Anatomy of a Very Dumb Mistake

So you are sitting there with your kids on a Wednesday night watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on 'Today's 6' ... the cartoon version no less, not the Jim Carrey version ... when we come on with a news promo about a story on a 13-year-old who will be tried as an adult for an alleged sexual assault and attempted murder of a 5-year-old.

Before you tell me how inappropriate and what a really dumb mistake that was, let me reply by saying "THAT WAS INAPPROPRIATE AND A REALLY DUMB MISTAKE!"

When I started this whole blogging thing, it was with the idea of writing to viewers directly and doing my best to 'tell it like it is.'  With this specific blog, I'm going to start by saying there is a difference between an explanation and an excuse.  This is an explanation, not an excuse.  I don't have any excuses for this one.

Here's the explanation.  The promo viewers saw is taped ahead of time, not done live.  In fact, we do a few of these taped promos at a time on various news stories of the day.  They then run throughout primetime from 7-to-10pm.  The anchors reading these 'promotional teases' typically have little to do with creating them.  That's because we prefer they work on more important things like actual news stories that will run within our newscasts.  In fact, on this night, Michelle Edmonds was working on her series of reports on the Stockdale family, who will have their 'Extreme Makeover:  Home Edition' home revealed on national television Sunday night, December 2nd.

So Michelle (or Don) are handed some pre-written copy, they read the copy, (sometimes they do modify the copy), and then they trust what they just taped will be placed in the appropriate spot that evening.  In this case, it obviously was not.

That was because the people responsible for generating this particular promotional tease did not realize children's programming was going to run in that time period.  Usually, ABC runs the comedy 'Carpoolers' there.  It's a program that is geared for adults and not really attractive in any way to children.  But on this Wednesday, ABC decided to do a Christmas-themed hour of 'Shrek the Halls' and 'The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.'  It was a one-time change those responsible for the promos didn't realize was happening when they entered the promo to air at that time.  Should we have thought about that?  Absolutely!

In other words, we made a very dumb mistake. 

I'm going to take actions to make sure we don't repeat it.  For one, we are going to re-analyze what we do in the 7pm-8pm hour when it comes to news promotions to make sure whatever airs there is appropriate for all ages at all times.  We clearly need to do a better job of guaranteeing potentially adult content is reserved for adult time periods later in the evening.

The news at times is very disturbing.  A 13-year-old accused of such serious acts is a big deal, especially coming on the heels of so many other serious alleged criminal acts by kids in the Treasure Valley over the past year.  These are the kind of news stories to which we adults should pay attention because we as a society need to figure out how we best treat teens who commit such serious crimes, or may be at risk of commiting them. 

But our kids don't need to be hearing about it.

That's why we in the news business need to be careful when we convey this information outside of newscasts during entertainment programming.  We were careless on this night, and for that, I offer a sincere apology.

Comments

[oops]

Hey, it's a rare comment!

What happened here is that your usual sensational sleaze bit you in the butt. You run slimy promos all the time... for once it hit you between the eyes.

And another thing - you're saying that your anchors just read what's put in front of them without any thought? Nice. You wanted to protect that "integrity" image you're trying to gin up for Michelle and Don, while throwing some poor faceless, nameless promotions person under the bus - but in the end, that producer won't be anywhere near the sewer you find yourself swimming in.

[CBoy]

You seem like a young man. I hope that someday you will be able to find a more dignified way to make a living.

[Todd Vipond]

Just heard the story on This American Life. Kudos.

"Now an update on a story you will ONLY hear on Today's Sick News...I mean Today's Sex News...that is Today's Six News: Scott Picken will apparently never let the facts get in the way of a good story."

Who needs integrity when you've got higher ratings?

[Scott Picken]

To oops ...

Thank you for reading and responding to my blog, and giving me the opportunity to respond.

First of all, there was nothing wrong with what Don and Michelle said in the news promo. What was said was accurate and factual, it was just an inappropriate placement, something Don and Michelle have no control over.

Second, the story was itself run by every TV station in the Treasure Valley (admittedly, after we broke it), but there is no question it is a legitimate news story.

I'm not throwing anyone 'under the bus.' It happened, it shouldn't have, and I am taking personal responsibility to help insure it doesn't happen again.

And to CBoy, no, I'm not a young man, and yes, there are many things distasteful about the news. However, we as a society decided a long time ago dating back to the founding fathers that it is better to know such things so we as a society can respond and make good decisions about public policy going in the future.

Thanks again for reading my blog.

Sincerely,

Scott Picken

[jm]

The word would be "ensure" not "insure."