T.L. Hughes 746 Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 A.J. Clemente could hold the record for having the shortest tenure at a television station in history, after he was fired by Bismarck NBC affiliate KFYR-TV on Monday (April 22), after dropping two swear words ("Fu$#ing s&%t.") – and prefacing them with a word sounded very similar to "gay", though Clemente claims was attempt to pronounce the first name of London Marathon winner Tsegaye Kebede – when he made his debut at the station on Sunday (April 21). Clemente was supposed to be the weekend co-anchor at the station, but lost the job simply because he failed to realize his microphone was on at the time when he said the phrase. In video of the on-air blooper, co-anchor Van Tieu can clearly be seen appearing tripped up herself after realizing what Clemente said. Clemente also blundered his introduction to the audience (in this case, swear-free). Clemente was suspended from KFYR immediately following the 5 p.m. newscast. Before Clemente's firing, news director Monica Hannan said in a statement regarding the blunder: “He did not realize his microphone was on, but still, that's no excuse. We train our reporters to always assume that any microphone is live at any time. Unfortunately, that was not enough in this case. We can't take back what was said. The person involved has been suspended until we resolve the situation. All we can do at this point is ask for your forgiveness, and I can offer my personal assurance that I will do my best to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again under my watch.” Video of the incident here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24994J 5269 Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Back to school for that 'Plan B' career. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TennTV1983 742 Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Something tells me this is going to be talked about on all the late night shows this week. You know it's coming. Tough break for the kid, though. He had potential. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningNews 1290 Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 That was painful to watch. Good thing he's young and can go back to school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidwestTV 1173 Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Now while he probably should've just started off as a reporter and not an anchor, I don't understand why everyone is telling him to just go ahead and give up now and go back to school. Oh please. Like YOU never made a mistake on your first day of work? Like no one else in this business has either? Yes it was stupid, but it was a genuine mistake I feel as if. He was probably just nervous as hell. Just give the kid a break, geeze. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty Muck 4162 Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24994J 5269 Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 Now while he probably should've just started off as a reporter and not an anchor, I don't understand why everyone is telling him to just go ahead and give up now and go back to school. Oh please. Like YOU never made a mistake on your first day of work? Like no one else in this business has either? Yes it was stupid, but it was a genuine mistake I feel as if. He was probably just nervous as hell. Just give the kid a break, geeze. I'm willing to forgive the nervousness, his delivery was probably awful because of his slip-up. But that's not what he lost his job over, it was those two little words that did him in. It's Live TV 101 for goodness sake! You have a mic on, keep your foul language to yourself. I don't care if your 13 or your 65, it's common sense. I understand your point, and maybe he could land on his feet, but you can't honestly blame the ND for ousting him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidwestTV 1173 Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 Sue Simmons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty Muck 4162 Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 I'm willing to forgive the nervousness, his delivery was probably awful because of his slip-up. But that's not what he lost his job over, it was those two little words that did him in. It's Live TV 101 for goodness sake! You have a mic on, keep your foul language to yourself. I don't care if your 13 or your 65, it's common sense. I understand your point, and maybe he could land on his feet, but you can't honestly blame the ND for ousting him. Bismarck is market #169. A tiny market like that has more than enough viewers to be offended over something like the F word (as opposed to or ). That it was the first two words he said OTA made it worse. Did he not learn anything from the TV productions he obviously was engaged in back at WVU? Oh, well. Is WSVI hiring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Country News 435 Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 As an aspiring news anchor myself, I'm pretty sure that knowing your mic is on would be a given. I understood Sue Simmons' blunder mostly due to the fact that she didn't know the promo was live, but this guy was anchoring a LIVE newscast, and he even knew it. I don't blame him for being nervous, I'm sure every news anchor has been nervous from time to time. Although, I don't think that vulgar words should be used to express it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d247 43 Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 Something tells me this is going to be talked about on all the late night shows this week. You know it's coming. Dave just aired it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tw-804 190 Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 Dave just aired it. So did Kimmel and as of this post, Fallon is airing it. Check out the comments on KFYR's Facebook page. Plus the page has hit 10,000 "likes"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3442 Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 Weekends are a time when things can go awry since the people who usually work it are less experienced, and there's usually no one around management-wise. If something breaks down, either a show is sunk or an engineer has to be dragged in at the last second to fix it, especially if they're not in the building on weekends... Whatever combination of jitters and experience came into play here, it is a lesson to be learned about being on top of things and being ready to move on from a mistake calmy and collectively so it doesn't turn into a cascading disaster.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tw-804 190 Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 Looks like the support is growing for Clemente. TVSpy reports... http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/support-growing-for-fired-rookie-anchor-a-j-clemente_b88051 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d247 43 Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 Clemente will be on the Today show tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrtraveler01 737 Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 So did Kimmel and as of this post, Fallon is airing it. Check out the comments on KFYR's Facebook page. Plus the page has hit 10,000 "likes"! Daily Show too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3442 Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 After watching his appearance on the Today show, I think the station is just as responsible as he was for his blunder. If you don't have an IFB, someone on the floor, AND master control takes you 30 seconds early, how in the hell is anyone supposed to know what's going on? Now if he simply wasn't wearing an IFB, he's to blame. If the station's SOP doesn't dictate the use of an IFB, then there's a problem. Not having someone on the studio floor could mean that the station is automated...and even master control could be that way too, quite possibly hubbed elsewhere hundreds of miles away. In a weekend crew like this, the producer is usually one of the anchors on the set and not in the control room. That leaves the director, who somehow has to be in touch with master control, either by them delegating or knowing the EXACT time that delegation will take place. If there was a glitch on master control's end....they could be in deep especially if they fudged the log AND didn't write up a discrepancy report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d247 43 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 He's on Letterman right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABC 7 Denver 1552 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Much as this hurt Clemente's first job in the industry, I'm sure he'll be hired again and be just fine. He is getting a heck of a lot of media attention... And this could end up either being good or bad for KFYR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Country News 435 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 This could end up either being good or bad for KFYR. And the 6 people that watch them. :awesome: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRob 919 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 KFYR is an NBC affiliate, so the Today Show interview appeared on its air. KFYR also carries Kelly and Michael, so his appearance on that show will appear on KFYR too. It may be bad for Clemente in the long run-- he still looks incredibly nervous on camera-- but simultaneously he's exposing KFYR as an amateur operation. We might expect it from a 150+ market, but the ordinary viewer does not. As far as I can tell, CBS affiliate KXMB is the market's only competition, but barely draws any ratings for its news. This is a newspaper blog on the matter. http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/media/fired-anchor-aj-clemente-turns-mistake-into-today-show-and-letterman-stops/2117076 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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