JFK Jr. Plane crash prank call

(You can see the video of this call (to Dan Rather) by linking HERE)

Stern fan uses Kennedy news for prank

(UltimateTV.com) - A fan of shock jock Howard Stern decided to use the disappearance of John Kennedy Jr.'s plane this weekend to pull a prank on network news stations.

The fan fooled reporters into believing he was a Coast Guard official and gave telephone interviews live on the air with ABC, MSNBC and CBS. Claiming that he was Coast Guard Lt. Ed Gaynor, the prankster spoke with ABC's Peter Jennings, MSNBC's Soledad O'Brien and CBS's Dan Rather.

Rather realized "Gaynor" was a crank caller when he announced that Howard Stern and his producer Baba-Booey were at the crash site. "It's very difficult to believe that people would behave in a way that's so unacceptable," a spokeswoman for ABC told the New York Post. "We at ABC News are trying to be more careful and be mindful that there are idiots like this out there." The crank caller has been identified as a Stern fan named Thomas "Captain Janks" Cipriano, according to RadioDigest.com.

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Chicago Sun-Times
July 19, 1999

Time has come for CBS exec to stifle Stern hoaxsters
BY PHIL ROSENTHAL TELEVISION CRITIC

PASADENA, Calif.--The battle for the soul of CBS surfaced in the weekend coverage of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s disappearance. It's Dan Rather vs. Howard Stern, and the side CBS honcho Mel Karmazin chooses to take says everything about what the onetime Tiffany Network stands for and whether Karmazin cares half as much about integrity as he does about money. Rather and CBS News, the onetime jewel of William Paley's empire, got slimed in the middle of the JFK Jr. death watch, victimized by a Stern-endorsed prankster. So did ABC News' Peter Jennings a short while later. It was the broadcasting equivalent of kicking over a gravestone.And the time has come for Karmazin to say something. Not eventually. Not soon. Now.Stern has said several times on the air that Karmazin is one of the few broadcasting executives he actually respects. So Karmazin must tell Stern--whose radio and TV shows Karmazin syndicates nationally and runs on CBS-owned Chicago stations WCKG-FM and WBBM-Channel 2--to disavow the hoaxsters among his millions of fans, to stop running tapes of their pranks on the air. It's a dumb joke that has outlived its expiration date, no longer worthy of a cutting-edge shock jock.``I'm real reticent to give Mel Karmazin advice on anything,'' CNN U.S. President Rick Kaplan told the Chicago Sun-Times. ``He's a smart fellow. I doubt that he appreciates what Howard does, and I think if he could stop him from doing it, he would. But maybe he just feels he can't.'' Granted, part of the problem is the kind of story the JFK Jr. vigil was and the way TV feels it had to cover it. The wall-to-wall treatment, even in the absence of information, has been a classic case of breaking news that refused to break. Even going into Sunday evening, a full day and a half after the networks first set aside regular programming to meet overwhelming interest in the JFK Jr. story, they were left running the same file footage over and over and repeating the same Kennedy family lore. It didn't help that some of those in the media closest to Kennedy--and there are many in New York who considered the George magazine boss a friend--were slow to appear on the air. NBC's Maria Shriver, a Kennedy cousin, and ABC's Diane Sawyer, who was said to be distraught, were noticeably absent. To fill time, the broadcast and all-news cable networks took phone calls from supposed experts and eyewitnesses and put them on the air live. They are vulnerable to hoaxsters and have fallen prey to Stern listeners during every major news story of the last several years--from the Columbine massacre to Princess Diana's death to the crash of TWA Flight 800. `I got a call when I was at ABC from a guy when O.J. Simpson was going home who was describing stuff that was not seen on TV because he was actually calling me [by cell phone] from O.J. Simpson's house,'' Kaplan said. ``But when we put him on, instead of talking about it, he did his Baba-whatever it was.'' Kaplan contends his network finally has implemented a secret procedure to thwart Stern's listeners, who show more initiative than one might expect in their high jinks. But who knows if it's foolproof? ``I know a situation where one of them went to a hospital where an event was going on, actually borrowed a phone in the PR office, made the call,'' Kaplan said. ``He was told, `Can we call you back?' The call came in to the PR office, and he answered the phone, the Howard Stern listener.'' CBS' Rather, who started reporting on the JFK Jr. disappearance about 7:15 a.m. Saturday and sounded like he might lose his composure 13 hours later as he recited lyrics from the musical ``Camelot,'' did not initially realize he had been tricked by a Stern listener masquerading as a Coast Guard official. When he did, he conceded, ``We can be faulted for this.''But Stern needs to take his share of the responsibility as well. ``Let me ask you a question,'' Kaplan said. ``Do you think anybody can tell Howard what to do?'' Karmazin has as good a shot as anybody. If he doesn't take it, it tells you everything you need to know about him--and about CBS.

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Chicago Sun-Times
December 30, 2000

Maybe next year
BY PHIL ROSENTHAL TELEVISION CRITIC*

On Monday, Jenny Craig tout Monica Lewinsky, who has little to say, will visit CNN's Larry King, who somehow neglected to ask President Clinton about Lewinsky during their chat last week. It's rare when we actually hope one of Howard Stern's phone pranksters gets through.

(*NOTE: Apparently, this reporter had a change of heart a year later)

 

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