CBS Producer Fired for Interrupting CSI with Breaking News

[Duke of Marlbrough]

When there was an established method in place for the situation to be handled and it, along with the controls that were in lace, were ignored, the person is not doing their job. Having to re-run the show probably cost the network quite a bit of money as well.

Since Arafat had been in poor health for a couple days it wasn't exactly a surprise when the end did come.

The network already had the method of using a news crawler in place. That was ignored. The network already had in place that any such decisions of stopping shows needed to be approved. That was ignored. The show was 5 minutes from ending, the normal news programs were scheduled for right after that. So, the producer cut off the end of a popular 'suspense' type show to announce the death of someone who people already knew was near death in an effort to do it five minutes before it normally would have been broascast anyway. I don't care who the person is that died. If the network had the provisiosn in place ahead of time for this very expected imminent event and they were ignored, it is certainly within their rights to fire that person for going against everything they had already been told to do.

 

[Bamspeedy]

they eventually did show the last three minutes,

Two days later.

Let's have a soccer game, but when there is 3 minutes left, stop the game and finish it 48 hours later.....

If it had been earlier on in the show (a less important part of the show), then they would have got fewer, if any complaints.

 

[ainwood]

What is the details of employment law in the US? Under NZ employment law, you probably wouldn't be able to fire him directly -> need a complicated process of formal warnings etc first....

 

[Immortal]

When there was an established method in place for the situation to be handled and it, along with the controls that were in lace, were ignored, the person is not doing their job. Having to re-run the show probably cost the network quite a bit of money as well.

The world does still run on a mostly Weberian Bureaucratic model, and until otherwise told, you follow your chain of command in your job, no matter what your personal feelings are.

Perhaps my Public Administration classes in university have made me more accepting of heirarchy in organization. But the fact of the matter is, it exists and people have to learn to deal with it. Insubordination will lead to dismissal.

 

[Moss]

When there was an established method in place for the situation to be handled and it, along with the controls that were in lace, were ignored, the person is not doing their job. Having to re-run the show probably cost the network quite a bit of money as well.

Since Arafat had been in poor health for a couple days it wasn't exactly a surprise when the end did come.

The network already had the method of using a news crawler in place. That was ignored. The network already had in place that any such decisions of stopping shows needed to be approved. That was ignored. The show was 5 minutes from ending, the normal news programs were scheduled for right after that. So, the producer cut off the end of a popular 'suspense' type show to announce the death of someone who people already knew was near death in an effort to do it five minutes before it normally would have been broascast anyway. I don't care who the person is that died. If the network had the provisiosn in place ahead of time for this very expected imminent event and they were ignored, it is certainly within their rights to fire that person for going against everything they had already been told to do.

Agreed, although I'm not sure that this one error in judgement should cost the person his job. Maybe there were other before hand, but I don't know all of the facts and it just seems hard for me to comprehend firing a guy for one little thing like this.

Of course the money they lost and complaints against them may not seem so little.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

Apparently, in the 'TV biz' there is little room for error.

I could understand if there wasn't already an established method for dealing with it in place or if the normal policy for interrupting any show is to contact your boss first. But there was. So, it wasn't just one error in judgement, it was going against what your boss told you do in that exact situation.

Again, I would question this if it was a surprise event that hadn't been planned for. But, it was, it was planned for, it had a method to be dealt with, and that was ignored.

 

[Marla_Singer]

Of course the money they lost and complaints against them may not seem so little.

You hit the nail on a very important issue here Moss.

Indeed, the big difference between Reagan's death and Arafat's death isn't really that one was more expected than the other, since both were. The big difference is that the Audience was more interested about Reagan's death than Arafat's death.

Well, I do agree that the audience should be an important thing. But there should remain a strong deontology towards the duty of a journalist which is to inform BEFORE scoring good audience results.

If that's such a problem, it's simply because in such a hunt for the audience, Journalists may risk to forget actually to inform... liking better to say to the Americans what they want to hear rather than disgusting them and make them switch on sitcoms. If such a process is getting too far, there would be no informations at all in the end.

 

[Bamspeedy]

What is the details of employment law in the US? Under NZ employment law, you probably wouldn't be able to fire him directly -> need a complicated process of formal warnings etc first....

Most contracts say something along the lines of "this contract may be terminated at any time at the discretion of management or the worker".
The worker doesn't like the job, he quits and the contract is terminated. The company doesn't like or need the worker, they fire him and the contract is terminated. Managerial positions are more likely to have a clause like this because their mistakes can vary so much in how it hurts the company (a mistake at one time can cost the company a few dollars, but at another time can cost the company millions of $). Of course there are some situations that the law prevents the company from firing you (they can't discriminate against you, fire you because you refused to do something that is illegal, etc.)

Most of the contracts that spell out specific quidelines that result in specific penalties are for the lower/entry level positions (and unions), because those mistakes are generally easier to record (putting a $ value on it), and the impact of their mistakes aren't usually as big as the manager's mistakes can be.

 

[Hundegesicht]

By the way, how a tornado in the middle of Kansas would deserve such an interruption and not Arafat's death ? Sincerly, no one lives in Kansas anyway...

Tornados are prominant in much of the midwestern USA, which only holds around 100 million people. (About twice the population of your entire country)

Unlike cable TV, broadcast TV in the US is broken up into several thousands local affiliates who in turn broadcast it to the viewers. So a Tornado warning would only effect those in the county the tornado was occuring. (as opposed to the above incident which was nation wide)

Several dozen* HUMAN BEINGS (which they are, regardless of what you think of "American trash nobodies") die of tornados each year in the US. You really think that potentially saving their lives isn't as important as broadcasting that an old man who was expected to die for weeks finally did 3 minutes earlier? Bah!

