Prank call on CNN? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

sadatx · 09-18-2003, 11:12 AM

Was anybody watching CNN yesterday a little after lunch? They were reporting on the hostage situation at that community college and they had someone call in with information.

Or so they thought. The caller started out sounding serious and said something that ended with "...bitch" and hung up.

Anybody see this and catch what he said?

No big deal, just curious. Although it was pretty funny and the anchorwoman got visibly flustered. CNN glossed over it as quickly as they could.

Cynthetiq · 09-18-2003, 11:39 AM

nope.. but it happens all the time... usually I hear it with them talking about bababooey or some other Howard Stern character...

but that's the news media for you.. not checking facts or nothing...

Mr.Deflok · 09-18-2003, 11:47 AM

Prank calls can be funny but when they're used like this I can't help but feel pity for the sorry fool who called up. This is just the same as all those idiots calling in fake terrorist threats after 9/11, it's just disgusting, a waste of time and money when people who actually need the help of our fire/ambulance and police forces.

Batman976 · 09-18-2003, 01:42 PM

I never understood the bababooey thing. I don't listen to Stern much. How did it originate?

Also, I totally agree with Mr. Deflok.

Cynthetiq · 09-18-2003, 01:52 PM

something along these lines
http://www.rock-is-dead.com/Featured...nks/janks.html

http://www.prankorama.com/janks.html
Captain Janks
The Jerky Boys are the best-selling pranksters of all-time, with over 4 million units sold -- but the most widely heard prankster of all time? That title belongs to Captain Janks, the obsessive Howard Stern fan who pioneered the art of live call-in pranks to radio and TV shows. When Janks started targeting shows like Larry King Live and The Today Show in the early '90s, huge audiences heard him say things like “Do you want to mindmeld with Howard Stern’s penis?" Then, Stern extended the audience even further by repeatedly replaying Janks’ calls on his show.
Janks was inspired by the Tube Bar tapes to make prank calls; in turn, he inspired numerous other Howard Stern fans to start pranking TV and radio shows too. At one point, pranking such shows and mentioning Howard Stern's name during the course of a call became so popular that one episode of The Donnie and Marie Show featured three Stern pranksters in a row (one of whom was Janks) without any prior coordination amongst the three.

As Howard Stern recounts in his book Miss America, Janks would often go to great lengths to perpetrate his calls. "The most elaborate prank Janks ever pulled was when he convinced the producers of the Jerry Lewis telethon that he was Larry King and that he wanted call in live to Jerry during the waning hours of the telethon." To achieve area-code credibility, the Pennsylvania-based Janks first obtained a Los Angeles phone number that forwarded to his actual phone. To convince Lewis' producers that he was indeed a legitimate King employee, Janks even put "King" on the phone at one point -- to reproduce the BLANK in real-time, he simply used King soundbites he'd taped while listening to his show. All in all, hours of preparation went into a call that would last less than a minute: in the final hours of the telethon, Janks-as-King was patched through to Lewis. "Hello, Mr. Lewis, what do you think of Howard Stern, the radio personality?" he asked.

Along with Lewis, Janks has pranked Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Larry King, Rosie O'Donnell, Ed McMahon, and countless other media figures and celebrities. In 1996, Janks released a CD called King of the Cranks, which he says sold around 250,000 copies. At one point, he used a 900-number to distribute his calls (900-25-JANKS) and issued at least three 90-minute cassettes of his work under the titles Scams O'Plenty, Volumes I, II, and III

floonine · 09-18-2003, 01:53 PM

there was a girl, after the world trade disaster when they were cleaning up and looking for survivors, who said her husband had called her on his cell phone from beneath the rubble, which she directed firemen/women and volunteers towards the area. After they began to search frantically and found nothing, she laughed. It turned out to be a prank, and she was arrested.

sadatx · 09-18-2003, 02:05 PM

I remember hearing that someone had claimed to get a cell phone call from their spouse in the lower levels of the parking garage. I didn't know that it turned out to be a prank. Un-fucking-believeable. What's wrong with some people?

mrquackers · 09-18-2003, 06:07 PM

Yep. They got us.

Screeners usually catch prank callers, but every now and then one slips through. My guess was this moron lucked out and got an intern screening - since most people were tasked to Hurricane Isabel. I thought Kyra handled it extremely well, though - and caught on pretty damn fast, faster than the booth.

It's the nature of breaking news and the industry these days. Everyone's in such a rush to be first - and this yokel claimed to be a deputy sherriff with new info - that they sometimes let things like this slip through the safeguards.

Still. it's embarrassing.

JohnnyRock · 09-19-2003, 09:24 AM

Hey, I just saw this thread and have something really important to add BABABOOEY!!!!!

sadatx · 09-19-2003, 01:26 PM

Whoa, mrquackers, you work for CNN.

...I knew it you're Wolf Blitzer, aren't you?

Seriously though, what do you do there (if it's okay to ask)? Do you like it?

EeOh1 · 09-19-2003, 02:12 PM

I'm curious as well, quackers.

