FoxNews: The Dumbest "News" Network Ever

I know! You know! But still ...

It all began with, yes, yet another airline disappearing over the ocean in Southeast Asia and the conspiracy theories are up and running already; it was a terrorist attack; it was hijacked; it fell into the ocean and sank; a UFO beamed it up.

But, while not so much a conspiracy theory, the dumbest explanation by far for what might have happened to lost AirAsia Flight QZ8501 comes from, naturally, Fox News and one of its blonde news pundits.

Anna Kooiman, the dim-bulb-blonde in question, wondered, out loud and on air, if the … wait for it, it’s absolutely precious … seriously … if the metric system is to blame for the plane’s disappearance; and then, to throw gasoline onto the fire of her own stupidity, she asked if international flights are unsafe for Americans because of the metric system.

Kooiman also seemed to think that Americans should be scared of international travel because international pilots are trained to use the metric system and American pilots are not. Even when Fox’s own guest expert, FAA spokesperson Scott Brenner, explained that while there are differences between American pilots and international pilots, the differences in how we measure things does not make international flights less safe.

KOOIMAN: “Even when we think about temperature, it’s Fahrenheit or Celsius. It’s kilometers or miles. You know, everything about their training could be similar, but different.”

BRENNER: “I think you see a large reliance on automatic pilot and the requirement that pilots use that automatic pilot more often than probably more than in the US. A lot of that is just because a lot of crashes are due to pilot error. So, if you try and eliminate any potential risk, you try and eliminate the pilot’s ability to make incorrect inputs into the aircraft.”

KOOIMAN: “It’s not just a difference in the way that we measure things? Is it not as safe in that part of the world? Because our viewers may be thinking, ‘International travel, is it safe? Is it not safe?’”

BRENNER: “It’s incredibly safe. It’s the safest mode of travel you can have. But just on training, I believe our U.S. pilots are very well trained… They also actually fly the aircraft when they’re in the cockpit versus, a lot of times as soon as those wheels are up, a lot of times folks are required, foreign pilots are required to hit that autopilot almost until wheels come back down again.”

So, it’s the metric system, y’all, coming at us from some evil, no doubt Democratic, empire and hell bent on destroying the very fabric of America.

Fix News. The Dumbest Bunch of News “People” Anywhere.

via AddictingInfo

Racist Jokes Are Funny, Especially At KTVU Channel 2 and The NTSB

So, the other day, KTVU, a San Francisco Bay Area news station reported the names of the pilots of Asiana Flight 214, which crashed at San Francisco airport last week. The names listed were—and read them carefully: "Sum Ting Wong," "Wi Tu Lo," "Ho Lee Fuk," and "Bang Ding Ow."

Who says racism is dead in this country, though that’s another topic for another day.

Despite the names obviously being racist and not at all funny, and hurtful and demeaning and wrong, KTVU, which has since apologized for the report, released a statement saying that a National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB] official had confirmed the names to them:

Earlier in the newscast we gave some names of pilots involved in the Asiana airlines crash. These names were not accurate despite an NTSB official in Washington confirming them late this morning. We apologize for this error.

See ….

NTSB Public Affairs Officer Peter Knudson said it is the NTSB's policy is to never give out pilot names in these situations, which contradicts KTVU's claims. Knudson added, "I don’t know who [KTVU] got that from, but we do not release names."

Then ….

KTVU has issued another apology on its website, yet they still maintain that an NTSB official confirmed the fake names: "Prior to air, the names were confirmed by an NTSB official in the agency’s Washington, D.C. office."

And then ….

The NTSB released a second statement acknowledging that it was a summer intern who confirmed the four fake names:

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.

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 does not release or confirm the names of crewmembers or people involved in transportation accidents to the media. We work hard to ensure that only appropriate factual information regarding an investigation is released and deeply regret today's incident.

Appropriate actions will be taken to ensure that such a serious error is not repeated.

Okay, let’s dish.

First off, let’s not give KTVU a pass on this because just one look at the names and you had to know this was just an offensive attempt at third grade—and I’m being kind there—humor. So whoever it was at the station that took the names and then allowed them to be used in the newscast—even with NTSB ‘confirmation’—is also guilty of being a complete moron and should be fired.

Then, let’s not let the NTSB get away with the summer intern blame, because since when does an intern release statements or confirm information? Someone high up at the NTSB obviously took the day off and left some moron in charge there as well. Some moron who didn’t have the good sense god gave a goat. Some moron who thinks, in 2013, that racist jokes are funny.

KTVU and the NTSB should be ashamed of themselves for the way this mess was handled and mishandled, and anyone involved with releasing the names to a news channel, and releasing them to the airwaves should be standing in an unemployment line this morning.

That would be funny.