The hot mic — every broadcaster’s worst fear. When the cameras are on, they project professionalism and poise while giving us the news in a distinguished, polished voice. But despite their nearly flawless on-camera personas, people who work in the news are still just people, and not only do they make mistakes, they also have real-life emotions and opinions.
And sometimes, the cameras are still rolling when they express them.
Mediaite presents five of the most classic examples in hot mic, outtake, and unaired meltdowns from some of the most well-known names in news.
5. Sue Simmons: “What the fuck are you doing?”
Sue Simmons, the legendary WNBC anchor in New York, let the fuck bomb slip at the very tail end of an evening broadcast segment, thinking she was clear to yell at someone behind the scenes. It was a brief but memorable moment, and she issued an apology to viewers when the newscast resumed.
While receiving an award in 2012 for her achievements in journalism, Simmons explained what happened that night. She started by providing some context, namely that her co-anchor Chuck Scarborough would often get distracted by his computer at the anchor desk. And unless she was told she was live or got the all-clear that she wasn’t, she would often get “caught.” But someone was filling in that night who didn’t know this, and so Simmons got “caught”:
The teleprompter came up, and I started reading. I finished my part. And I didn’t hear anything. And I look over, and Chuck was in the computer. So I thought I’d get his attention.
After reenacting the line that went down in history — “What the fuck are you doing?” — she added, “You know he still didn’t hear me?? Everybody in New York and wherever heard me!”
4. Tucker Carlson’s Interview Goes Very Badly
Tucker Carlson, who has worked for CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and now Twitter/X, tried to interview Dutch historian Rutger Bregman about his criticism at the Davos World Economic Forum in 2019 of the rich not paying their taxes. The conversation went horribly once Bregman called out Carlson — and Fox News, where Carlson was still working at the time — for being “bought by the billionaire class.”
But it really took a turn when Bregman accused Carlson of taking his marching orders from the Murdochs, who he said were taking their orders from the Koch brothers, saying, “You are a millionaire funded by billionaires” who was taking “dirty money.” Carlson apparently snapped and laced into Bregman in an expletive-filled tirade:
I wanna say to you, why don’t you go fuck yourself, you tiny-brain — and I hope this gets picked up because you’re a moron. I tried to give you a hearing, but you were too fucking annoying.
As Bregman predicted during the conversation, Fox News did not air the interview. Bregman filmed the encounter, however, and subsequently leaked it himself.
3. Elisabeth Hasselbeck Loses Her Cool After Being Reprimanded by Barbara Walters
Back in 2006, when Elisabeth Hasselbeck was a co-host of ABC’s The View, a conversation about the morning-after pill got very heated. Hasselbeck, who is anti-abortion, got especially worked up and vocal, which led the late Barbara Walters to tell her to “calm down” and later say, “We’ve got to be able to have these discussions and listen to other people’s opinions and not go so crazy that you don’t listen to anybody.”
Hasselbeck took the remarks very personally, and while still on the air, she can be seen ripping up her note cards. Once the cameras were off (and the mics still on), Hasselbeck stormed backstage, followed by co-host Joy Behar, and broke into a rant over the conversation:
Hasselbeck: Fuck that! I’m not going to sit there and get reprimanded on air!
Behar: You were fine.
Hasselbeck: I am not going to get reprimanded. No, it’s not okay to sit there and get reprimanded on the air! … What the fuck?! I’m not going back out there. I’m not going back out there.
She later said about Walters, “This woman is driving me nuts!” Then she appeared to flat-out quit and leave:
Good-bye! I’m off! Write about that in The New York Fucking Post!
Hasselbeck was fired from The View in 2013. In 2019, when the audio of her meltdown leaked, she posted an explanation on Instagram:
This. Just. In: Yes-There were times when I was quite humanly reactive. I used a bad word when frustrated. I was pregnant with Taylor and a big conversation about the value and the lives of the unborn took place at the View.
2. Lawrence O’Donnell’s Epic 8-Minute MSNBC Meltdown
In outtakes that were anonymously leaked to Mediaite back in 2017, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell had an exceptionally frustrating night when some off-camera hammering and control room chaos got the better of him. In between taped segments of The Last Word, his anger gradually increased until he finally let loose on everyone in the studio:
“STOP THE HAMMERING!” O’Donnell cries suddenly, in response to a knocking sound running faintly in the background.
He then stands up and launches into a shouted tirade past the camera.
“STOP THE HAMMERING UP THERE. WHO’S GOT A HAMMER? WHERE IS IT? WHERE’S THE HAMMER? GO UP ON THE OTHER FLOOR. SOMEBODY GO UP THERE AND STOP THE HAMMERING. STOP THE HAMMERING. I’LL GO DOWN TO THE GODDAMNED FLOOR MYSELF AND STOP IT, KEEP THE GODDAMNED COMMERCIAL BREAK GOING. CALL FUCKING [THEN-MSNBC PRESIDENT] PHIL GRIFFIN, I DON’T CARE WHO THE FUCK YOU HAVE TO CALL. STOP THE HAMMERING. EMPTY OUT THE GODDAMNED CONTROL ROOM AND FIND OUT WHERE THIS IS GOING ON.”
He added: “Fucking out of control shit.”
O’Donnell issued a cut-and-dry apology for his extended outburst on Twitter: “A better anchorman and a better person would’ve had a better reaction to technical difficulties. I’m sorry.”
An editor at NBC’s Today was discovered to have leaked the audio and was subsequently fired.
1. Bill O’Reilly Will DO IT LIVE
In what has become the most memorable — and meme-able — hot mic moment by a news personality, Bill O’Reilly struggled while taping an episode of Inside Edition, which he hosted from 1989 to 1995.
In the video, which surfaced in 2008 under the title “Bill O’Reilly Goes Nuts,” the former Fox News star apparently did not understand what the phrase “play us out” meant, so it was not a line he could deliver easily. But rather than keep his cool and just read the prompter, he flipped out:
There’s no words there! “To play us out”? What does that mean, “to play us out”?! … I don’t know what that means! “To play us out”? What does that mean? To end the show?
His frustration swelled, and then he erupted:
We’ll do it live. WE’LL DO IT LIVE! FUCK IT, WE’LL DO IT LIVE! I’LL WRITE IT AND WE’LL DO IT LIVE! THIS FUCKING THING SUCKS!
For more media moments like these, subscribe to Mediaite on YouTube.
