This is just...
From Think Progress:
In a shockingly racist move on Friday, San Francisco news station KTVU misreported the names of the pilots aboard Asiana Flight 214, which crashed at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and killed two girls from China.
Jump below for the video:
I have no words.
But it gets better. Or worse. An anchor later apologized, and here's how they handled it:
That's right. She blamed it on the NTSB. Way to go.
The correct names of the pilots in the cockpit were Lee Gang-guk and Lee Jeong-Min.
By the way, for what it's worth, I believe this was a FOX affiliate.
Meanwhile, two hours later, the Vice President and General Manager issued this statement:
“We sincerely regret the error and took immediate action to apologize, both in the newscast where the mistake occurred, as well as on our website and social media sites. Nothing is more important to us than having the highest level of accuracy and integrity, and we are reviewing our procedures to ensure this type of error does not happen again.”
Here is the official page of their apology. They still insist the names were given to them by the NTSB.
UPDATE: It appears the station DID get the fake names from the NTSB. From a summer intern who may have been playing a joke. Here is the NTSB statement:
The National Transportation Safety Board apologizes for inaccurate and offensive names that were mistakenly confirmed as those of the pilots of Asiana flight 214, which crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6.
Earlier today, in response to an inquiry from a media outlet, a summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft.
The NTSB does not release or confirm the names of crewmembers or people involved in transportation accidents to the media. We work hard to ensure that only appropriate factual information regarding an investigation is released and deeply regret today's incident.
Appropriate actions will be taken to ensure that such a serious error is not repeated.
Here is how to contact KTVU on line.
UPDATED EDITORIALIZING: Now, while the NTSB story seems to be accurate--that is, KTVU got the names from them, this is still a case of UNBELIEVABLY bad journalism. Seriously. Who the hell in their right mind would fail to see that these names were wrong? So, the station SHOULD be contacted. And let them know that their reporters, interns, staff, and anchors should go back to Journalism 101.
7:02 PM PT: From the comments, the station is NOT repeat not a Fox affiliate, but a Cox Media station. And supposed to be one of the reputable ones in the Bay Area. They have much egg on their faces tonight and will have a long penance if they want to regain any reputation they once had.
7:29 PM PT: Update to the update: I guess it IS a Fox affiliate. But, that only means they run Fox TV shows and are NOT part of Fox News. As I mentioned, this station is supposed to be a bastion of journalistic integrity.
UPDATE AGAIN: We have further clarification from the NTSB:
However, in a subsequent phone interview with the SFGate’s Jeff Elder, NTSB spokeswoman Kelly Nantel made clear that the names “originated at the media outlet” and that the intern — unaware of the offensive names — was “acting in good faith and trying to be helpful” by confirming names he didn’t know.
Now, this doesn't excuse the behavior of the intern. If you don't know, you pass it up. As Toby said, "Those who speak don't know, and those who know don't speak". And it also makes me wonder if the station actually read the names aloud to the intern. If they did, perhaps the intern thought it would be a funny joke. If they didn't read the names out loud, that's bad journalism and extremely bad job performance by the intern.