Category Archives: Television

CBS Public Eye: An obituary

January 3, 2008 – 9:10 am

Public Eye, a blog launched by CBS News in September 2005 with the stated goal of bringing “transparency to the editorial operations of CBS News — transparency that is unprecedented for broadcast and online journalism,” died this week due to the lack of “a sustainable business model.” It was roughly 28 months old.
CBS Interactive cut [...]

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Station retracts report about football star McFadden

January 2, 2008 – 8:00 am

From the AP:
Arkansas star Darren McFadden said Saturday he fully expects to play in the Cotton Bowl after a television report raised questions about his eligibility. Arkansas television station KARK has since backed off the report, apologizing to McFadden and his family.
“It’s something that’s uncalled for — people not getting their facts straight,” said [...]

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CBC apologizes for abuse of puppetry

November 30, 2007 – 8:00 am

It’s not exactly the usual fare for us, but anything that involves a national public broadcaster, puppets, and an apology is simply irresistible. From a story in the Globe And Mail:
CBC has learned the hard way not to mess with puppets, and yesterday officially apologized to Rusty the Rooster and Jerome the Giraffe.
The Homme [...]

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Typos in TV graphics

November 28, 2007 – 8:00 am

Valleywag spotted this typo on CNBC:

Then TVNewser added this comment from an ex-employee of CNBC:
I worked there for four years as a producer and after submitting the fullscreen to graphics correctly, occasionally there would be a typo. The only net I have seen without a typo — EVER — is ESPN. It’s amazing how they [...]

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BBC Newsnight makes markets move — even when they’re closed

November 26, 2007 – 8:00 am

From a post on BBC’s The Editors blog:
…On Thursday we reported that in New York the “Dow Jones was substantially down amidst more credit crunch fears”. That’s odd, many of you told us, as – being Thanksgiving – Wall Street’s finest were on a day-off. Our economics editor Stephanie Flanders was mortified – “unforgivable and [...]

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NBC issues on air apology

November 23, 2007 – 8:00 am

According to the Nexis file, this apology was delivered on NBC at 7 a.m. yesterday morning:
HODA KOTB, anchor: A correction now. A report some viewers saw Wednesday indicated that former White House aide “Scooter” Libby spent time in jail for his role in the CIA leak case. In fact, President Bush commuted Mr. Libby’s prison [...]

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ABC News investigation clears Alexis* Debat of fabrication, cites “four details… that we couldn’t confirm”

October 24, 2007 – 8:00 am

Background here and here.
TVNewser acquired the memo that ABC News head David Westin sent to staff about the findings of the internal investigation into the work of Alexis Debat, a former consultant with the network. Some relevant excerpts:
…This review was extremely sensitive, as it required going back to confidential sources in this country and abroad. [...]

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Update on Alexis Debat story

September 17, 2007 – 8:00 am
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Fabrication scandal hits (now former) ABC News consultant

September 13, 2007 – 9:27 pm
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UPDATED: Rossiya’s Titanic error

August 13, 2007 – 8:00 am
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ESPN corrects the memory of baseball commentator

July 23, 2007 – 8:00 am
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The backstory of several “bizarrely* inaccurate” articles

July 18, 2007 – 8:00 am
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Fox News correspondent apologizes for errors about lesbian street gangs

July 10, 2007 – 8:00 am
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ABC News confuses Marion Barry with judge suing over a lost pair of pants

June 14, 2007 – 8:00 am
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UPDATED: Fox News issues on air apology for mixing up politicians when reporting on corruption indictment

June 6, 2007 – 8:00 am
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A tale of ham and consequences

May 15, 2007 – 8:00 am
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NY Sun names fired CBS producer; why naming her is important

April 12, 2007 – 10:00 am

After many blogs (Gawker, TV Newser etc.) put out calls for the name of the CBS producer fired this week for plagiarism, David Blum has named her in a story in today’s New York Sun. “In an era when plagiarists get dismissed and outed weekly by their employers at news organizations around the country, the [...]

By Craig Silverman | Also posted in Major Errors, Online, Plagiarism, Regret Articles | Tagged , , | Comments Off

CBS News fires producer for plagiarism

April 11, 2007 – 8:00 am

A producer at CBS News has been fired after plagiarizing from the Wall Street Journal for a video essay on “Couric & Co.,” the Katie Couric/group blog on the CBS News website. AP reports the essay was removed and an editor’s note has been placed on the site. We searched the blog in question [...]

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10 o’clock news replaced by porn

April 9, 2007 – 8:00 am
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Bad for business

March 16, 2007 – 8:00 am
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ABC gets partial correction to Stanley story; objective and subjective errors

March 9, 2007 – 10:07 am

Alessandra Stanley wrote a TV column for Wednesday’s NY Times about Brian Williams and the major network anchors that made ABC News hot under the collar. A senior exec at the network fired off a letter to Romenesko that was widely blogged about yesterday. The Times today ran a correction (now included in the online [...]

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ESPN unveils cross-platform correction policy and procedures

March 5, 2007 – 10:10 am

One of the most enjoyable correction-related experiences comes at the end of every episode of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, a sports talk and interview show featuring Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser.
As ESPN explains, at the end of every show, “researcher Tony Reali corrects any statistical fouls Kornheiser and Wilbon made in the heat of battle.” [...]

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About those models who died due to anorexia…

March 1, 2007 – 8:00 am
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Screeching to a halt

February 5, 2007 – 8:00 am
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Obama? Osama? Ocrapa

January 3, 2007 – 8:00 am
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