Posted on 10/19/2006 12:40:59 PM PDT by Disturbin
WCVB-TV executives have banned swearing in the newsroom after the "f-bomb" made it into one of their Friday newscasts.
The station broke in to carry a live press conference on University of Vermont student Michelle Gardner-Quinn, whose body had been found 15 miles from campus.
After the press conference, the station replayed an edited portion of it during its 5 p.m. newscast. During that segment, as the Burlington, Vt., police chief spoke, a WCVB producer could be heard shouting the "F" word in the background. The Herald obtained and reviewed a copy of the segment.
Sources say news executives fired out a memo banning the use of obscenities in the newsroom after the on-air vulgarity. According to WCVB policy, swearing isn’t acceptable in the workplace, station spokeswoman Erin Duggan said.
"I wouldn’t be surprised if they took it as an opportunity to remind staff to be aware of appropriate language," she said.
According to sources, a producer and editor were cutting a breaking news voiceover and the track microphone was on when the producer swore. The microphone picked up the "F" word and it made it onto the newscast.
Duggan said late yesterday the station hadn’t received any complaints.
On-air cursing can land TV employees in trouble. So can believing that the microphone is off.
Last year, former FOX-25 reporter Arthur Chi’en was fired by a CBS station in New York after hurling the “F” word during a liveshot at a pair of hecklers.
CNN anchor Kyra Phillips thought her microphone was off when she went into the ladies room while President Bush delivered a speech in August. Phillips chatted about her husband and called her sister-in-law a "control freak" to a fellow female.
As it turns out, her microphone was on and viewers heard the bathroom banter. CNN later apologized.
When it comes to CNN and MSNBC, I'd rather hear curse words than their actual broadcasts.
That's true. In Boston, WCVB has the worst news of the big 3, and that's not saying much. This will probably help them.
It just hasn't been the same since Chet and Nat broke up.
Swearing is a staple of life in the newsroom. If they get rid of that, they might as well get rid of other fixtures, like objectivity and fact-checking.
Oh...
It was reported that when The Beast used the F word frequently. She didn't like "those F-ing Jooooz."
France ?
Mary Richards was a WJM producer. Mary had to assert herself once in a while but, I don't recall hearing the "F" word from her.
I wonder if this one's a woman, too.
;O)
Best ever was KCRA's Stan Atkinson calling Senate-candidate Barbara Boxer a b!tch during the 1992 election when he thought the mike was off.
We had a reporter on one of Cleveland's stations (Sharon Reed on CBS 19) take off her clothes and join a nude protest. And it was on the news. Another one for WKBN (CBS) Channel 27 in Youngstown was caught nude in Key West a couple years ago...
"... a WCVB producer could be heard shouting the "F" word in the background. "
Funny, we get the names of a "former Fox" guy, and the CNN woman, but NOT this WCVB producer! Fair is fair- is small town provincialism protecting him/her? Oh, yeah, and we're still trying to figure out just why Vermont's AP guy, Chris Graff, was fired last March '06; AP is mum. Some have speculated that Graff attached his own editorial note to an article by Sen. Depenz- I mean, Sen. Leahy- stating that Leahy- plainly a biased Democrat, had been recruited by the American Society of Newspaper Editors to contribute an article critical of the Bush administration; AP removed Graff's note,rumor has it, but Graff's note went out over the wires, anyway, thus embarassing both AP and the Am Soc of Newspaper Editors in this, their second year of "Sunshine Week". Kinda looks like the newsies like to sing from the same hymm book, all at the same time, without attribution to their Leftie politico pals. Heh, heh.
FWIW.
And there was no doubt he meant it.
No cussing, just classic TV reportage.
"It was reported that when The Beast used the F word frequently. "
Who's The Beast???!!!
I thought Brinkley was referring to the "debate" and not to Clinton, personnally.
Brinkley was referring to klinton.
Although I can see his point, either way. Clinton was famous for goin on and on and on about ... anything, as long as it wasn't clear what his point was. What a rambler. Only way he could succeed as a "lawyer" was to "dazzle" at the lectern of a college classroom. He couldn't put two objects together to save his dangling participle. I digress ...
I want to know at what the producer was swearing. Seems to me to be the meat of the whole thing, but the article gives no hint.
Did WCVB cover the John Kerry-reporting-for-duty-convention live? "Where are the f'ing balloons...."
Funny thing...He screws up time and time again but after just a couple of minutes you never hear of it again. I wonder who he pays off, OR threatens. Well after all it is Chicago, Al Capone may be dead but the CLUB lives on.
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