Dan Rather breathlessly reports Coast Guard discovered "Bababooey's teeth"
***Media Research Center CyberAlert***
Monday July 19, 1999 (Vol. Four; No. 125)
> 2) The journalistic establishment condemns Matt Drudge for
not double sourcing everything before going with it, but Saturday
afternoon, as happens during live coverage of every major
incident, two networks gullibly showcased reports from a Howard
Stern fan pretending to be a Coast Guard officer.
While ABC's Peter Jennings quickly realized his staff's
stupidity in putting the obvious phoney on the air, Dan Rather
remained clueless. Even after the caller made clear he was a
phoney by saying "Bababooey's teeth" and Howard Stern were found
"in the bay too," Rather repeated the caller's supposed news about
found wreckage, excitedly restating what he thought was a big CBS
scoop: "But now, this just in, the Coast Guard Lieutenant says
they have found debris." Rather stressed: "This puts the late
information in a whole new context, a whole new perspective."
At about 11:10am ET on Saturday Rather assured viewers:
"It is deep within the professional id of CBS News to check
and double check. Before we say something is a fact we like to
have two independent sources. We'll be clear with you as we go
along what's fact and what's in the way of speculation."
Almost exactly two hours later, at about 1:15pm ET, Rather
announced: "We now have Lieutenant Ed Gaynor of the United States
Coast Guard, that they've now found some debris. Lieutenant, what
can you tell us about this debris?" [yes, verb missing but that's
what he said.]
By phone "Gaynor" reported: "Some debris has been spotted and
it is consistent with debris from a Saratoga, whether it's John F.
Kennedy's Saratoga we don't know. We also found Bababooey's teeth
were laying all in the bay too. And Howard Stern and Bababooey
were all there." [Bababooey is a reference to the producer of
Stern's radio show.]
Rather, unfazed by how the caller had made abundantly clear he
was phoney, plowed ahead with his big scoop: "Excuse me, when you
said you have determined this debris is from a Piper Saratoga.
[pause as Gaynor is barely heard as producer probably tunes him
down] Well, I'm not sure that we heard correctly there Lieutenant
Gaynor of the Coast Guard telling us, this is breaking
information, I remind you again this is live television, we take
in raw information, we do the best we can to be rock solid in
stating fact. But now earlier there was a report of debris
spotted, then there was a report from the FAA, Bob Orr said, well
the FAA in effect steered us away from making any conclusions that
the debris might or might not have anything to do with John
Kennedy's plane. But now, this just in, the Coast Guard Lieutenant
says they have found debris. That debris, I believe that he said,
we've lost him for the moment now, is consistent with a Piper
Saratoga but that they couldn't determine whether it was John F.
Kennedy Junior's Piper Saratoga aircraft. But this puts the late
information in a whole new context, a whole new perspective."
Only after endorsing the caller's information three times did
Rather, maybe at the prompting of an amazed producer screaming in
his ear, suggest that his big scoop was not so reliable: "I want
to emphasize to you that this is raw information. Sometimes people
call in and say things that aren't true, sometimes you know
cranks, that sort of thing happens. So let's be very, very careful
here with this information. One thought comes to mind. Was this
actually the Coast Guard Lieutenant that we thought we were
talking to? He jumped off that phone very pronto. Let's go to Bob
Orr in Washington."
Poor Bob Orr, who had to be embarrassed by his network's star
anchor, gently informed Rather what every viewer already realized:
"Dan, I've never understood why when you're in a crisis type
story and when people are hungry for good reliable information,
I've never understood why pranksters think it's funny to come on
and just pass out erroneous information. I can tell you
categorically Dan that last report was completely unfounded. I
doubt that it was anybody from the Coast Guard..."
Memo to Orr: Maybe people think it's fun to do because network
producers are too dumb, lazy or incompetent to be able to
determine who someone really is before throwing them onto live
national television. These callers are quite an indictment of
network incompetence. What other baseless facts get on the air
that aren't so obvious?
But Rather still couldn't quite let go, leaving open the
possibility the caller relayed accurate info even as he properly
conceded responsibility for airing the call:
"I want to nail this point down. We do not know whether any
debris of any significance has been sighted anywhere. On the
phone, and we can be faulted for this, we'll fault ourselves for
it if there's fault to be assessed, a person we believed to be a
Coast Guard Lieutenant said that debris had been found and it was
consistent with a Saratoga Piper. We now have fairly strong reason
to believe that that was, however it happened, and fault ours if
it did happen this way, that some person, who for whatever
demented reason, would think that it was get through with a crank
call like that [accurate transcript of this sentence as he said
it]. But nonetheless, with live television, and handling in effect
hot-leaded information, sometimes it happens."
"Fairly strong reason to believe" that it was a "crank call"?
How much more evidence would it take to convince Rather?
An hour and a half later, at about 2:53pm ET, the same guy
called up ABC News. By that time some real debris had actually
been located. Peter Jennings asked: "Can you add anything to our
knowledge of your search at the moment. We've just listened to one
of your Coast Guard spokesman say you've identified more debris
from an aircraft that would have belonged to Mr. Kennedy."
The caller, identified on-screen as "Lt. Ed Gainer [same name,
different spelling, as on CBS], U.S. Coast Guard," got right to
his gag: "That's true. I'd like to know, do you know that Howard
Stern thinks you're a dick?"
An angry Jennings fumed: "Ah, I see. Just cut this gentleman
off, will you. There's always one like this. That happens in every
crisis in America, someone representing the disc jockey Howard
Stern manages to get through. It happens and it passes. So, just
to review what we do know. We apologize to the Coast Guard that
we've misrepresented someone as being a member of the Coast Guard,
but that kind of call doesn't surprise us anymore."
If ABC News knows these phoney calls are going to come in why
don't they stop putting them on the air? It would make Howard
Stern a more responsible member of society if he condemned or at
least stopped rewarding these callers by playing their phoney
calls on his show, but that doesn't excuse the networks for
putting the landing of a scoop ahead of basic source verification.
++ Listen and watch Rather's embarrassing episode. Late Monday
morning MRC Webmaster Sean Henry will post a video clip, in
RealPlayer format, of Rather's humorous reaction to the phoney
caller, a truly classic moment in live television. Go to:
mrc.org
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