On-Air Bloopers

In this week's "Dish It to Downing", a viewer complains about some of our reporters and the mistakes they made during a recent news broadcast.

Jason wrote: "Your reporters did a terrible job and I couldn't watch it anymore."

Jason's email raises a good question: Why do some of those stupid mistakes get made?

Well, first, remember that it is live television and whenever it's live it's a good idea to remember this old saying, "If it can go wrong, it will go wrong."

The mistakes; however, are not always the fault of the reporter.

We dug way back in our video archive to find the first example of that.

It was the 1950s and during a commercial for Western Chevrolet, a pedestrian walks into the middle of a "live" commercial as it's being filmed.

Making matters worse, he doesn't just walk through: he stops, then backs up.

About all the announcer could do was just grin and bear it.

Then, there was the time that the wrong video got on the air.

Instead of the golf leader boards, video of the actual match was on the air.

The sports anchor tried to alert the director to "cut" the video, but the director cut back to the anchor desk early and we see the anchor looking like he wants to decapitate someone.

Then there are times that things just go from bad to worse.

There was a live report from an ice-covered highway during which an 18-wheeler slides on the ice right behind the unsuspecting reporter.

And there was the "live" shot that got on the air early (so all we see is the reporter saying she can't hear anything).

While it's fun to go back and watch these bloopers, remember that what makes them fun is that they were unscripted and unplanned.

Remember, though, that they were also embarrassing.

Given today's overwhelming amount of technology involved in every newscast, plus the fact that so many people are involved in it getting on the air; perhaps the thing to take note of is not the mistakes, but the times it gets on the air right.