*Aprox. 50, wikipedia.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

It wasn't REALLY breaking news. Everyone knew Arafat was dying... no need to stop a perfectly good program.

 

[Marla_Singer]

Tornados are prominant in much of the midwestern USA, which only holds around 100 million people. (About twice the population of your entire country)

100 million people sparsed on 5 million km² ? Oh sorry I didn't realize this. You're right that's huge.

 

[BasketCase]

Iraq War. Budget deficit. North Korea going nuclear. Ozone layer disappearing. Terrorist attacks. Famine in this or that nation whose name most of us can't spell.

People need a break from the real world every now and then. That's why people watch CSI. Sometimes the real and (supposedly) important stuff such as guy-with-real-bad-complexion-who-might-be-a-terrorist-just-died news really has to wait until the end of the hour.

Now hush, you guys are interrupting my TA game.

 

[Jawz II]

i wouldnt want my tv watching interrupted to hear about arafat, i think they were right to fire that guy


if the 3rd world war has broken out, then ok

or something else informational that might save my life or my familys life then cool

but if i want news ill watch cnn

plus arafat was dead/dying 3 weeks before he died, not really big news

 

[MarineCorps]

The last 3 minutes most of the time (I didn't watch this episode) is the most important/dramatic part of the episode

The part where they go over how the guy commited the crime is important?

@ainwood: They can fire you without much hardship(as I discovered to my regret this sunday). They might either call you into an office or give you a slip of paper that says they would like to cut ties. If your beyond you trial period then I think they have to give you two weeks notice other wise if your still in you trial period they can fire you within a moments notice.

 

[Perfection]

100 million people sparsed on 5 million km² ? Oh sorry I didn't realize this. You're right that's huge.

What the heck is that supposed to mean? I happen to live in tornado alley and I think it's pretty important to know when to take cover.

And it's not like they were'nt going to creak the newsa before the news, they just wanted to do a scrolling ticker thing instead of interrupting a broadcast of one of thier most sucessful shots?

 

[Turner]

Sincerly, no one lives in Kansas anyway...

I live in Kansas. Padma lives in Omaha, Nebraska, a mere three hour drive from me.

We may not have the population of Paris, but there's still several million people in the midwestern states.

And tornadoes are a big deal. I'm guessing you haven't seen one.

 

[joycem10]

I think the real crux of the issue is that the program was interrupted at 10:55 PM EST. Viewers would have found out about Arafat's death in five minutes on the nightly news. It seems pretty stupid to interrupt programming to give people a 5 minute advance heads up on the story. IF it had occurred around 8PM it would be a different story.

As to the guy getting fired, he violated procedure and was terminated for his lapse in judgment. As has been discussed many times in these forums, barring a formally executed employment contract, all the States recognize the "employment at will doctrine" which states that employees can be terminated for any cause, so long as the cause is not discriminatory (as defined under the various civil rights acts and amendments).

As to weather versus Arafat. I hate any interruptions in programming that is not of signifigant consequence to individual safety. One of our local channels jumps into network programming everytime theres a holdup downtown and puts a crawl on the screen every time it rains. News junkies who need to know about the death of some third world dictator can always find it on one of the many national and local all news channels. Thats the beauty of having 500 channels.

 

[sourboy]

Do you really expect the general public to have a good system of priority when the majority is quite the fool?

 

[Ethics]

I think the real crux of the issue is that the program was interrupted at 10:55 PM EST. Viewers would have found out about Arafat's death in five minutes on the nightly news. It seems pretty stupid to interrupt programming to give people a 5 minute advance heads up on the story. IF it had occurred around 8PM it would be a different story.

As to the guy getting fired, he violated procedure and was terminated for his lapse in judgment. As has been discussed many times in these forums, barring a formally executed employment contract, all the States recognize the "employment at will doctrine" which states that employees can be terminated for any cause, so long as the cause is not discriminatory (as defined under the various civil rights acts and amendments).

As to weather versus Arafat. I hate any interruptions in programming that is not of signifigant consequence to individual safety. One of our local channels jumps into network programming everytime theres a holdup downtown and puts a crawl on the screen every time it rains. News junkies who need to know about the death of some third world dictator can always find it on one of the many national and local all news channels. Thats the beauty of having 500 channels.

I think you, have actually hinted as to the reason this was done.

This guy was whoring for the nightly news, and failed horribly. The ticker/pan out at credits is the standard for whoring the nightly news, because generally, noone likes to be interrupted for the second rate news piece on broadcast channels that are generally left until the end of that program, thus irritating the viewer further.

This had nothing to do with keeping the public informed (and concern for the *well being* of a terrorist like Arafat is of no interest to the American public), but to keep viewers away from the cable news outlets. Evidentally, the fool who decided to interrupt the show failed to keep viewers, instead annoying and irritating them, which cost the station in complaints and cost. Good riddence to incompetence.

 

[M37]

I don't really care if he was fired or not, but why did he feel the need to interupt the program? I mean, they usually only do that for tornado warnings. Everyone knew that Yassar Arafat was going to die for several days, so he could've waited 3 minutes longer, or just used the ticker.

True but fireing a person for sometthing like this come on. If people got fired for making these kinds of mistakes where I live there would be a new newscrew every month.