Don't They Know The Cameras Are Rolling???

Y'know, for as many stupid people I see waving at cameras at breaking news stories or even behind the set of the unnecessary fourth hour of NBC's Today show, I'm CONTINUOUSLY amazed by the number of people who KNOW there's a camera there and yet seem oblivious to the fact that it's turned on. Now, don't get me wrong... there are some errors, flubs, etc. that never make it to the airwaves, thanks to the watchful eyes of producers and directors (you all know you're awesome) who stop things like "Super Bowel" from appearing on the screen. But there are always OTHERS who don't seem to catch themselves. This blog is dedicated to them.

Let's start in Chicago, where there's a big race for mayor underway. When I say Rahm Emanuel is in the running and there have been some rather...um..."colorful" comments in the campaign, you might assume I'm referring to Rahm. No. I'm not even referring to the MEN in the race...are you ready for a CATFIGHT:



Hm...a crackwhore for mayor. I can get behind that idea. Speaking of white stuff and mudslinging, did you know there was a huge-ass winter storm across a good chunk of the nation this week? For the first time in twelve years, it was bad enough to force Chicago to close its schools! TWELVE YEARS! Compared to the mountain counties in North Carolina, those kids have already earned TWO Ph.D.s! In fact, here's a NASA satellite look at the storm:



Pretty cool, right? If you're not meteorologically (that's such a hard word for anchors to say!) inclined, Intern James was able to find this dumbed-down version of the storm:



So obviously it sucks being a reporter or meteorologist having to go outside and do their jobs and cover this storm. That's a job that has certain drawbacks:



To be fair, he wasn't so upset about the salty spray as he was about not getting a courtesy tap on the top of his head. But at least he knew he was ON AIR. Not like the school superintendent in New England:

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Who doesn't love a good F-bomb on live TV?

Then there are the situations when graphics are CLEARLY wrong. Take this shot from The Daily Show this week. I'm going on record that I LOVE Jon Stewart and the crew at the show. They do endless hours of fact-checking, but something about this clip from CNN's most recent New Year's Eve coverage seems...off. Take a close look at the date listed in the upper left hand corner:



3...2...1...Happy New Month! Or how about this shot from the new Cartoon Network/DC Comics series "Young Justice." Obviously, Cartoon Network has basically said "Fuck It" to offering anything instructional:



A quick check on Google will tell you the word is CARIBBEAN...1 R, 2 Bs. Not the other way around. But hey, if you THINK it's right, it MUST be. Y'know, with mistakes like that on children's TV, it's no wonder kids are playing video games and not paying attention which train they're falling in front of:



That happened in Milan, Italy, this week. Good thing that the off-duty policeman was able to jump in and grab the boy before anything happened to him.

I want to take a moment and go back to The Daily Show. They did great coverage of a woman who always LOOKS like she knows the camera's on...but never quite SOUNDS like it:

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Besides, she can see Russia from her backyard. She communicates with her handlers using flashlight-morse code...and even the RUSSIANS think she sounds like an idiot.

One more hit today...and it has to do with anchors adapting to the "new" high-definition technology. You might recall the old days of standard-def, when you could only see a small portion of TV...then high-def came along and expanded the left and right sides of the screen to show more content. Somebody should draw the lines on the set for THIS guy...this one's just for you HD viewers!:



(Funny story...the TV station pulled all remnants of the video version of this off YouTube, but didn't get a hold of still pictures on smaller websites...like Thinking Hard. Some days, it PAYS to be the little guy.)

Keep it classy!
-B-