Columbia Explosion & Stupid Stern Fan

I wish I had heard that. I could've used a laugh about that time.

As far as I'm concerned, the only people to blame for prank calls getting on tv like that are the call screeners. The stations are so eager to hear from someone who claims to be connected to a tragedy that they'll just put that person on without hardly asking any questions.

Hell, all you'd have to do is call up and say "I live in Texas, and I saw the thing breaking up" and you'd be on live tv too, able to say whatever you want.

Caveat - I'm a big Howard Stern fan.

 

CBS

A prank caller also called within an hour and half into CBS and got Dan Rather live. I couldn't believe I was hearing a live prank call. I must admit, had it not been under these circumstances it would've been pretty funny, however, in light of the tragedy I was upset by the callousness. Dan Rather didn't immediately realize what bababouy (?) was and kept on speaking to the a$$hole prankster...

 

I was working in my basement and listening to MSNBC all morning even before the space shuttle went missing and I heard the Howard Stern phone call.It was pretty tasteless and didnt find it amusing. These people dont think about friends and family of the crew members who could be watching. Maybe be one day when they grow up and act like adults, they will look back on this and see that it was a poor decision.

 

I chuckled. Only at the idiots of cable tv who let the person get on the line. They were the NASA spokesperson out of Houston, allegedly. Then they pull that line off. The MSNBC anchor was pretty smooth with it though.

 

Captain Jenks was on Stern this morning defending himself. I have to agree with him. He calls up and says "I'm so and so, NASA spokesperson." Then to verify that it's a real call, they ask for his number. He gives it to them, and they call him back in PENNSYLVANIA! Even though he claims to be working at NASA at the JPL in Houston.

These pranks would never happen if the idiots who answer the phone would use their heads a little before they put someone on the air.

They also played a tape of a call Jenks made to Fox News, where he claimed to be the female postal worker who was carjacked down in Miami on Friday. The anchors on Fox bought it completely. Idiots.

 

Why is this supposed to get me to listen to the Howard Stern show, exactly?

 

So it's the networks fault that this subhuman piece of $hit lies and takes advantage of the excitement of the moment?

 

In a word, yes.

It's the networks' fault if they put him on the air without properly verifying who he is. How could the people "screening" not notice that a guy claiming to call from the JPL in Houston has a Philadelphia area code?

 

But, Mike, that is also kinda like saying it's okay to steal if you don't get caught.

Plenty o' blame to go around though.

 

Abolutely. In their vulture-like desire to get the highest ratings, the network news organizations will put garbage on the air without doing their research and try to pass it off as responsible journalism to the American public.

They are exploiting an American tragedy to make a buck. It's sickening.

As far as I'm concerned, Capt. Jenks is a national hero.

 

Forget about the MSNBC for a moment, do you really not care for the family and friends of the astronauts who are watching this?

 

Sure I care. That's part of what's sickening about the networks' non-professionalism.

 

As far as I know, making prank calls to media outlets in the middle of a crisis is not illegal.

I would never steal, but it's not because it's illegal. I think it's morally wron (though I guess you could argue that right at this moment I'm stealing from work because they're paying me to reply to this message).

I do think it's ok to speed if I don't get caught though. I do it all the time.

Anyway, back to the prank call. I think Jenks was a jerk for doing it, but at the same time if the networks weren't so rabid to put ANYONE on the air and had properly checked their sources, this thread wouldn't exist right now.

BTW, have any of you ever heard "Ponce De La Phone's" prank call during the OJ Simpson chase? He called Peter Jennings pretending to be Simpson's neighbor, and actually got on the air with Jennings for about five minutes. One of the funniest phony phone calls I've ever heard.

 

Mike,

You know what I can't understand about this is that in the end, Jennings ends up looking a bit like a tool.

You would think the minute he got off the air he would rip some serious a-holes to anyone and anyone involved and that would cause procedures to be put in place to stop this type of prank calls.

My guess is that he does rip people, but the policies never get in place solid enough that a unpaid intern screening calls would care.

Andy

 

The unpaid intern might've screwed up, but that intern has a boss who is paid.

Untimately, someone makes a decision to let the call go through to the anchor. And that person is not the unpaid intern.

 

I don't know. To me that guy on Sat. took advantage of a tragedy to get on the air and say something about baboui. TO me it's very insensitive especially to the families. The media may be wrong with its approach, but adding another big wrong, you got it, doesn't make it right.

I personally wish someone would put a round in that guy's lowlife a$$.

 

Great attitude. Next time someone cuts me off in traffic, I'll shoot him too.

Whaddaya think?

 

Where is that you live? I'll be careful not cut anyone off.

 

I think you'd fit in great in LA.

 

We got that on the Beltway too.

After all, DC is number 2 in the country for the worst traffic, right behind the City Of Angels.

 

Are you sure you're not connected in anyway with the snipers?

 

No. I saw on Fox News that those guys were Al Qaeda. I'm Hezbollah.

 

I think you meant to type, "...still WAY behind LA".