I agree. Also, since you say you knew the opening was pre-taped, why should they have to come out and make an announcement to that effect? Are you assuming your fellow Kentuckians are too stupid to figure that out themselves? Are they going to think that an entertainment show wholly unrelated to the day’s news events was making light of such a recent tragedy? Give people more credit, and give me a fucking break with this shit.
In the grander of scheme of things, this is just not that big a deal. The Emmys have been scheduled for the better part of a year; you can generally bet that next year’s show is being planned starting today. Furthermore, it’s a cast-iron bitch to change the show at the last minute, especially since last night’s show was timed out to run exactly three hours. I think this can be chalked up to shitty timing.
That said, NBC could’ve softened things up and offered at least a token effort at a condolence.
But, hey. The 1977 Tenerife accident was announced in the US during a TV movie about a massive plane disaster.
Robin
According to Salon:
Sounds like a good ol’ failure to communicate.
Now that I think about it, were there any plane crashes on the day Lost premiered?
oh bullshit.
“we’re going to start the emmy’s w/a montage of parodies of popular shows like ‘lost’ and ‘the office’”
ok, good to go.
Who at NBC HQ? The News Division? They would’nt have known about the segment on the Emmys.
The Entertainment Division? They most likely didn’t know about the news coverage.
The big-shots in the “head office”? It was doubtful anyone would’ve been aware of both issues.
In other words this was all an unfortunate coincidence that a plane crashed on the same day that a short segment on a TV show featured a plane “crash” (I don’t think the plane was even shown crashing, was it?)
No, the plane was never actually shown crashing. Conan locks himself in the overhead compartment, then we cut to Lost Island (for lack of a better name).
Also, I don’t agree with scotandrsn’s statement that this was “the first major US plane crash in five years.” I had never heard of it until reading this thread. Wikipedia lists four plane crashes after 9/11 that were investigated by NTSB, only one of which I’ve heard of, presumably since it happened in New York City.
Your ignorance of the news does not determine the importance of events. It was the lead story on CNN.com for most (perhaps all) of yesterday, and oh look, it’s there right now. While there have been a few US incidents since Sept. 11, since the Nov. 12 crash in Queens, there hadn’t been one that killed more than 21 people until this one, which killed more than double that number.
… the preseason game that is merely a spectacle because the sport realised that it could rake in a ton of money in advertising and soforth by actually billing practices as the real deal.
Though I must admit that if I were going to choose between self-important entertainers and money-grabbing athletes, I’d go for the athletes. 
Also, let me say that I just don’t understand the need for public communication to change or be censored (for lack of a better term) because referencing certain things are ‘not appropriate’ in the case of ‘tragedies.’
I was also a little weirded out when folks were cutting references to the World Trade Center in the months following 9/11.
What would be the point of that? I doubt the friends and families of the victims were watching the Emmys last night.
Whatever.
All I’m saying is it would have taken 30 seconds of clue to avoid two days of negative publicity.
Someone at NBC had a view of all the cards, unlike anyone at the Kentucky station, and could have put in a call to someone in Kentucky, and said, “Hey, we know you’ve been covering the plane crash and it’s local to you, so I thought we’d let you know that the Emmys start with some ‘Lost’ plane wreck footage, in case you want to give your viewers a heads up before you switch to the national feed.”
And for all I know someone did make that call, but the message never made it to the newsroom.
It’s a very minor kerfuffle, but still an unnecessary one that could have been avoided entirely by a few working brain cells in the right place that apparently weren’t there.
Actually, there is some logic to that, in certain circumstances. For example, they had to re-shoot the ending of Spiderman because the WTC featured prominently in it. This makes good sense: people are going to see a movie like Spiderman as a form of escapism. And at the time, one of the things they’re going to want to escape was the recent events of 9/11. Having the towers up on the screen like that is going to be a huge reminder of this incredibly painful, horrifying event. The negative associations of that memory are going to overwhelm the positive emotions generated by the film to that point. For lack of a better word, it’d be a giant buzzkill. For a significant portion of the audience, all the fun and excitement of the previous 90+ minutes is wiped out by the memories of those thousands of people dying horribly. Ignoring all the reasons relating to political correctness or respect for the dead or what not, it’s a defensible decision from a purely artistic point of view. Leaving that scene in runs directly counter to the artistic purpose of the movie: it makes the film less fun.
That said, the OP is still plenty dumb. A plane crash is tragic for those involved, of course, but for the vast majority of people in the country, including those in the area where the plane crashed, it’s not a hugely traumatic event. Assuming I didn’t know anyone on the plane, I’d have been more pissed if they’d edited the broadcast. And if I had known someone on the plane, I’d sure as hell have more important things to worry about than the fuckin’ Emmies!* Regardless of wether or not someone at NBC should have known enough not to run the tape (and I agree with those who say that this is an unreasonable expectation) I still say the correct decision was to run the tape anyway. The crash was still a breaking news story at the time. Most anyone who was emotionally invested in the crash would still be watching the news coverage, not the awards show. The folks watching the Emmies are, by and large, not going to be overly concerned with the crash in the first place, and unlikely to be bothered by the unfortunate coincidence.
[sub]*Actually, this last bit is true regardless of the state of operation of any airplanes currently occupied by any of my friends or family.[/sub]
Breaking news? The crash happened shortly after 6 a.m. The show began what, 12 hours later?
I don’t think anyone is arguing that NBC should have reworked the entire opening of the show, only that a five-second message before the opening would have been a small amount of insurance against possible bad PR.
You’re right, I overlooked that part of the rant. Doesn’t make the rant any less dumb. Actually, I think it makes it dumber. What would be the point of the message again? To clear up any misconception about wether or not NBC is in favor of fiery plane crashes? Do you really think anyone who is complaining now would not be complaining if there’d been a disclaimer first?
also, what sort of disclaimer would you like to see?
“the following fictional piece in no way means that we don’t care about the victims of any plane crash, especially the one that happened today, not that we think that particular crash is more , or less heart breaking than any other crash that has or will happen.
really”
It happened on a Sunday. I don’t think NBC execs even bother to check their voicemail on Sunday.
You know, it’s not television’s responsibility to protect your feelings. If this situation bothers you, maybe you should look inside yourself and figure out what you’re really pissed off at…
Oh, and comparisons to 9/11 are patently ridiculous. I mean…really. :rolleyes:
NBC has issued an apology for the unfortunate timing.
And with that, this thread can now be closed at a moderator’s convenience.