CBS News Fires Producer Over Arafat Special Report

[Guest Anglesault]

By Steve Gorman, Reuters

 

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.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Is this why CSI NY seemingly ran twice this week?

[Guest Anglesault]

Yes.

 

I agree with the firing, BTW. I totally missed the resolution of the show to learn that that monkey died.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

But yet Dan Blather walks away unscathed for his joke of election 2004 reporting...

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I think it's hilarious that no one has even been slapped on the wrist for memogate yet interrupting CSI results in an instant firing.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Pretty much sums up all you need to know about cBS...

[Guest CronoT]

I think it's hilarious that no one has even been slapped on the wrist for memogate yet interrupting CSI results in an instant firing.

Most people don't give a shit about national news, but every redneck and white trash person will shit a brick if their favorite show gets pre-empted over something that happened in France.

[2GOLD 0]

Actually no, it's more like "any publicity is good publicity" since it leads to ratings. Messing UP ratings for shows that depend on ratings for ad money? You are fired.

 

It's really that simple.

 

CBS lost nothing from memogate, hell they got tons of publicity from it.

This cost CSI: MIAMI rating points to tell the American Public about a man we didn't give two craps about.

[Mole 0]

Law and Order still won the ratings battle though.

[Guest Anglesault]

I think it's hilarious that no one has even been slapped on the wrist for memogate yet interrupting CSI results in an instant firing.

Most people don't give a shit about national news, but every redneck and white trash person will shit a brick if their favorite show gets pre-empted over something that happened in France.

Some regular people just didn't need to know precisely when the scum of the earth died.

[JasonX 0]

I think it's hilarious that no one has even been slapped on the wrist for memogate yet interrupting CSI results in an instant firing.

Most people don't give a shit about national news, but every redneck and white trash person will shit a brick if their favorite show gets pre-empted over something that happened in France.

Some regular people just didn't need to know precisely when the scum of the earth died.

Hah! Compared to some of the most recent evil right-wing nazi scumfucks running Isreal, Afarat is freaking Mary Fucking Sunshine on the "Scum of the Earth" chart....