Prank phone calls are fun if they're to Mrs. Sandy Hoppledink in the phone book or a bounce house place (my friend and I had one incredible discussion with one of those guys, remind me to enlighten you sometime), but prank phone calls that deal with occurring tragedy, past tragedy, or pull at your heart strings are disgusting.

I say we subject them to the fake incident they are calling in about.

Sun Tzu · 09-19-2003, 04:03 PM

Someone got Fox and Friends about 3 weeks ago. They called in and acted like Arnold Schwarzenegger; they didnt even bother to screen it. It wasnt util after the call everyone absorbed all the weird things this person was saying that they realized they had been punked.

mrquackers · 09-19-2003, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sadatx
Whoa, mrquackers, you work for CNN.

...I knew it you're Wolf Blitzer, aren't you?

Seriously though, what do you do there (if it's okay to ask)? Do you like it?

Hehe. Puh-leaze. I'm much better at enunciation and timed breathing than Wolf!

(Hell of a reporter. As an anchor, not so much.)

I'm kind of a jack of all trades on one of the CNN owned Websites - reporter, manager, columnist, overseer, nit-picker, taskmaster, etc. Given some of the stories I've shared here, I'm a bit hesitant to describe it in too much detail. It's better for me to hide behind the alias, since I'm sure standards and practices would chew on my ass for lunch if they read the story about the Amsterdam trip. (That said, I'm sure someone curious enough could probably find out if they wanted to.)

Working there has its ups and downs. Some of the people are amazing - nice, smart, talented. Some are typical corporate drones. It's about what you'd expect at any major company. I've been there a pretty long time. Will I stay? Not forever. But I will never regret going to work there.

Hey, if nothing else, I'm one of the few people who can honestly say they've seen Headline News anchor Robin Meade do the butt dance.

BurntToast · 09-19-2003, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Batman976
I never understood the bababooey thing. I don't listen to Stern much. How did it originate?

Well it started when Gary Delabate, aka Bababooey, was talking about his cartoon cell (cell= a single frame from an animation) collection. Well I can't remember if he was talking about his favorite cell, or one that he had just aquired, but he mistakenly called the subject Bababooey, when it was really the blue horse known as Babalooey(sp?). Well it stuck with him.

mrquackers · 10-28-2003, 02:09 PM

Just for the sake of candor, another pranker got through yesterday morning regarding the California fires.

I mean, really... don't people have anything better to do?

JohnnyRock · 10-28-2003, 03:14 PM

It's all Capt. Janks...trying to prove that screeners don't work...Even though it is tough with live events and trying to beat the other networks [I've done some news reporting so I know I HATE to get scooped] it does say something about the quickness of the media to jump on any glimmer of a story...

09-18-2003, 11:12 AM	#1 (permalink)
sadatx Psycho	Prank call on CNN? Was anybody watching CNN yesterday a little after lunch? They were reporting on the hostage situation at that community college and they had someone call in with information. Or so they thought. The caller started out sounding serious and said something that ended with "...bitch" and hung up. Anybody see this and catch what he said? No big deal, just curious. Although it was pretty funny and the anchorwoman got visibly flustered. CNN glossed over it as quickly as they could.

09-18-2003, 11:39 AM	#2 (permalink)
Cynthetiq Tilted Cat Head Administrator Location: Manhattan, NY	nope.. but it happens all the time... usually I hear it with them talking about bababooey or some other Howard Stern character... but that's the news media for you.. not checking facts or nothing... __________________ I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. What's the best nation in the world? DO-NATION!

09-18-2003, 01:42 PM	#4 (permalink)
Batman976 is you wicked? Location: I live in a giant bucket.	I never understood the bababooey thing. I don't listen to Stern much. How did it originate? Also, I totally agree with Mr. Deflok. __________________ The following statement is true. The preceding statement was false.

09-18-2003, 01:52 PM	#5 (permalink)
Cynthetiq Tilted Cat Head Administrator Location: Manhattan, NY	something along these lines http://www.rock-is-dead.com/Featured...nks/janks.html http://www.prankorama.com/janks.html Captain Janks The Jerky Boys are the best-selling pranksters of all-time, with over 4 million units sold -- but the most widely heard prankster of all time? That title belongs to Captain Janks, the obsessive Howard Stern fan who pioneered the art of live call-in pranks to radio and TV shows. When Janks started targeting shows like Larry King Live and The Today Show in the early '90s, huge audiences heard him say things like “Do you want to mindmeld with Howard Stern’s penis?" Then, Stern extended the audience even further by repeatedly replaying Janks’ calls on his show. Janks was inspired by the Tube Bar tapes to make prank calls; in turn, he inspired numerous other Howard Stern fans to start pranking TV and radio shows too. At one point, pranking such shows and mentioning Howard Stern's name during the course of a call became so popular that one episode of The Donnie and Marie Show featured three Stern pranksters in a row (one of whom was Janks) without any prior coordination amongst the three. As Howard Stern recounts in his book Miss America, Janks would often go to great lengths to perpetrate his calls. "The most elaborate prank Janks ever pulled was when he convinced the producers of the Jerry Lewis telethon that he was Larry King and that he wanted call in live to Jerry during the waning hours of the telethon." To achieve area-code credibility, the Pennsylvania-based Janks first obtained a Los Angeles phone number that forwarded to his actual phone. To convince Lewis' producers that he was indeed a legitimate King employee, Janks even put "King" on the phone at one point -- to reproduce the BLANK in real-time, he simply used King soundbites he'd taped while listening to his show. All in all, hours of preparation went into a call that would last less than a minute: in the final hours of the telethon, Janks-as-King was patched through to Lewis. "Hello, Mr. Lewis, what do you think of Howard Stern, the radio personality?" he asked. Along with Lewis, Janks has pranked Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Larry King, Rosie O'Donnell, Ed McMahon, and countless other media figures and celebrities. In 1996, Janks released a CD called King of the Cranks, which he says sold around 250,000 copies. At one point, he used a 900-number to distribute his calls (900-25-JANKS) and issued at least three 90-minute cassettes of his work under the titles Scams O'Plenty, Volumes I, II, and III __________________ I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. What's the best nation in the world? DO-NATION!

