CNN responds to the map
by Volker Weber
CNN responds to the map error:
From: "Palladino, Vinnie" <Vinnie.Palladino@turner.com>
To: "'vowe@vowe.de'" <vowe@vowe.de>
Date: Tuesday, Oct 9, 2001 09:24
Subject: CNN's Map Mistake
Volker,
I recently became aware of the mistake CNN made in creating a map of Berlin for our War Against Terror coverage. I then came across your post on MetaFilter telling other users about our error. As a Graphic Artist for CNN in Atlanta, I know for a fact that from time to time, graphics need to be made in great haste in order to give the viewing audience an immediate enhanced view of the current story. This one in particular was created by one of our newer artists but was not double-checked for accuracy before it was put on the air. In addition, it was done in the middle of the night, local time (as you can see by the "Futures" tag on the stock quote). This is a difficult time for most people in the world to work at their best, but as a 24-hour news network, we must be fully staffed at all hours of the day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
In times of Breaking News, our staff gets extremely busy. Therefore, there sometimes aren't enough people around to double and triple-check everything that goes on air like there should be. I'm sure that this mistake was found immediately after it aired and changes were made to fix it, but obviously it was too late for all the people that were quick to criticize our error.
It's unfortunate that our viewers decided to use email and message boards to track and concentrate on a RARE error in our graphic rather than absorb the full content of our coverage of the events taking place in the world.
By the way, the artist was NOT fired for this mistake. For the dozens of graphics we put on the air every day, we try extremely hard to get the facts straight on each one, but I don't believe we would ever terminate someone from the company for an honest mistake--which this one certainly was.
If you could, please post this as a reply to other messages on that bulletin board page. I tried to start at MetaFiles User Name but was denied due to the number of existing users.
Thanks for taking the time to read my response. And be safe in this time of global imbalance.
Also, thanks to "monkey-mind" for coming to our defense.
Sincerely,
Vinnie Palladino
CNN Graphic Artist
Atlanta, Georgia USA
