Poynter takes a look at the origins of an identical script — about Mike Myers expecting another child — that was read by 29 anchors across the country. The video aired on “Conan,” with Conan O’Brien sarcastically noting, “local news found a really unique way to tell the story.”
WECT news director Scott Saxton said the line came from CNN News Source wire copy as part of a “Hollywood Minute” segment. “It was a bad representation of our station,” Saxton told Poynter. “It’s embarrassing and unacceptable, and we’ve addressed it within the team.”
This isn’t the first time O’Brien has called out local stations for using identical scripts: there was the story about the election, one about Hostess’ bankruptcy, another about Cyber Monday and even one about O’Brien himself.