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July 2009
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Actually, the president was just practicing. You may have noticed a slightly bumpy beginning to our 5 o'clock newscast on Monday (May 15, 2006). We began our broadcast in its usual fashion, but built it in such a way so we could take the president's speech on immigration reform, live from the White House. We were told the president would begin his speech at 5:01:30 PDT. So what were we to think when the picture from the White House popped up at exactly 5:00:00, and the president began delivering his speech? We interrupted Jeff Renner in the middle of his first forecast to cut to the president. Then the president stopped speaking... Back to Jean and me on the set to talk about what the president was about to say. At 5:01:30 PDT, the president began his speech again, this time for real. Live television can be exhilarating and full of surprises. The bottom line is you were able to see the president's speech on immigration reform in its entirety. The Democrats' response was streamed live on KING5.com. And in the days to come, all of us will see how Congress and the country react to the president's immigration proposals. Editor update: Turns out the pool producer, who works for NBC, accidently cued the president too early. Here's the story. 14 Comments |
Dennis,
This is a very plausable explanation. However, the camera in the oval office was being run by NBC. KING 5 is an NBC affiliate.
You can blame the President all you want and tell the readers of this blog that it's not your fault, but you said yourself that you were informed what time the speech would start. Regardless of what you saw on the feed (practicing) you should have waited until the time you were told to wait for: 5:01:30.
No one's fault but your producer's.
KIRO did the same thing by taking the President a bit early. I don't think NBC was running that camera. Chances are the White House was in full control of what kind of signal left the room. The White House messed up here & I think it made the president look bad.
NBC was indeed running the camera.
From DrudgeReport.com:
"NBC NEWS, which was operating the television camera in the Oval Office, said late Monday that it gave the president a cue to begin his speech too early."
I was told that CNN initiated the early (5:pm) beginning of the speech.
NBC's producers removed the presidential seal from the broadcast, which is the typical cue that the speech is about to start. They also gave the president the cue to begin. CNN took the cue and began broadcasting, therefore so did the rest of the networks, as they typically operate in a "network pool" fashion. The responsibility boils down to the NBC producers though. However, I doubt you'll see them take responsibility for it.
More info here: http://www.resipisco.com
Looks like they updated the story on the original blog entry at the top of this page.
Way to be honest about NBC's mistake and take responsibility.
King 5 has integrity!
Who cares? stuff happens, this is a non issue. This kind of stuff has happened with every presidency and every tv channel. Remember when Reagan said we begin bombing Russia in 5 minutes?
Ok...I'm not much for conspiracies...and this has nothing to do with the speech last night...BUT, did anybody just see the "video" of the plane crashing into the Pentagon on 9/11/01? It was only a few feet off of the ground the whole time! It didn't even look like it came from high in the sky! I hate to say this...but it almost looked like a missle! Please tell me somebody else saw this...I wish King 5 would rerun this tonight...
This video was shown around 12:10pm, 5/16/06...the 12 o'clock news...
The video is all over the net today.
Open it up in a video capture program and zoom in. You'll see quite clearly that it wasn't a missle.
Oooops, I meant to say open it up in a video editing program. Do that, zoom in, and you'll see that it's no missle.
A little background on how the White House media machine works. The networks (including Fox & CNN) are members of a Pool. The responsibilities rotate between the different networks. Last night it was NBC's turn in the saddle. In addition to the camera operator, sound tech, and lighting grips, is the pool producer. That person has the watch which is supposed to be synchronized to POTUS (President of the United States) time. At the precise moment s/he gives the cue and the President begins speaking.
It sounds like an easy job, but nothing is easy when you are in the Oval Office.
Moving on, the White House traditionaly will ask for time on the networks, and the networks will ask for a set start time. In this case at "oh-one-thirty" as we say. This allows the anchors to set up the event and then at the precise moment say, "here now the President of The United States." These start times vary for each event.
The drill is for the pool feed to sit on the Presidential seal until the exact moment when the pool director calls for a fade to black then a fade up on POTUS.
As Michael correctly points out in an earlier post, it HAS happened before, and President Reagan's now infamous microphone sound check about the bombs shows these gaffes can have consequences.
It all sounds so simple... and it is in theory. But as someone who has been in the White House press room and reported live from the north lawn, nothing - NOTHING - is simple, easy or without stress (A LOT OF STRESS) at the White House.
Conspiracy, nah ... honest mistake... you bet. But you can be sure it is one that producer will never make again. (In fact he or she may right now be buying a new "danger-boy" parka for their new assignment in some frozen wasteland watching the migration of spring ice as repayment for a job NBC admits was not so well done.
How can anyone in the state of Washington be blamed for something that happened in Washington D.C.? If anyone is at fault it was the person who turned on the camera during the President's practice. The producer should be commended for going live so that we, the viewers, didn't miss any of the speech. The KING 5 producer's job was to broadcast the entire Presidential speech...he did that. Next time they should let the media know that there will be a quick warm up before the actual event. Thanks KING 5, keep up the good work.
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