[lookoutwales]

I wonder if this was very late at night and the duty newscaster at ITN had already left the premises and there was no-one there to actually present a newsflash? A rip and read locally perhaps? 

BTW, Malcolm is one of the very nicest people you could ever wish to meet.

Always liked Malcolm's work. Does appear to suggest ITN weren't able to go on air themselves (and AFAIK, the film was only being shown locally at least)

There's a couple more examples online - in this instance, Charles Foster reading an OOV flash after a part-networked screening of The Postman Always Rings Twice.

www.youtube.com 

Slightly OT but something I noticed from leafing through old listings was Granada's seeming reluctance to do short local bulletins of their own, outside Granada Reports at 6pm for years.

They only seem to have introduced a lunchtime news by the early 80s, thus getting the continuity team to start newsreading regularly (and come 1986, the move to Liverpool saw them go all out with bulletins throughout the day, even during schools programmes)

An interesting little clip that apparently depicts a CNN anchor being seconds away from wrongly announcing President Bush Sr had died, before being told off screen to "stop".

Was rather curious about seeing that for a long time, so thanks.

From what I've read, the anchor (Don Harrison) had huge doubts about it as he was briefed - and CNN (at least the main network) had already determined that it was a hoax, but somehow, his producers at Headline News had insisted it should go on air before getting any confirmation.

The bogus story was quickly removed from their computer systems (they were using a messaging tool called 'Read Me' apparently), which prompted one of the producers to again intervene before Harrison began to read it.