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Ransom Riggs
The Late Movies: Local News Bloopers
by Ransom Riggs - October 19, 2009 - 10:00 PM

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With hundreds of local news broadcasts reporting live across the country each day, it’s inevitable that there would be all manner of embarrassing flubs caught on tape. Now, with the magic of the internet, a worldwide audience can enjoy those local news mistakes.

This video highlights the importance of careful segues between introductions and stories. Especially stories about horrific murders.

Normally killings are no laughing matter, but this new anchor can’t seem to keep her guffaws in check. I’ll bet she was angry at whomever was making her laugh off-camera.

Another murder reportage tip: if police are withholding a victim’s name, try not to say it aloud on the air.

Bystanders love to mess with reporters covering stories live in public, but rarely have I seen someone go so far as to steal a reporter’s microphone and run away with it.

A simple case of being in the wrong place at the really, really wrong time.

The “spontaneous banter” portions of a news broadcast are generally the most dangerous and prone to embarrassing flubs. Witness this anchor’s poor word choice:

Another flub, this one seemingly inexplicable:

A good idea for a “news you can use”-style segment — foiled by an unbreakable window.

I think we all saw this one coming. What was she thinking?

Some of the news bloopers you find on youtube are fake — like this, one, even though it’s still one of my favorites.

Not convinced the previous video was fake? Check out this “alternate” version:

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Comments (10)

  1. One of the Winston Salem, NC weather guys (same news team as the one with the unfortunate ‘Rapping Traffic Girl who featured on this site months ago re ‘Epic Fails) was on one of those ‘Bloopers’ shows for the way he chose to report the lack of rain.

    I forgot the way he began, but it finished up with ‘kiss(ing) your wet dreams goodbye’

    posted by Anon Emous on 10-19-2009 at 10:15 pm

  2. I cannot stop giggling about, “..but he’s gay! Wha? BLIND. He’s blind.”
    It’s my new favorite. Thanks for cheering up a total fail day…

    posted by Helenann on 10-19-2009 at 10:40 pm

  3. Fox News is great entertainment. Their photographer is named “Hollywood” and they’re so concerned about the reporter and the iphone, when it was obviously just a pranker.

    posted by Johnny Cat on 10-19-2009 at 11:52 pm

  4. There are a couple of recent ones of these that I’ve seen recently. One that happened last month is when Ernie Anastos in New York… well, I’m sure he MEANT to say “plucking”…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdnXYWSa56w

    And another lesson in proper punctuation came from none other than the BBC:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loWFypHb48k

    posted by the Cosmic Jester on 10-20-2009 at 3:46 am

  5. I love the phony ones, but I wouldn’t be so quick to declare the Fox News one just a pranker. That appears to have been from the initial iPhone release. Have you forgotten what people were like over that? I think there’s a good chance that guy wanted the phone and just made the wrong grab.

    posted by Dave on 10-20-2009 at 5:49 am

  6. “I’ll bet she was angry at whomever was making her laugh off-camera.”

    If she was looking at any monitor displaying that picture of the bug-eyed murder suspect, she didn’t need anyone off-camera to make her laugh. When it flashed onscreen I laughed from pure kneejerk reaction.

    posted by VM on 10-20-2009 at 11:41 am

  7. My two favorites I have seen happen live were the Memphis weather woman who saw that winds were “L/V” and decided it meants winds were “out of the left; and also a Memphis weatherman who proclaimed that due to numerous power outages from recent storms “a lot of folks will be sleeping in the dark tonight.” duh.

    posted by Hyacinth on 10-20-2009 at 12:54 pm

  8. We just had one recently that went something like this:

    Anchor: “. . . and one of the people honored was our own (Feature Reporter) or as she’s better known Mrs. (Weatherman).”

    Weatherman: “Actually, nobody knows about that.”

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 10-20-2009 at 7:32 pm

  9. There’s one that I’ve never seen online but a report friend had on tape of a Louisiana weather girl 15-20 years ago explaining that hurricanes are named by their severity. I.e., a strong storm would be A, B or C, while smaller storms would be X, Y, Z…

    posted by Lindsey on 10-22-2009 at 5:23 pm

  10. “report friend” = “reporter friend”

    posted by Lindsey on 10-22-2009 at 5:24 pm

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