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Is NBC evil? (Photo)

F

Frasier

Guest
Sunday night, in the closing segment of "Football Night in America" (no actual game, just highlights), NBC may have pulled a Rupert Murdoch by way of its closed-captioning unit.

First, here's a transcript of the dialogue:

BOB COSTAS: "Now, a clarification. Peter King, being the intrepid reporter he is, and wanting to make sure that there is no misunderstanding: We have reported earlier that Mike Holmgren gave Peter the report on Matt Hasselbeck's condition, saying that an MRI would take place and they're awaiting the outcome of that, and he has a knee sprain, didn't play after the injury was sustained... Peter clarifies that he did not speak directly to Holmgren; Holmgren gave us this information through Seattle's P.R. men..."

And on the screen, the closed-captioning read - I kid you not - "We have reported earlier that Mike ****". The closed-caption decoder apparently realized the mistake, doubled back and changed it to "Holmgren" - but not after a hesitant five-second delay, thus leaving "Mike ****" on screen.

For those who missed it, or don't have those fancy boxes with the closed captioning built in, here's a screengrab:

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/7551/nbc102206mo4.jpg

Note to NBC/Universal: Be sure not to let the wrong closed-captioners go.
 
No game on tonight?

Here's my question: Why was there just a pregame show on NBC tonight (10/22/2006)--wait a minute, what am I saying, "pregame"? There was no game on tonight--just a three-hour Heroes marathon! What was up with that?
 
Re: No game on tonight?

Iowan said:
Here's my question: Why was there just a pregame show on NBC tonight (10/22/2006)--wait a minute, what am I saying, "pregame"? There was no game on tonight--just a three-hour Heroes marathon! What was up with that?
Click to expand...

NBC doesn't look at Football Night in America as a "pregame show", but a highlight show that happens to air before their Sunday night game.

Yeah, I know. ::)
 
Re: No game on tonight?

Iowan said:
There was no game on tonight...
Click to expand...

It was a "bye week" for NBC. It was for ESPN-on-ABC last night too--
no national college football game(s).

Must have something to do with not wanting to go up against games
one and two of the World Series...so I guess they're betting it won't
go to a game six and seven.
 
Re: No game on tonight?

Iowan said:
Here's my question: Why was there just a pregame show on NBC tonight (10/22/2006)--wait a minute, what am I saying, "pregame"? There was no game on tonight--just a three-hour Heroes marathon! What was up with that?
Click to expand...

Because for years the NFL has refused to schedule Sunday night games against the World Series.
 
Frasier said:
Sunday night, in the closing segment of "Football Night in America" (no actual game, just highlights), NBC may have pulled a Rupert Murdoch by way of its closed-captioning unit.

First, here's a transcript of the dialogue:

BOB COSTAS: "Now, a clarification. Peter King, being the intrepid reporter he is, and wanting to make sure that there is no misunderstanding: We have reported earlier that Mike Holmgren gave Peter the report on Matt Hasselbeck's condition, saying that an MRI would take place and they're awaiting the outcome of that, and he has a knee sprain, didn't play after the injury was sustained... Peter clarifies that he did not speak directly to Holmgren; Holmgren gave us this information through Seattle's P.R. men..."

And on the screen, the closed-captioning read - I kid you not - "We have reported earlier that Mike ****". The closed-caption decoder apparently realized the mistake, doubled back and changed it to "Holmgren" - but not after a hesitant five-second delay, thus leaving "Mike ****" on screen.

For those who missed it, or don't have those fancy boxes with the closed captioning built in, here's a screengrab:

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/7551/nbc102206mo4.jpg

Note to NBC/Universal: Be sure not to let the wrong closed-captioners go.
Click to expand...

Most live programming is captioned live, meaning an actual living person is sitting in front of monitor with a set of headphones listening to the program and relaying it into the decoder for broadcast. Meanwhile most pre-taped and non-breaking news programming is captioned using the scripts typed for that particular program.

This is why breaking news captioning is so expensive and why stations in the Naples/Fort Meyers market were threatened with heavy fines by the FCC for not providing captioning during the 2004 hurricane season.
 
Tim-In-Houston said:
Most live programming is captioned live, meaning an actual living person is sitting in front of monitor with a set of headphones listening to the program and relaying it into the decoder for broadcast. Meanwhile most pre-taped and non-breaking news programming is captioned using the scripts typed for that particular program.

This is why breaking news captioning is so expensive and why stations in the Naples/Fort Meyers market were threatened with heavy fines by the FCC for not providing captioning during the 2004 hurricane season.
Click to expand...

All this because deaf people got caught up in political correctness and refuse to read lips any more.
They have decided being deaf is their cultural heritage and even refuse surgery that could correct their deafness.
But broadcasters are supposed to provide closed-captioning for them.
All this money spent to accommodate what fraction of a percent of the population.
 
There are constant errors and omissions in closed-captioning of live shows, at least the ones I see at the fitness center I go to, where the TVs are all on mute. Fox News seems to be the worst, but maybe that's because it is always on there, while other channels aren't on so often.

The captioning on Tyra Banks show is also awful, even though the show isn't live.

I suspect there are more people who can hear who see the captioning (thanks to fitness centers and other places leaving the TV on mute) than there are deaf people watching.
 
I guess the advent of closed-captioned programs came into fruition since it would cost too much money to hire sign-language experts to sit in the bottom right of the screen.

Even so, even if there is the occassional human error, you gotta admire closed captioners for the job they do. But then again, why was "Mike ****" stuck on the screen for five seconds as Bob Costas reached the end of his sentence, before changing it to "Holmgren"? You've got to figure being a football show, some of these names are already keyed in. Heck, during a Packer game, I saw Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila's name being printed flawlessly.

Still, this little faux pas doesn't even beat the ultimate closed-caption flub - Alan Greenspan's "enlarged prostitute". :D
 
Let's see...all TVs made for the US market must have closed captioning and a "V" chip. Come February, all TVs made for the US must have a digital tuner included. While I'm not deaf, it's sometimes fun to watch "Family Guy" or "South Park" with the captioning on. I seem to remember a line being changed on "Family Guy" once. The voice on screen said one thing (the voice of a pull-string doll) while the caption said something like "Hey kid...wanna buy some weed?" :)
 
fred flintstone said:
Tim-In-Houston said:
Most live programming is captioned live, meaning an actual living person is sitting in front of monitor with a set of headphones listening to the program and relaying it into the decoder for broadcast. Meanwhile most pre-taped and non-breaking news programming is captioned using the scripts typed for that particular program.

This is why breaking news captioning is so expensive and why stations in the Naples/Fort Meyers market were threatened with heavy fines by the FCC for not providing captioning during the 2004 hurricane season.
Click to expand...

All this because deaf people got caught up in political correctness and refuse to read lips any more.
They have decided being deaf is their cultural heritage and even refuse surgery that could correct their deafness.
But broadcasters are supposed to provide closed-captioning for them.
All this money spent to accommodate what fraction of a percent of the population.
Click to expand...

You gotta be joking, right? This is some sort of parody, right?

Nope, I look in the dictionary under "troll" and oh look, there's your picture!
 
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