Producer who broke into 'CSI: NY' fired

[kick-ass-bob]

CBS News has fired the producer responsible for breaking into "CSI: NY" last week for a special report on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death, a CBS executive said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/15/tv.cbs.apology.ap/index.html


Lord knows this was the worst thing the press could do...
:eyes:

[Connie_Corleone]

1. Well, it was a stupid thing to do.

The local news was coming on in 5 minutes. Arafat's death could've been announced then. It's not like his death was big surprise. And most people watching CSI:NY probably didn't care he was dead anyway.

[tekriter]

3. Yes, my mother was PISSED about this...

she figured (correctly) that announcing the death of somebody who had been dying for a few weeks could have waited another five minutes.

I don't watch CSI:Anything myself, but if I did I would have been hacked, too.

[kick-ass-bob]

6. sure. but fired?

I can think of many more things that someone should be fired for that aren't in TV news...

[liberal N proud]

2. He would probably still be alive if that had not happened

At least they would not have reported he died.

[mr_hat]

4. Same thing, in effect.

[SaveElmer]

5. Kind of an Over reaction if you ask me

Jeez, it's just a TV show...seems kinda harsh punishment for wanting to inform the public

[benburch]

8. He was specifically told not to do it...

And CSI:NY is the #1 cash cow for CBS. This decision cost them a mint.

[onyourleft]

9. In all sincerity, can you explain how it cost them a "mint?"

I'm not that familiar with broadcasting, but if it was the last 5 minutes of the program, how did it cost them?

[benburch]

18. Commercials.

1. Commercials. They had to refund all the time they had sold at the end of the show. Even if they showed the commercials, they sponsors were there to sponsor CSI, not the news interruption, and would not feel they had gotten what they paid for. Probably several times the annual salary of the producer in question.

2. Ratings. People tuned away and went to another channel rather than staying with CBS. And I believe this is a ratings period. A loss of ratings in this period directly changes how much they get for their ads in the next quarter.

[Heyo]

15. Exactly.. it was stupid....

... stupid as hell.

The standing instructions were to run a crawl if Arafat died.

Stupid stupid stupid....

Heyo

[Zero Gravitas]

14. read the link

The producer responsible ignored network policy to contact a senior executive before interrupting a regularly scheduled program for a news report, the source said.

He got fired for not following the proper procedure for interrupting programming. CBS does not exist to "inform the public" it exists to generate revenue for Viacom Inc. by selling TV advertising.

[SaveElmer]

16. Still seems like an over reaction

It's not like he broke a drug policy or did something immoral or unethical, he simply seems to have been over zealous in his efforts. I'm not sure firing him is the right thing to do.

[Kid_A]

7. Maybe this will set a precedent for what it takes to get fired these days.

Like maybe Rumsfeld will ask Bush a question while he's watching Spongebob, and Bush will get so mad that he'll fire him...

[kick-ass-bob]

11. hey now - don't knock spongebob!

:crazy:

[bluedeminredstate]

10. This is so f---ed up.

I guess if Cheney lets go of the rope during the Apprentice America can rest easy.
Now we don't want our news unless it's entertaining. They should have written it into the script.

[ohioliberal]

12. Sure they'll break in for a tv show

but not for the voter fraud!!!!

[qnr]

13. Wow, I haven't had TV for a looooong time, I was thinking

physical break in rather than an interruption.

That's disgusting grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[miss_kitty]

17. two words:

Heidi Bowl.