http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/201...ensive-fake-pilot-names?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=4 Asiana to sue TV station over racially offensive fake pilot names SEOUL, South Korea - Asiana plans to sue a California television station that mistakenly aired fake, racially offensive names for the pilots of the flight that crashed last week in San Francisco, the airline announced Monday. The Korean carrier said it had selected a U.S. law firm and will soon file a petition with the courts on the grounds of defamation. In a Friday report, Oakland TV station KTVU broadcast four erroneous names for the pilots of Flight 214 after a National Transportation Safety Board intern mistakenly confirmed them as being correct. "This legal action is being taken because of the KTVU report that not only disparaged Asians in general through the use of racially charged epithets, but also severely damaged the reputation of Asiana Airlines," the company said in a statement. The TV station and the federal investigative agency have both apologized for the report. “We have a lot of good people here at KTVU Channel 2. We pride ourselves on getting it right and having the highest of standards and integrity," the station said in an on-air apology Friday later uploaded to its website. "Clearly, on Friday, that didn't happen. So again, from everyone here at KTVU, we offer our sincerest apology." The NTSB has said that the bogus names were confirmed by an unidentified summer intern. “Earlier today, in response to an inquiry from a media outlet, a summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft,” the NTSB said Friday. “The National Transportation Safety Board apologizes for inaccurate and offensive names that were mistakenly confirmed as those of the pilots of Asiana flight 214, which crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6,” the statement said. The phony names, which could be seen as Asian-stereotype spellings of phrases like “Something Wrong” and “We Too Low,” were read by an anchor during KTVU’s noon broadcast Friday. The anchor, Tori Campbell, later in the broadcast said the names “were not accurate despite an NTSB official in Washington confirming them late this morning.” “We apologize for this error,” she said. Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for the NTSB, told Reuters that the intern was a student volunteer who fielded phone calls but was instructed to transfer questions to official media representatives at the agency. She declined to say if the unidentified intern was relieved of his post, but the NTSB said in their statement that “appropriate actions will be taken to ensure that such a serious error is not repeated.” The Asian American Journalists Association said Friday that the station is “hardly off the hook” for reporting the “grossly offensive” names. “We fail to understand how those obviously phony names could escape detection before appearing on the broadcast and were spoken by the news anchor,” said Paul Cheung, the association president, in a statement. “We urge KTVU to conduct a thorough review to prevent similar lapses.” The four pilots returned to South Korea on Saturday, according to The Associated Press. Asiana Airlines Flight 214 slammed into the seawall and caught fire on the runway at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, killing three and injuring scores of others. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
^^ Dear Asiana Airlines, methinks your inexperienced pilot who couldn't land a plane was the real cause of your company's reputation loss. just trying to help sincerely, The world
Adding insult to injury. bigtexxx just shut up for once. You're everywhere, your voice has been heard, enough already!!
Well look at this objectively, what's worse for somebody's reputation: having an inexperienced pilot kill 3 people and injure many more, or poking fun at the stereotypical way Asians pronounce words? This lawsuit seems ridiculous -- how about Asiana's lawyers focus on the victims rather than some tasteless joke?
Two separate issues in my opinion. All of the victims (even the ones who walked away uninjured) will receive large settlements in 7 figures. For the families of those who died or those with severe injures will receive many millions. Objectively speaking, the cost to Asiana will be approaching 1 billion taking into account hundreds of millions in settlements and cost of plane, etc. That billion doesn't even include the future loss of business due to the crash, which will undoubtedly happen to some degree.
I'm not arguing for Asiana. Just posted the article because I thought it was interesting. In this case I agree with Bigtexxx. Asiana has bigger problems than stupidity on the part of KTVU. This is a case of a big corporation with a lot of lawyers looking to deflect some attention.
I'll say this, as somebody who has spent time working in South Korea, the men there get insanely pissed if they think somebody has disrespected them, so maybe that's what's going on regarding the pilots' names deal.
I'm South Korean, and personally I wasn't offended and it gave me a chuckle. But after visiting my parents this weekend and talking to my father about the joke, I could see the pain behind his eyes talking about it after having to deal with that kind of racism and ridicule for years in this country. It's something I couldn't understand as someone who grew up here and have perfect English.
I think the lawsuit is just. The TV station clearly did that to get attention. There is no way in hell you can expect me to believe that anchor didn't know what was going on as she read those names. It was a smart media play to get people to talk about them and get people onto their website from all over the world. I bet they got BILLIONS of hits from Asia.
Yeah. I seriously doubt that. Most people got their news regarding the incident from Huffington Post or some other site that reported about it. And all initial reports mainly showed a video that was a handheld phone capture uploaded to YouTube. Also, even if think it was willful disregard or ignorance on the part of the TV station, the initial mistake/prank was from the NTSB side.
Thanks for sharing this. I keep thinking the joke is primarily on the stupid staff of the TV station, but it's more complex than that. And jgreen, I live in the Bay Area, and I really don't think KTVU did it intentionally. I mean, locally, that anchor will never live this down. Maybe she'll have to move. And for local news, their ad revenue will not benefit from "hits from Asia." It's just not a sensible business proposition, from what I understand of their model.
Following up on B-Bob's post a big part of KTVU's audience is Asian and I doubt most of that audience appreciates the joke. While this might garner KTVU a lot more attention in the short term if they get tagged with "racist" or "racially insensitive" it will hurt their ratings.
The lawsuit is an obvious attempt to distract attention from the BURNING WRECKAGE OF A GIANT AIRPLANE. Ho Lee Mo Lee
Korea fights back http://slothed.com/2013/07/23/korea...fter-southwest-airlines-landing-gear-failure/
