From both the "hee-hee" and "ew!" lobes of the brain, Gothamist brings you Lloyd Grove's piece about the mis-captioning on ABC News:
We initially refused to believe an alert ABC News fan who told us that the closed captions for the 6:30 p.m. Tuesday feed of Peter Jennings's "World News Tonight" informed viewers that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was "in the hospital for an enlarged prostitute."
But yesterday a network spokeswoman confirmed the wording -- provided by ABC's Pennsylvania-based closed-captioning contractor. Apparently the typist hit the wrong key, or keys. The glitch was fixed for the 7 p.m. feed.
"We strive for perfection," ABC's Cathie Levine told us, "but when you're typing that fast, there are occasional mistakes. We regret the error."
Greenspan was home recovering yesterday from prostate surgery, said his wife, NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell. As for that "enlarged prostitute," Mitchell told us: "He should be so lucky."
Gothamist loves closed captioning, because it allows us to talk on the phone, watch/read TV, and listen to music at the same time. This is in the rare event we're not blogging.
[Via Romenesko]
