This is why newscasters start their careers on Sunday night. In North Dakota.
A.J. Clemente was going on the air for the first time. Apparently he was looking ahead in his papers and noted with great consternation that he was going to have to pronounce the name of the winner of the London Marathon, Tsegaye Kebede. Not realizing that his microphone was live, he muttered his very first words on camera to the people of Bismarck: “Gay … fckin’ sht …”
Video here and obviously NSFW (language). His co-anchor and the sound person are thrown entertainingly into momentary brain-lock, but the show marches on.
After Clemente was hung out to dry by station management, a group of cheerful Bismarckians (Biz Markies?) formed a SaveAJ twitter campaign, but the station ultimately fired him. It wouldn’t surprise me if Tosh.0 is already trying to book him for a web redemption.
I can buy that they cut in his mic when he was saying “Tsegaye.” The big problem is that he doesn’t have a good broadcaster’s voice. Not pleasing to listen to, and a little mush-mouthed.
It was a clear rookie mistake. I don’t think they should have fired him. Though it was hilarious.
If the “keep fucking that chicken” guy got to keep his job (he knew he was on air) then this guy should have been given a change to heap himself in public humiliation and try to move on.
That said, his performance did not scream “born for broadcasting.”
No joke. My first thought was that the two of them sound like a bad high school journalism class assignment. Bad timing, voices, projection…gimme a break! I’m also wondering if they had ever heard of the word ‘script’.
Also, I didn’t catch the word ‘gay’ either.
Even without the profanity, he was terrible. What was up with his introduction of himself? “Thanks Van. I’m very excited. I graduated from Western Virginia University and I’m used to, you know, from being from the East Coast.” All while staring into the wrong camera.
Remember, the disorientation and stumbling probably comes partly from the distractions of thinking “did I just…?” “did he just…?” and the producer screaming into their earpieces.
That’s not really fair. Pretty much everyone is terrified and awkward the first time they ever anchor a news broadcast. It’s likely that a few seconds after he uttered the profanity he realized that it went out over the air because his co-anchor started her intro just as he was cursing.
Once he realized what he did his already frayed nerves went completely to pieces leading to his mangled introduction of himself. His co-anchor, who probably didn’t have a whole lot more experience then poor A.J., was also totally caught off-guard and stepped all over herself too.
Use to be there was a person called the floor director (or stage manager) who would give you a countdown on his/her fingers into when a show started or when you returned from a break, as well as indicate which camera you should turn toward. Many, if not most stations have eliminated that position (as well as human camera operators who could fill-in for a floor director in a pinch) so the anchors are all alone in the studio with only the audio direction from the director in their IFBs (earpieces).
Even for experienced anchors it’s a lot easier to screw up without the coordination of a floor director. This poor guy likely had the decked stacked against him with a poorly-paid, inexperienced crew running things. He also had a poorly paid, inexperienced co-anchor who was too flabbergasted and scared to know how to help cover for his huge gaffe. But that’s the way it is at the smallest stations. It’s really a trial by fire getting started in the biz.
Also, I totally believe him when he says he wasn’t saying “Gay”. It sounds like he was trying to practice the pronunciation of the marathon winner’s name and midway through the first name his mic was opened up* so all we heard was “–gaye”. Then looking at the last name he moaned a despairing, “fuckin’ shit!!”
*The opening teases at the top sound like they were pre-recorded.
On my way into work this morning I caught Morning Joe and they had this guy on the set (with Tom Brokaw, just to rub it in his face :)). He says that they went live 30 seconds early, which is why he was looking down at his script, and he didn’t even realize that his expletive had been broadcast until the third break when the station manager came into the studio and told him that he had to apologize on-air. He said everyone else was like, “what for?” So hedidn’t know right away that he had just cursed on air, but they were a little thrown off by going on-air unexpectedly early.
Morning Joe also gave him the chance to read some news headlines, but that was a bad idea because he continued to flub it. He said he didn’t have his glasses/contacts on so he was having trouble reading, which is probably true. He really needs to focus on enunciating more clearly and speaking more naturally.
As a one-time radio newscaster, I feel for this guy (I never cursed on-air*, but on occasion experienced a pronunciation problem, including a memorable occasion it took me three tries to get out the word “Namibia”)**.
The key to handling difficult-looking words is to say something with confidence and keep going. Practically no one in the audience will know that you mispronounced “Tsegaye Kebede” (oh, and reading the script beforehand helps).
*These days I’d probably have more difficulty avoiding blue language.
**my personal favorite instance involved a fellow late-night radio newscaster on a competing station who ran head-on into an unlikely stumper, the word “indigent”. I still have on tape his struggles to get that one out (including “indingent” and “indignant”. After four unsuccessful tries he just gave up and moved on. Yo Kevin, how’s it going?
When facing a difficult name, I recommend the Kent Brockman method.
I’ve done radio announcing but managed to avoid any major pronunciation or swearing gaffes (some spectacular technical ones but that’s a different issue). Fear of the microphone is the beginning of wisdom.
I had the same problem, but I resolved it to being Western Virginia as opposed to West Virginia. Not all that big a difference, really, and pretty far from the coast, but to this guy who knows what’s possible. Dim bulb.
Soon to be world famous if not already. The issue is more about who will hire him for his shock/novelty value? Fox? CNN? Disney?
Y’know, back when I last worked broadcast in the early-mid 1980s the news wire would include a phonetic pronunciation note right beside any unusual person or place name.
