Three veteran news producers at Bay Area news station KTVU were fired last week after an investigation into a racist name prank that aired on and humiliated the station.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Station sources confirmed late Wednesday that investigative producer Roland DeWolk, special projects producer Cristina Gastelu and producer Brad Belstock were all sent packing following an in-house investigation into the July 12 broadcast of four fake names of the pilots involved in the Asiana Flight 214 crash at San Francisco International Airport on July 6.
News anchor Tori Campbell was reporting on an Asiana Airlines flight and falsely identified the pilots as Capt. Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk and Bang Ding Ow.
Randy Shandobil, a veteran KTVU reporter who left the station more than two years ago, said that the episode was emblematic of the pressure that news reporters are under to quickly access and deliver information.