They say that our triumphs and mistakes are the same things. We learn from both of them. That is a good saying to live by -- but not if your job is being a reporter on live TV.
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00:00We all make little blunders at work, and usually, it's not that big of a deal.
00:04But for those who read and report the news, the public nature of their screw-ups can not
00:08only result in widespread internet mockery, but can sometimes earn them a pink slip, as
00:12fans of Anchorman know all too well.
00:14From the entire Channel 4 News team, I'm Veronica Corningstone.
00:19And I'm Ron Burgundy.
00:21Go f—k yourself, San Diego.
00:25Doesn't just happen in the movies, though.
00:26Here's a look at some bloopers that got these real-life reporters fired.
00:30If you've ever been caught goofing off at work, daydreaming, or picking your nose, or
00:34whatever, you probably just got treated to the gentle suggestion that you remove your
00:38head from your rectum and carry on with your job.
00:40Not so for poor Australian newscaster Natasha Egselby, who was fired after going to her
00:45happy place and not coming back until the cameras were already rolling.
00:49Melanie Wojtkiewicz, ABC News, Mount Sylvia.
00:54Now to sport with Meredith Sheehan.
00:57News director Gavin Morris later backtracked on the anchor's dismissal, saying Egselby
01:01was just being taken off the air, but not actually let go.
01:04For her part, Egselby sent out a tweet, blaming her mesmerizing pen.
01:09Is there anything that matters more to a professional athlete than winning the playoffs?
01:12Not according to Comcast Sportsnet reporter Susanna Collins, who insisted that the Chicago
01:17Blackhawks were totally focused on the postseason, despite some serious distractions.
01:22All season long they have been saying that this is the season that matters, and despite
01:26the fact that they've had such a tremendous amount of success during the regular season.
01:32Three days later, Collins was fired, supposedly for unrelated reasons, but it was pretty obvious
01:36to everyone that her bosses weren't comfortable discussing Patrick Kane's love life.
01:41Most on-air mistakes are simple slips of the tongue, but one reader for India's state media
01:46agency Doordarshan had a much larger problem.
01:48While reporting on the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2014, she misinterpreted his
01:53name and read them as Roman numerals.
01:56As far as international incidents go, this would seem pretty minor, but it was still
02:00enough to get her fired, even though plenty of other news anchors around the globe have
02:04struggled to figure out his name, too.
02:15When Lebanese politician Walid Aida was assassinated in Beirut in 2007, not everybody was torn
02:26up about it, least of all national broadcasting network anchor Sousan Darwish.
02:30The anchor woman then says,
02:32So why did it take them so long to kill him?
02:38She cracks up laughing, and her colleague joins in.
02:41Then she doubled down by suggesting some new targets.
02:44Then the anchor says, in reference to anti-Syrian parliament member Ahmed Fatfat,
02:48Fatfat should be next.
02:51I'm counting them down.
02:53Viewers were outraged, and Darwish was immediately fired… for three months.
02:57Then NBN reinstated her, and she issued an on-air apology.
03:01Here's hoping she doesn't try to incite any future assassinations.
03:06As the late local news broadcast wound down on KSN in Wichita, Kansas on Saturday night
03:10in December 2013, anchor Justin Kramer signed off with a version of the same closing tag
03:15that pretty much every late-night news anchor uses.
03:18The end-of-broadcast music was playing, the cameras had cut away to a lovely view of the
03:22city at night, and viewers were just settling in for Saturday Night Live.
03:26But then he pulled a move straight out of Ron Burgundy's playbook.
03:29Let's get the f—k out of here.
03:34Oh!
03:35Great Odin's raven!
03:37Kramer lost his job two days after the Saturday Night broadcast, getting the news first thing
03:41Monday morning.
03:42For his part, he took the firing in stride, saying,
03:45"...I did something extraordinarily unprofessional.
03:47It's something that's drilled into you from the minute you start in this business to always
03:51consider the microphones hot."
03:52Tony, did I just curse?
03:55Are you kidding me?
03:56S—t!
03:57I mean, s—t!
03:58Shoot!