KDKA-TV fires producer for "Tom Brady: Known Cheater" graphic

FreddyE1977 · Jan 31, 2019

Even though this happened in Pittsburgh it has been making national (and even international) news.
So I am posting it here.

KDKA-TV has fired producer Michael Telek for posting an on-screen graphic during Monday night's newscast
over an image of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady which said "Known Cheater".

This was a reference to Brady's involvement in the 2015 Deflategate incident and his subsequent NFL suspension.

KD management apparently did not get the joke.

https://triblive.com/local/alleghen...ployee-for-tom-brady-known-cheater-tv-graphic

eriedj · Jan 31, 2019

Apparently, Mr. Telek graduated from Edinboro University in my area. Word is he recently purchased a home in the Pittsburgh area and a GoFundMe has been started to 'help him.' Check out the comments.

https://www.gofundme.com/did-this-bring-you-joy

CTListener · Jan 31, 2019

eriedj said:
Apparently, Mr. Telek graduated from Edinboro University in my area. Word is he recently purchased a home in the Pittsburgh area and a GoFundMe has been started to 'help him.' Check out the comments.

https://www.gofundme.com/did-this-bring-you-joy

Sucks for him, but you're not supposed to let joke graphics get out on the air. Here in the newspaper biz, we are warned STRONGLY to NEVER write a joke headline, because you never know when you might be distracted, forget you did it, and it makes it into print in the rush of meeting deadline. This sort of thing has cost plenty of people their jobs.

FreddyE1977 · Jan 31, 2019

CTListener said:
Sucks for him, but you're not supposed to let joke graphics get out on the air. Here in the newspaper biz, we are warned STRONGLY to NEVER write a joke headline, because you never know when you might be distracted, forget you did it, and it makes it into print in the rush of meeting deadline. This sort of thing has cost plenty of people their jobs.

I remember an instance like that. It was a Saturday edition of the old Pittsburgh Press in the 80's.
Some Greenpeace sailors (or "seamen" as the story called them) had gone over from Alaska to the coast of the
Soviet Union to protest the fact that they were still whaling. The Soviets of course arrested them all and put them
in jail. The State Department negotiated their release. They deputized the Mayor of Nome, Alaska to take a delegation across the Bering Strait to go and get them.

The headline to this story (and, I am NOT making this up) was......Release of Seamen Expected!

Someone had to be having some fun in the newsroom on a slow Saturday. No way an actual editor
would have allowed that to get into print.

CTListener · Jan 31, 2019

FreddyE1977 said:
I remember an instance like that. It was a Saturday edition of the old Pittsburgh Press in the 80's.
Some Greenpeace sailors (or "seamen" as the story called them) had gone over from Alaska to the coast of the
Soviet Union to protest the fact that they were still whaling. The Soviets of course arrested them all and put them
in jail. The State Department negotiated their release. They deputized the Mayor of Nome, Alaska to take a delegation across the Bering Strait to go and get them.

The headline to this story (and, I am NOT making this up) was......Release of Seamen Expected!

Someone had to be having some fun in the newsroom on a slow Saturday. No way an actual editor
would have allowed that to get into print.

The Boston Globe was embarrassed by a headline on its editorial page during Jimmy Carter's administration. Carter had just made some namby-pamby pronouncement on some issue and the Globe's editorial board had approved a suitable mild-mannered editorial endorsing whatever it was Carter had said. The editorial page editor slapped the headline "Mush from the wimp" on the piece as a joke and showed his handiwork to his colleagues on the desk, who laughed. But he forgot to put a serious headline on it afterward, and the editor who had the final look at the page wasn't in on the joke, thought that was the intended headline, and off a hundred thousand or so papers went, with "Mush from the wimp" accompanying the sober editorial. Someone finally noticed, the call went out to stop the presses, a new, wimpy headline ("All must share the burden") was written, and the rest of the press run went out. I don't think any jobs were lost in this incident, though.