KTVU:'HO LEE FUK' AND PASSING THE BUCK

There is no good or decent explanation as to why KTVU, a  Bay area television station put
four names that mocked a race and made fun of the tragedy that occurred at the San Francisco
airport last week, on the air. Listing the supposed names of the pilots involved in a crash
that claimed the lives of two people was of such little significance in the first place, but the
station seemed to be so eager to report who was responsible for the catastrophe. After all,
they were just feeding a world that loves to point the finger and blame other people, right?

It's sadly ironic that KTVU, by trying to point out who made the mistake, created a catastrophe
of its own, and just about the entire Internet world is pointing out its colossal boner now.

So, naturally, now is the time to pass the buck, because of course, saying I'm sorry is not
good enough. There has to be somebody to blame besides themselves.

This all came to a head when the KTVU "released" the names of the four pilots involved in
the crash on one its news shows on Friday. They put the names on a full-screen graphic as if
the audience was going to cast stones at the television sets or set the Twittersphere on fire
with damning comments about those who were responsible for the aviation mishap. #KTVU,
of course.  It backfired.

Somehow, someway, somebody at the station gave the chyron operator (the person who enters
the information that comes out as a graphic or lettering on the sceen) four Asian names that somehow, someway, made it on to the air. They were as follows: 

• Captain Sum Ting Wong
• Wi Tu Lo
• Ho Lee Fuk
• Bang Ding Ow.                      

This is beyond mind-boggling. To make light of a tragedy where lives were lost, using names
that mock an entire race, is insensitive, at best. The big  question that still needs to be answered,
is how these names got by so many people and got on the air as they were?

KTVU posted the following on it's website:

"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,"

Um, that's nice. But how long have you been on the air? 60 years? I guess this is as good a time
as any to review those procedures. OK, I'm far from a rocket scientist, but when the station
called the NTSB to get confirmation of the names nobody, one, laughed out loud, or said,
"We got punked. These names are just a joke." Wi Tu Lo? Sum Ting Wong? Great points for
creativity, zero for insensitivity.

I realize you don't have to be smart to work in television, but come on, this is ridiculous.

So, KTVU says, "We're sorry", but the NTSB confirmed it, which in reality is just passing
the buck and that's long been the American way. We saw it at Penn State and Rutgers, didn't
we? Most of the administrators at Rutgers except the school president saw the tape of Mike
Rice firing basketballs at his players, but nobody thought enough to fire him. But when a
national firestorm ensued,, the school president fired Rice and Tim Pernetti, the athletic director,
then washed his hands of it.

I'm sure management will find a scapegoat at the station, most likely the free-lance
chyron operator making $10-an-hour. Everybody HAS to have a scapegoat and management
must send a message. You find out how quickly if a "team" is really a team in a situation
like this. Managers tell you to work together and have each others backs, but when the
dirty stuff hits the fans, it really becomes every man for themselves.

The NTSB admitted they confirmed the names, but then blamed it on an intern who went
"outside his scope of authority." Really? Are you kidding me? Unless that intern was smoking
what Baron Davis was smoking before his encounter with aliens, there is no way an intern over
15-years old with a pulse is going to confirm a story or information with anybody. That's just
nor happening. The NTSB should go back to the lab and come up with a better scapegoat and
story because that's pretty lame.

Actually, the NTSB and KTVU should go on-line and try to purchase some common sense.
That's all it really took to avoid this fiasco, right?

If you put all those names on live television without double-checking or picking up that it was
a prank, you shouldn't be in any type of business, especially one that dispenses information, at all.