In the recording, Siegel announces the approach of the asteroid, confidently remarks that NPR would have the best analysis of the impact the day after, and assures listeners that they can still become members of their local public radio station. The recording is of Robert Siegel (as identified in the transcript, since the speaker in the recording quips, "I'm - well, who cares? I won't be for long.") announcing special coverage of the end of the world (specifically one from an imminent asteroid impact). An "excerpt" was broadcast on the Januedition of Weekend Edition. In response to the leak, National Public Radio undertook a search of their archives for similar recordings, and "found" one - or, rather, NPR produced a satirical send-up of such an "end of the world" recording that poked fun at the network's own reputation. The film consists of a sequence of subtly humorous scenarios (stockbrokers spend "playtime" outside the London Stock Exchange jumping and skipping a paramedic comforting an injured old woman gives her a brief kiss on the cheek a man with a cigarette gets the offer of a light from a group of six-year-olds), all set against a backdrop of patriotic British music. The 1994 British television satirical comedy series The Day Today features such a broadcast in Episode 3, after Queen Elizabeth II and then Prime Minister John Major had a fight. After the leak of the CNN video, director Joe Dante joked, "I think ours was better." In the 1990 comedy film Gremlins 2: The New Batch, the character Daniel Clamp has a similar "end of civilization" video ready to air on his news network. However, the video did not become available to the public until 2015, when a writer for Jalopnik revealed a copy of the video that he had recorded during a 2009 internship. Rumors of the video have existed as early as 1988, when The New Yorker published an article describing it. The video is in standard definition and the 4:3 aspect ratio in use at the time of its production. We'll play the National Anthem only one time, on the first of June, and when the end of the world comes, we'll play "Nearer My God To Thee" before we sign off. We'll be on, and we will cover it live, and that will be our last, last event. Īt CNN's launch, Ted Turner declared, "Barring satellite problems, we won't be signing off until the world ends": After they recorded it, Turner asked if they would record a song just in case the world came to an end. The doomsday video was finally brought out into the light seven years ago, when a Jalopnik writer revealed he discovered the file in the internal CNN database as an intern back in 2009.The recording was made right after " The Star-Spangled Banner" was recorded for CNN's sign-on (which also appeared in TNT's sign-on from 1988). Though the video had never been seen publicly until 2015, there had always been rumors of its existence, going back to 1988. Turner himself instructed the video to be made, and it features members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine bands all playing the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee” together in what amounts to a pretty haunting performance that certainly wouldn’t do much to calm my fears of any impending apocalypse. Not many people might have taken him literally, but the “Turner Doomsday Video” is an actual clip that was planned to play in the event of a doomsday event like, say, all-out nuclear warfare or an alien invasion. When CNN launched in 1980, Ted Turner had his cable news station ready for just such a scenario, as he said, “Barring satellite problems, we won’t be signing off until the world ends.” It never hurts to be prepared, even as the world is ending.
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