KTVU apologizes for racist SF plane crash gaffe | Matier And Ross | an SFGate.com blog

Update: The National Transportation Safety Board late Friday issued its own apology for “inaccurate and offensive names that were mistakenly confirmed” to KTVU Channel 2 as those of the pilots of Asiana flight 214, which crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday.

The statement said that an NTSB summer intern, in response to the station’s inquiry, “acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft.”

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.

“The NTSB does not release or confirm the names of crew members or people involved in transportation accidents to the media,” Nantel said.

Original blog post follows:                                            —

KTVU Channel 2 is apologizing for an on-air gaffe that the station — or viewers –  won’t soon forget.

During the noon newscast Friday, co-anchor Tori Campbell, announced that “KTVU has just learned the names of the four pilots who were on board” Asiana flight 214 when it crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday.

She then read from a teleprompter while a TV graphic displayed four fake names that clearly were someone’s idea of a joke.

The first name — “Captain Sum Ting Wong” — should have been a give-away that something really was wrong. But Campbell kept reading… “Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk, Bang Ding Ow.”

Yikes.

After a break, Campbell made an on-air correction, clarifying that the names were clearly wrong — but that they had confirmed them earlier with the National Transportation Safety Board.

KTVU news director Lee Rosenthal did not immediately turn our calls seeking comment.

This incident happened days after station made a web promo hyping its crash coverage:

“This past weekend viewers flocked to KTVU Channel 2 News for coverage of the tragic crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

KTVU Channel 2 News owned this breaking news story with a number of firsts!

- First on-air.- First on-line.- First with alerts to mobile devices.- First on Twitter & Facebook.- First with aerial shots from KTVU NewsChopper 2.- First with a live reporter from the scene.- First live interview with anyone connected to someone on the flight.

Rosenthal is quoted in the promo: “Being first on air and on every platform in all aspects of our coverage was a great accomplishment, but being 100% accurate, effectively using our great sources and social media without putting a single piece of erroneous information on our air, is what we are most proud of as a newsroom.”

In an-online apology, KTVU general manager Tom Raponi said “We are reviewing our procedures to ensure this type of error does not happen again.”

http://blog.sfgate.com/matierandross/2013/07/12/1937/