Subliminal

[Guest guest]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - CNN apologized on Tuesday and offered a rare

explanation from its control booth for a technical glitch many

viewers failed to notice -- a large " X " the network flashed over Vice

President Dick Cheney's face.

 

23 NOV 2005

 

 

The wayward graphic, which CNN said lasted for about one-seventh of a

second, appeared during the network's live coverage of Cheney's

speech on Monday addressing critics of the Bush administration's

conduct of the war in Iraq.

 

Word of the snafu quickly surfaced on the Internet, including still

photos of the image posted by online columnist Matt Drudge, along

with a story suggesting that some who saw the momentary " X " thought

it might have been deliberate.

 

CNN, a unit of Time Warner Inc., later issued a mea culpa saying an

investigation by senior management concluded " this was a technical

malfunction, not an issue of operator error " and expressing regret

for the incident.

 

The network followed up with a special on-air segment during its " CNN

Live Today " broadcast, in which anchor Daryn Kagan joined the

network's technical manager, Steve Alperin, in the control room to

offer a fuller explanation.

 

The " X " image, a place-holding marker used by technicians to cue up

graphics, is not supposed to be visible to viewers but was

inadvertently projected onto the screen by a malfunction in

a " switcher " device, they explained.

 

" So, for all the conspiracy theories out there, " Kagan said, " ...

that's not what this is about. It's a computer bug that people deal

with everyday. It's just that ours was in front of millions of

people. "

 

A spokesman for the vice president said Cheney had no comment on the

incident.