09-18-2003, 01:53 PM	#6 (permalink)
floonine Insane Location: Silicon Valley, Utah	there was a girl, after the world trade disaster when they were cleaning up and looking for survivors, who said her husband had called her on his cell phone from beneath the rubble, which she directed firemen/women and volunteers towards the area. After they began to search frantically and found nothing, she laughed. It turned out to be a prank, and she was arrested. __________________ Political arguments do not exist, after all, for people to believe in them, rather they serve as a common, agreed-upon excuse. Foolish people who take them in earnest sooner or later discover inconsistencies in them, begin to protest and finish finally and infamously as heretics.

09-18-2003, 11:47 AM	#3 (permalink)
Mr.Deflok Blood + Fire Location: New Zealand	Prank calls can be funny but when they're used like this I can't help but feel pity for the sorry fool who called up. This is just the same as all those idiots calling in fake terrorist threats after 9/11, it's just disgusting, a waste of time and money when people who actually need the help of our fire/ambulance and police forces.

09-18-2003, 02:05 PM	#7 (permalink)
sadatx Psycho	I remember hearing that someone had claimed to get a cell phone call from their spouse in the lower levels of the parking garage. I didn't know that it turned out to be a prank. Un-fucking-believeable. What's wrong with some people?

09-18-2003, 06:07 PM	#8 (permalink)
mrquackers Exhausted Location: Northeastern US - please send help!	Yep. They got us. Screeners usually catch prank callers, but every now and then one slips through. My guess was this moron lucked out and got an intern screening - since most people were tasked to Hurricane Isabel. I thought Kyra handled it extremely well, though - and caught on pretty damn fast, faster than the booth. It's the nature of breaking news and the industry these days. Everyone's in such a rush to be first - and this yokel claimed to be a deputy sherriff with new info - that they sometimes let things like this slip through the safeguards. Still. it's embarrassing. __________________ "If you're walking on thin ice, you may as well go ahead and dance."

09-19-2003, 09:24 AM	#9 (permalink)
JohnnyRock Addict Location: Taxachussetts	Hey, I just saw this thread and have something really important to add BABABOOEY!!!!! __________________ Not only do I not know the answer...I don't even know what the question is!!!

09-19-2003, 01:26 PM	#10 (permalink)
sadatx Psycho	Whoa, mrquackers, you work for CNN. ...I knew it you're Wolf Blitzer, aren't you? Seriously though, what do you do there (if it's okay to ask)? Do you like it?

09-19-2003, 02:12 PM	#11 (permalink)
EeOh1 Crazy	I'm curious as well, quackers. Prank phone calls are fun if they're to Mrs. Sandy Hoppledink in the phone book or a bounce house place (my friend and I had one incredible discussion with one of those guys, remind me to enlighten you sometime), but prank phone calls that deal with occurring tragedy, past tragedy, or pull at your heart strings are disgusting. I say we subject them to the fake incident they are calling in about. __________________ If life gives you lemons...throw them at someone.

09-19-2003, 04:03 PM	#12 (permalink)
Sun Tzu Conspiracy Realist Location: The Event Horizon	Someone got Fox and Friends about 3 weeks ago. They called in and acted like Arnold Schwarzenegger; they didnt even bother to screen it. It wasnt util after the call everyone absorbed all the weird things this person was saying that they realized they had been punked. __________________ *To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.- Stephen Hawking*

10-28-2003, 02:09 PM	#15 (permalink)
mrquackers Exhausted Location: Northeastern US - please send help!	Just for the sake of candor, another pranker got through yesterday morning regarding the California fires. I mean, really... don't people have anything better to do? __________________ "If you're walking on thin ice, you may as well go ahead and dance."

10-28-2003, 03:14 PM	#16 (permalink)
JohnnyRock Addict Location: Taxachussetts	It's all Capt. Janks...trying to prove that screeners don't work...Even though it is tough with live events and trying to beat the other networks [I've done some news reporting so I know I HATE to get scooped] it does say something about the quickness of the media to jump on any glimmer of a story... __________________ Not only do I not know the answer...I don't even know what the question is!!!