KTVU Reporting Fail: Network Apologizes Again After Racist Name Prank [Video]
KTVU is sorry. They are very sorry. The network has issued another apology after identifying the pilots from the Asiana Airlines crash last week with a series of racist names.
The network said that they were given the information by the NTSB and didn’t think twice before broadcasting the names. The station identified the pilots as “Ho Lee Fuk,” “Wi Tu Lo,” and “Captain Sum Ting Wong.”
Once the station realized that they had been given false, and racist, information, they issued an on-air apology. Since then, the network has taken to Twitter, Facebook, and their website to release additional apologies.
Basically, KTVU is sorry.
The network said that they received the information from the NTSB. The National Transportation Safety Board released a statement saying that an intern went rogue and gave out false information to news networks. Still, KTVU said that they accepted “full responsibility” for the mistake and admitted that they did not do their job well.
The station writes: “We made several mistakes when we received this information. First, we never read the names out loud, phonetically sounding them out. Then, during our phone call to the NTSB where the person confirmed the spellings of the names, we never asked that person to give us their position with the agency. We heard this person verify the information without questioning who they were and then rushed the names on our noon newscast.”
What do you think of KTVU’s coverage? What do you think of their apology? The network shouldn’t have rushed the names to air, and they should have realized that “Captain Sum Ting Wong” was a fake name, but at least the network is taking responsibility for their mistake.
KTVU writes: “We have a lot of good people here at KTVU Channel 2. We pride ourselves on getting it right and having the highest of standards and integrity. Clearly, on Friday, that didn’t happen. So again, from everyone here at KTVU, we offer our sincerest apology.”
