Producers fired over embarrassing Asiana crash broadcast
A couple of weeks ago I commented on how a local television station suffered considerable embarrassment by airing what was thought to be the names of the four pilots involved in the recent Asiana Airlines crash in San Francisco. The station had done its due diligence: the names came from a normally reliable source and were confirmed by the National Transportation Safety Board (the "verification" was provided by a summer intern). The names turned out to not only be wrong but offensive to the Asian community. Asiana threatened to sue the station and the NTSB.
The station corrected the problem almost as soon as it was aired (following the next break), offered profuse apologies, and promised to investigate and discipline those responsible.
One would think that the dust would settle rather quickly after a few weeks, particularly as Asiana decided not to proceed with its threatened lawsuit. Not so – the incident has become toxic to anyone associated with it. At least four producers at the station have been fired.
There is no question that the incident was embarrassing to a station that prides itself on the accuracy of its reporting. Certainly there should have been consequences for those involved. They should have known better. They should have been a bit more culturally sensitive, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area. But termination of employment? It seems a pretty steep price to pay for a moment of stupidity.
I'm always leery of expressing opinions without knowing the facts. There may have been egregious conduct on the part of the producers that warranted such a drastic measure. But my experience with the reporters and producers in the Bay Area has almost always been that they are hard-working professionals dedicated to getting the facts right. This sort of lapse seems out of character and it's hard for me not to believe that they were sacrificed to political correctness.
If this is indeed the case, the station may well have an additional reputational problem. A story that might have gone away quietly continues to play in the news. At least one of the producers is suing for wrongful termination, which guarantees that the story will continue. It's a good example of how to make a reputational crisis worse.