Cable flubs, snubs and dust-ups
By Patrick Kevin Day and Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
Cable news, by virtue of the fact that it’s on 24 hours, leaves a lot of room for humanity to come pouring through the constant barrage of clips, live streams, commentary, facts, figures, graphics and Steak-umm commercials. Five minutes in the morning and you’d think MSNBC, Fox News and CNN were precision instruments, unleashing a steady stream of reporting. But the truth is that most of the major cable news figures have had their share of on-camera flub-ups.
Among the more notable (faces and flubs) are: (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)
The Clinton speech incident
Lou Dobbs, host of CNN’s “Moneyline” in 1999, got into a battle of wills with the network’s president, Rick Kaplan. Kaplan wanted to cut away from Dobbs’ program to a live feed of President Clinton speaking in Littleton, Colo., shortly after the Columbine High School shootings. Dobbs disagreed with the decision and ordered the producer to cut back to him. Kaplan intervened and Dobbs angrily noted on-air, “CNN President Rick Kaplan wants us to return to Littleton.” Dobbs left the network a few days later, only to return in 2001 after Kaplan was no longer president. (Sylvain Gaboury / AP)
Foxs J-Lo incident
In a brief talking about Jennifer Lopezs roots an item inspired by her 2002 single Jenny from the Block Fox News anchor Shepard Smith let slip a sexually explicit term. In a clip still widely available on YouTube, Smith notes that people in the Bronx are more likely to give [Lopez] a curb job than a
. You can use your imagination from there. (Jennifer S. Altman / For the Times)
A Bill OReilly incident
Whether worrying that J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter books are part of a gay agenda or taking anti-war protesters to task, Foxs Bill OReilly has a tendency to make headlines as much he discusses them. One of the more infamous OReilly moments came when he engaged in a heated debate with activist Jeremy Glick, whose father had been killed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. When Glick criticized OReilly for using Sept. 11 to evoke sympathy, the host became enraged, ordering Glicks microphone be turned off out of respect for Glicks father. (Gine Domenico / Associated Press)
