could have occurred, someone in the art department actually created the 'X' graphic and had placed it in the graphics stack, which is highly unlikely, and the TD (technical director) accidentally activated the key signal that placed it over Cheyney's face. Or, the most likely scenario, the character generator operator was playing around on their preview channel placing the 'X' over Cheyney's face, that only they could see, and accidentally hit the flip button that switched it to the program channel which the TD, knowingly or unknowingly, had active. The line 'transition after 5 frames of black' is a standard character generator command.
While I do not think it was deliberately put on the air, personnel in the control room were responsible for it happening. It was human error, not an equipment malfunction.
It was deliberate, listen to the tape from the ad agency when they made a call to CNN. -scroll up
How do you get ahold of the FCC? We should all complain to the FCC about this. Get them to fine CNN big time! Maybe they'll take their broadcasting license away.
Can you spell bullsh*t?
How to Contact the FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/contacts.html
Thank You!
It was just a stupid sophmoric stunt and they were caught. It was not a glitch, nor a malfunction or whatever euphemism. Someone with hatred for the Bush presidency thought he'd be cute. We'll never know who because CNN is in CYA mode and there are too many suspects.
BTW, I thought it was too funny when on FNF they called it the COMMUNIST news network and one of the talking heads said, "is that what it really stands for?"
Regardless of how the "glitch" happened, has anyone heard that CNN sent an official apology to the White House?
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