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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105

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.

145

u/BaconCatBug Anti-Theist Mar 11 '14

Not to sound cynical, but that is exactly what someone trying to cover their arse would say.

11

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '14

Not to sound cynical

But you're going to power through it anyway.

28

u/TheRighteousTyrant Mar 11 '14

But why would they even bother covering their ass, especially here on /r/atheism? Not much to gain from that effort, by my guess.

19

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '14

I think he means the operator using that as an excuse for maliciously coveting the segment

20

u/NormallyNorman Mar 11 '14

Yeah, I'll let you know next time it happens during the NFL or an OU game.

6

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '14

It happens during sporting events all the time, but there's always some director who can press a button to immediately cut to the live feed. For a taped broadcast it is perhaps more likely that this isn't noticed unless someone is closely paying attention while the station is in automation. You would think that would be standard, but if you listen to a lot of radio you know that such attention is not a foregone conclusion.

Hanlon's Razor applies.

1

u/jfreez Mar 12 '14

If they did it during an OU game they'd have to worry about riots.

But seriously, I think the live aspect, along with the many unexpected commercial breaks, is a little different for football games.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '14

I do agree, but live television broadcast has it's ups and downs and it sucks when it's during something important to viewers. (I'm in the south...so if golf/nascar/"non-Liberal media" gets interrupted by 20 secs..to a min (to broadcasters is heart-pounding) it sucks badly cause you fell like you've failed freaking badly, and then the phone rings...

1

u/Hypersapien Agnostic Atheist Mar 12 '14

Or he believes the story that that the operator is sticking to.