It was July 12, 2013. A typical Friday noon broadcast at KTVU, a Fox affiliate in the San Francisco Bay Area. Anchor Tori Campbell was reading a breaking news update about the tragic crash of Asiana Flight 214 at San Francisco International Airport. Then, the unthinkable happened. She read four names provided by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as the pilots of the downed aircraft.
"Sum Ting Wong." "Wi Tu Lo." "Ho Lee Fuk." "Bang Ding Ow."
Yeah. It actually went to air. For several agonizing seconds, those names sat on the screen next to the KTVU logo while a professional news anchor read them aloud with total sincerity. It wasn't a skit. It wasn't a prank on a YouTube channel. It was a massive, systemic failure of local journalism that turned a deadly tragedy into a global punchline and a case study in why the "be first" culture of modern news is dangerous. Honestly, looking back over a decade later, the Sum Ting Wong newscast remains one of the most baffling moments in television history because of how many people had to miss the joke for it to make it to the teleprompter.
How the KTVU Prank Made it to Air
Most people assume a rogue intern just typed the names into the system and the anchor didn't look at them. That’s only half the story. The reality is way more bureaucratic and, frankly, embarrassing. KTVU actually reached out to the NTSB to verify the names. That’s the wild part. They tried to do their due diligence.
An intern at the NTSB, who wasn't authorized to speak to the media, "confirmed" the names when the station called. Think about that for a second. A summer intern at a federal agency essentially greenlit a racist prank, and the newsroom, desperate for a "scoop" or a fresh angle on the crash, didn't stop to sound out the words. If anyone had read them aloud—literally just spoke them to the wall—the broadcast would have been saved. But the rush of the news cycle is a hell of a drug.
The fallout was immediate. Within minutes, the clip was everywhere. It went viral before we really used the term "viral" for everything. While the internet laughed, the gravity of the situation was grim. Three people had died in that crash. Dozens were injured. And here was a major news outlet accidentally mocking the ethnicity of the flight crew during a tragedy.
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The NTSB and KTVU Finger-Pointing
The NTSB was quick to act. They issued a formal apology and fired the intern involved. They stated that the intern had "acted outside the scope of his authority" when he confirmed the names. But the damage to KTVU’s reputation was much deeper. For a station that prided itself on being the gold standard for Bay Area news, it was a humiliating blow.
KTVU apologized later in the same broadcast and again during the evening news. Tom Raponi, the Vice President and General Manager at the time, called it a failure in the station's "internal vetting process." But apologies don't erase the digital footprint. If you search for "Asiana crash names" today, you aren't hit with technical data about Boeing 777 landing speeds; you're hit with the Sum Ting Wong newscast clip.
The station eventually fired three veteran producers over the incident. It wasn't just about a "oops" moment; it was about the fact that a newsroom full of experienced journalists didn't have a single person who looked at those names and thought, "Wait, this sounds like a 1940s caricature."
Why We Are Still Talking About This
It’s about the "A" in E-E-A-T—Authority. When a news station loses its authority, it's hard to get back. This incident became a permanent entry in the "What Not To Do" handbook for journalism schools. It highlights a specific kind of cognitive bias where we trust information if it comes from a seemingly official source (in this case, the NTSB intern) without applying basic common sense.
There’s also the cultural impact. The Bay Area has a massive Asian-American population. For KTVU to broadcast those names was seen as a slap in the face to the very community they served. The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) was rightfully furious. They pointed out that this wasn't just a mistake; it was a sign of a lack of diversity in the newsroom. If there had been more diverse voices in the room, someone likely would have caught it instantly.
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The Legal and Professional Aftermath
Asiana Airlines actually threatened to sue KTVU, claiming the broadcast damaged their reputation. They eventually backed off, likely realizing that a lawsuit would just keep the names in the headlines longer, but the threat alone showed how high the stakes were.
What’s interesting is how the Sum Ting Wong newscast changed newsroom workflows. After 2013, many stations implemented "double-check" rules for foreign names and sensitive data. You started seeing a shift away from the "get it out now" mentality toward a "get it right" approach—though, let’s be real, social media has mostly pushed us back toward the "get it out now" side of the fence.
Breaking Down the Layers of the Mistake
Let’s look at the logistics. A news script goes through several hands:
- The Producer who writes the segment.
- The Executive Producer who oversees the block.
- The Assignment Desk that vets the sources.
- The Graphics Operator who builds the "lower thirds" (the text on screen).
- The Anchor who reads the prompter.
At any one of those five stages, someone could have stopped the train. They didn't. The graphics operator had to physically type "Ho Lee Fuk" into a character generator. They had to choose the font. They had to center the text. They looked at those words for several minutes. This suggests a level of "autopilot" work that is terrifying in a professional environment.
Lessons Learned (and Some We Still Haven't)
You've probably seen similar errors since then, though maybe not as egregious. In the age of AI and rapid-fire tweets, the risk is actually higher now than it was in 2013. We see "parody" accounts on X (formerly Twitter) fooling major news outlets every single month. The Sum Ting Wong newscast was just the analog version of a deepfake or a bot-generated hallucination.
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The core issue is "confirmation bias." KTVU wanted the names. They called a source. The source said "yes." They stopped looking. It’s a loop that kills accuracy.
If you’re a content creator, a journalist, or just someone who shares news, the "Sum Ting Wong" incident is a reminder to always perform the "idiot test." Read it aloud. If it sounds like a joke, it probably is. If it seems too "perfectly" weird, it’s likely fake.
Actionable Steps for Information Vetting
Don't get caught in your own version of a broadcast nightmare. Whether you're running a blog or a massive news site, these steps are the bare minimum to keep your credibility intact.
- Read Phonetically: When dealing with names or terms from a language you don't speak, sound them out slowly. This catches 90% of "prank" names instantly.
- Verify the Source's Rank: Just because someone answers the phone at the NTSB or the Pentagon doesn't mean they are a spokesperson. Always ask for an official PIO (Public Information Officer).
- Cross-Reference Phonetic Spells: If a name looks like an English pun, it's a massive red flag. Real names rarely translate into perfect English slang puns coincidentally.
- Slow Down the Pipeline: If the "breaking" information is just a list of names, waiting ten minutes to double-verify with a second source won't kill the story, but being wrong will kill your reputation.
- Diversify Your Reviewers: Have people from different backgrounds look at your high-stakes content. Diversity isn't just a HR metric; it's a factual safety net.
The KTVU error wasn't just a funny YouTube clip. It was a failure of empathy and a failure of process. It reminds us that behind every "breaking news" banner is a human being who might just be having a very tired, very unobservant day. In the world of 2026, where misinformation is the default, being the person who pauses to say "Wait, does this make sense?" is the most valuable role in the room.