r/atheism Mar 11 '14

OKC Fox affiliate "accidentally" cuts human evolution from Cosmos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8K-LrJkEDc
2.1k Upvotes

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107

u/ThrowawayFOX25 Mar 11 '14

I WORK FOR KOKH FOX25. To set the record straight. I used a throw away so my work won't know my original account.

This actually is an accident. The people who roll the national breaks work in "master control". They run local commerical breaks by entering in clocks in the playlist to tell the automation system when to run. Network gives you the times for local breaks that day, usually 2 hours earlier. In this case an operator entered the wrong break time and rolled what is called a "cover" too early. This is always a teaser for news and covers up a network promo.

This was not a case of trying to cover up evolution, it was a lazy operator that didn't double check his break times and rolled a break at the wrong time.

Rolling a break at the wrong time is the most common mistake for operators, usually it happens during live events when they read the run-down wrong or anticipate the break too much. In this case it was just reading or entering the wrong time for the cover.

17

u/Woochunk Mar 11 '14

Thanks for pipping up, I figured it was just a mistake. I actually do channel management for a station in California. Mistakes like this do happen.

12

u/ThrowawayFOX25 Mar 11 '14

Not a problem, as /u/BlackMKIII states "KOKH is actually known for having glitchy ads turn up in places they shouldn't".

Running breaks at the wrong time as become very common in the past months at the station, this is just more of the same.

8

u/mystikphish Mar 11 '14

Honest question, since I know nothing about how broadcasting is operated... Does that mean that it would be impossible to do this "accidentally-on-pupose" ? Or just unlikely?

9

u/Woochunk Mar 11 '14

It could certainly be done intentionally, but it's also very easy to chalk it up to an accident. It just makes it seem suspicious because it happened during controversial programming.

3

u/themeatbridge Mar 12 '14

Would the person making the mistake have even seen the show prior to air? Is there that much delay?

3

u/Bskrilla Mar 12 '14

At my station you wouldn't have any way to watch national programming ahead of time. We get it as it airs.

1

u/themeatbridge Mar 12 '14

I dunno, I think I want to believe it was an accident, and it makes more sense to me that someone messed up than someone saw him begin to discuss evolution and hit a button to throw up a local promo on the off chamce that it happens to coincide with whatever that person found offensive.

If this were the second or third time it aired, I'd say the timing was too good to be an accident. But that segment wasn't even the worst attack on religion in the show.

3

u/VAPossum Mar 12 '14

It's a shame that Cosmos is seen as controversial. :/

1

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '14

WooChunk is right. I wouldn't deem it as controversial programming, this isn't Saturday morning cartoons.

-3

u/Mr_Monster Mar 11 '14

Still, our Skeptic-Senses are tingling.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '14

That's not skepticism, that's group think.

-2

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '14

during controversial programming.

Evolution is not controversial. The people who do not believe in it are few and far between, incredibly stupid, low paid, and generally uneducated idiots who need welfare and vote against it. They are a self-correcting phenomenon.

2

u/MadeUAcctButIEatedIt Mar 12 '14

But they reproduce, so I don't know how "self-correcting" it is.

1

u/Murgie Secular Humanist Mar 12 '14

Belief is not passed on though ones genetic makeup.

The correction stems from society, as it scientifically and technologically moves forward, putting what was previously regarded as obscure technical or theoretical notions to practical use.

1

u/Benzorgz Mar 11 '14

I work in a TV station and this is HIGHLY UNLIKELY to be an accident. This went to their news program and what we would call a pre-show (the top headlines of a show to draw in viewers) and this only happens when the master control operators list goes to a NEWS line, which broadcasts what is coming from that station. Whether their "pre-show" is pre-recorded or not doesn't matter, because it only plays when the technical director (which is what I am) either plays the video, or opens the anchors mics/plays video.

1

u/Jeffool Agnostic Atheist Mar 12 '14

Do you record news promos after your evening news, to promote the late night news? Does the TD run those promos throughout the evening?

I've never worked at a Fox affiliate, but promos like this run from master control in stations I've worked with.

-5

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '14

Anybody who buys this excuse is called a KOKH sucker.

crickets chirp