As much as I feel sorry for her, there is no way in the world I would want to switch places with CNN anchor Kyra Phillips right now. If you weren’t familiar with her name prior to Tuesday, it’s likely that you are now (you and probably half the world).
To put it mildly, Phillips “unwittingly upstaged President George W. Bush’s speech in New Orleans with an on-the-air analysis of her husband and the marriage of her brother” from the inside of a CNN ladies room. Basically, she left her anchor chair to take a bathroom break while the president was on-air marking the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. However, Phillips was unaware that she had left her wireless microphone on while doing so. The result: what has got to be her most embarrassing moment ever and what has turned out to fodder for every late-night talk show host from here to Germany.
Phillips conversation with an unidentified woman bled into the president’s speech. Viewers could hear the anchor “dismissing most men with a vulgar term,” before she redeemed herself by proclaiming that she herself had found a winner in her own husband.
This is what CNN viewers could hear Phillips’ saying while the president was also on-air speaking about Katrina’s aftermath: (To see video of the entire incident click here.)
“My husband is handsome and he is genuinely a loving – you know, no ego – you know what I’m saying? Just a really passionate, compassionate, great, great human being. And they exist. They do exist. They’re hard to find. Yup. But they are out there.”
Now if that were the end of the Phillips’ conversation… if that was all that was broadcast to millions of viewers around the world—PERHAPS, all could be forgiven. However, Phillips did not stop there. Instead she later observed out loud that “brothers have to be, you know, protective. Except for mine. I’ve got to be protective of him.” Why? “His wife is just a control freak.”
It was at that point that a production assistant ran into the restroom to notify Phillips that her mic was still on. Phillips later apologized to viewers “for an issue we had with our mikes” and “for a little bit of an interruption there during the president.”
Oh, I cringe for Phillips. When I was a television reporter I once went to the bathroom with my microphone on, however, nothing that transpired in there was broadcast live on-air. The only reason I knew I had not turned it off was that when I returned to the set, the photographer I was working with asked if my mic was still on. Nothing that compares to what Phillips experienced.
I heard on NBC today that while Phillips has not publicly commented about the incident(besides the aformentioned comment on Tuesday) her father told reporters that he was sure that she would issue an apology to her sister-in-law regarding the “control freak” remark. After all, he said, “It takes one to know one.”
What was your most embarrassing moment?