Dish it to Downing: When the Media Makes a Mistake

The caller this week wanted to know about an on-air apology we recently ran.

He said, "a few weeks ago, you apologized for an error in a news story.
 
It seems like that apology went on over several days.
 
Why was that?"
 
Well, here's the thing: we try very hard to make sure what we report is right.

After all, accuracy is the hallmark of how we do our job -- or at least it should be.
 
At any rate, occasionally -- because we are only human -- we do make mistakes.

When we do, we always try to correct them as quickly as possible.

In this particular case, we had a mix-up of mug shots and incorrectly reported on the arrest of a local person for a crime that person was not involved in.

That person called us and once we became aware of the mix-up and confirmed it, we took steps to correct it.

That entailed running the correction and apology on the air, during every newscast the story initially appeared in.

We ran the correction and apology at ten that night and, because it happened on a Friday, we had to wait until Monday to air the correction in our five and six o'clock newscasts.
 
That's why it seemed like it aired so many times.
 
Meanwhile, controversy brewing in Beantown.

A Boston TV station has decided to preempt Jay Leno's new primetime show set to air this Fall on NBC.

WHDH announced earlier this month that it was going to substitute a local news program instead of running Leno, who by the way, is from Boston.

A Sunbeam Broadcasting spokesman said the Leno shows placement "will be very adverse" to the station's finances.

He told the Boston Globe that the company didn't think Leno would be effective in primetime (it is currently part of NBC's latenight line-up) and would be detrimental to the station's late evening newscast.

NBC is not taking it laying down.
 
It has notified the station that failing to carry Leno could endanger it's network affiliation.

So far, the war of words continues and the situation is at a stalemate.
 
As for what other NBC stations will do, several said that while Leno's show may not deliver more advertising revenue than a local newscast, they plan to stay with the show.
 
As one general manager told the trade publication Broadcasting and Cable, "Why would we walk? We haven't even seen the show yet."