Jul 16 2008
iPhone live shot “apology”
Following up on yesterday’s blog about the KTLA iPhone live shot that went wrong, the reporter involved has now offered an on-air apology. Turns out, the offending live shot has been viewed more than 300,000 times on YouTube thus far, and the feedback hasn’t been particularly pleasant.
In my opinion, the reporter’s apology seems reasonably sincere, but then his co-anchors try to turn the whole thing into a joke one more time, and it just doesn’t work. Sometimes you just have to admit you’re wrong, and move on. You can see the whole thing, including the original live shot, below.
What do you think?
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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I’ve spent far too many years dealing with teenagers being defensive when they screw up and get caught - Spillman’s apology on-air is half-hearted at best and his colleagues trying to turn it into a joke again isn’t helping. All its doing is making KTLA and Spillman look like a bunch of jackasses, especially if Spillman finds himself sent out on a hard story and has this following him - i.e. what kind of juvenile question is he going to ask this family who just lost a loved one.
He could have had a decent package as to why the iPhone is such a cultural phenomenon to the point people stand in line for hours waiting for them on the release date - but he (and the producer in his IFB egging him on) blew it by turning into a show whose juvenile “humor” should have remained in high school or at the very least, be pigeonholed onto Comedy Central.
Not everyone can pull off the Daily Show style of “reporting”, and as Spillman has discovered, those who try tend to end up with egg on their faces. The Daily Show is supposed to be funny, local news is not - though I’ll give a small pass to morning shows and entertainment inbetween stories (WGN is one station that pulls it off quite well).
As Mr. Spillman learned, it is probably best to limit himself to asking questions relevent to the story being covered.