Producer Fired For Cutting Into CSI

Faith

Faith

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CBS has fired the news producer who broke into the last five minutes of CSI: NY to announce the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) last Wednesday.

Viewers, who missed the final crime-solving moments of the hit spinoff series, flooded the network with angry calls, prompting CBS to apologize for the cut-in and rebroadcast the episode in its entirety on Friday.

In a statement Thursday, the Eye network said it regretted the error and stated that the staffer, who has not been identified but is reportedly a female senior producer of the news division's Up to the Minute, "jumped the gun" by breaking in with a report by anchor Melissa McDermott "that should have been offered to local stations for late news."

Source

I normally don't post much news articles but I just could not resist this one. At first I thought it was amusing that people would actually call in and complain about something like this. Then as I was posting it over I thought about it. If it had happened over here during the Las Vegas version, my voice would have been heard down in England. You spend nearly an hour watching something and just as you are about to find out what happened and how it happened. Someone breaks in with the news.

Now yes this was reported all over the world, being important on an international level and all, but could they not have waited 5 more minutes! I wonder if the producer is a CSI fan 😉
 
I find it ridiculous that this happens now - they have been cutting into programs for much less important crap since the beginning of time. Nobody cares until it's freaking CSI.

No one cared when they broke into the NBA playoffs to watch a stupid white SUV going down the highway for like two hours...
 
Maybe the cutting into CSI was a scape goat if they always wanted to fire the producer. But yeah is a bit rediculous.
 
Notice hoe not a finger was raised when they cut into the end of "Orpheus" for the beginning of the Iraq war... no... wait... it was for five minutes of people talking about how nothing had happened yet even though Bush's ultimatum had expired at 8:00. You might think that they wouldn't have to interrupt the final scene in which nothing really happened except maybe the entire gang finding out CORDELIA WAS PREGNANT for five extra minutes of talking about how nothing had happened, but hey, I guess I'm just not as insightful as the network execs at WB. (yeah, I may be a teensy bit bitter about that)

Still, the number of times i've had shows preempted for baseball games that never re-ran because the show was cancelled, or they had a major plot poit making mwe spend the rest of the season confused until I found a transcript somewhere.

Yeah. I shouldn't spend a full weekend watching my Firefly DVD straight through. It tends to make me bitter about network execs. I really shouldn't.
 
I don't generally appreciate cutting into the last five minutes of anything (other than a re-run), since whatever it is can probably wait five minutes.

However, Yassir Arafat's death will have many implications--we're already seeing some of them. His death might be the thing needed to set Middle East peace (or at least Isreali-Palestinian peace) on the track to completion, or dash it forever. I see that as worthy of a cut-in, thogh by all rights they should have waited the last five minutes.

kd: Would you have supported the break-in if it had been for Bush's death?
 
eset said:
kd: Would you have supported the break-in if it had been for Bush's death?
Click to expand...

Yup. He hasn't been sick and airlifted to a foreign country for treatment, so it would have to be a sudden thing...so, yeah. And, like it or not, Mr. Bush is the President of the US...right now the only superpower (China's not quite ready yet, but that's a discussion for another thread). What happens in the US has ramifications worldwide, and while the wankers in the Mideast like to think they wag the dog, they really don't.
 
Hang on, a rather massive percentage of the Western world is of middle Eastern descent, and the final confirmation of Arafat's death is going to have a massive impact for them and their fellows. Hell, it's even having an effect in Northern Ireland, since republican terrorists have "adopted" Palestine as their other big political cause. Arafat's death has created a power vacuum in an already incredibly unstable political environment - they didn't interrupt CSI to say "A sick old Palestinian guy died tonight", they interrupted to say, essentially "Palestinian politics no longer has a single figurehead, the Middle Eastern peace process is back to square one, and Arafat's death has left the way clear for one of the guys who considers suicide bombing a viable political tool to take his place." I wouldn't be surprised by the death of the Pope, but I'd still like to know about it when it happens. While they probably should have gone with the tickertape option, I think it's mind numbingly arrogant for CSI fans to suggest that the news was of little or no importance compared to finding out that the father really only confessed to protect his wife...

For a country where war politics are so important lately, it bothers me that people called in to complain about being told important things. Sure, Arafat dying isn't quite as impressive as footage of guys on aircraft carriers spelling out stuff, but the knock on effect is going to be important in the world. Like it or not, it does happen to be the same world that America is occasionally located in.
 
i, personaly, found it very important to annonce arafats death. He does after all have a part in history(a very well debated one, at least where i come from.) and he is a frikken ledgend... in a way.... not in the movie kind, but he has been the leder of a people for 40 years, and he was a leader, for good and for bad for the palestinians, and trudt me, he did have a vital postion in many peoples eyes... he was loved and hated.. so it is important, even though they could have cut in AFTER the show with spesical news... that's what we do in norway. if there is anything special to report, they do it when the show is over, and just annonce it on the top of the screen during the show.... i do kinda see why people are angry, but why should a man loose his job... *cough... backing a way slowly*
 
Jill_Valentine said:
While they probably should have gone with the tickertape option, I think it's mind numbingly arrogant for CSI fans to suggest that the news was of little or no importance compared to finding out that the father really only confessed to protect his wife...

For a country where war politics are so important lately, it bothers me that people called in to complain about being told important things.
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I was stating my opinion on Arafat, not saying that I didn't want to know, nor that it was of little importance. I want all the info I can get. That being said, do I care that Arafat died? Yes, because it has ramifications worldwide, like it or not. Was he important enough to interrupt a show..any show? No, not in my opinion, and not in this situation. He was ill and in the hospital. Crawl it across the bottom, for sure. The guy at CBS lost his job, not because he reported Arafat's death, but because he disobeyed direct orders not to interrupt the show, and to crawl it across the screen. Part of the discussion here involved the death of Mr. Bush...and that would have rated a direct cut-in. It's a US network, and last time I checked, Mr. Bush was hale and hearty, so it would be a sudden thing, as I said. You can debate all you like, but the President of the US is a position of greater importance and influence than the leader of the Palestinians, no matter who he (it won't be a "she" in my lifetime) is. Of course my view on the cut-in is coloured by my opinion of Arafat...which Faith wisely had me edit out of an earlier post. Let's just say I'm not sorry he's gone, thus my take on the cut-in.
 
B
Beer_Nut
I'm with ya on this one buddy!
An additional 11 cents on this from me...

It's not whether I think they should cut in for Arafat's death or not that I think is the problem - the fact is, they ALWAYS cut in for stupid and valid stuff alike. I agree that it can generally wait. However, since they are always doing it, why should CSI be immune?
 
Buffy Summers said:
An additional 11 cents on this from me...

It's not whether I think they should cut in for Arafat's death or not that I think is the problem - the fact is, they ALWAYS cut in for stupid and valid stuff alike. I agree that it can generally wait. However, since they are always doing it, why should CSI be immune?
Click to expand...

Yeah they could wait, either way...he's not gonna get any deader...or vice versa.
 
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