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Premature announcements

First if you haven't been to Media Matters, I recommend you read Struke's post Winners and Losers of the Week. The loser of the week is one familiar to regular readers of this blog Mike Trivisonno, of WTAM/1100 fame. The reason Struke gave Triv this dubious distinction was his relentless defense of his radio station on the premature announcement of Stephanie Tubbs Jones, death. She did die, but it was five hours AFTER the news services had announced it.

Triv had said that WTAM was right 99% of the time and we should now be concerned for the family.

This isn't the first time Trivisonno jumped the gun on somebody's death. I was listening when he made a premature announcement years ago.

I was listening to Paul Harvey's "Rest of the Story" when Triv broke in with an announcement to the effect that "Frank Sinatra had just passed away and now ABC has announced the passing of Bob Hope." At the time, Bob Hope was in his mid nineties and in declining health. Bob Hope was at this home eating breakfast when he heard the announcement of his death.

This announcement turned out to be about 5 years premature.

Cliff Note: In the unlikely event that this blog is read by anybody close to the family of Stepahnie Tubbs Jones, you have my sympathy.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Cliff...thanks for the plug. Posting winners and losers gets to be too easy at times. I also am accepting nominations for others.
August 23, 2008 5:03 PM
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