Posted in On the DL Podcast
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08/12 2010

DL418: Phil Catelinet Relives His JetBlue Media Whirlwind. Plus: Sports

Posted by Dan Levy.

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Phil Catelinet is a longtime listener to the show and now, news media veteran. He was on the JetBlue flight from Pittsburgh to New York where the flight attendant went nutso. Phil tweeted about the incident, and the flight attendant talking about things on the Air Train back to the train/parking areas. It ended up turning into a media whirlwind that included interviews with the local newspapers, local TV and even a run of interviews on Today, CBS Early Show, CNN and Fox News, to name a few.

READ PHIL’S TAKE HERE.

We talk about the experience — and how until last night he seemed to be the only person on the plane who had talked on the record — and he takes us through an unbelievable chain of behind-the-scenes media events that give a great look into the world of TV “journalism.” This story includes everything from reporters staking out his apartment to networks asking for exclusivity to producers calling his mother in Pittsburgh and father in DC to try and get them to convince him to come on and talk about the situation.

Keep in mind, Phil didn’t actually see anything. He heard the intercom and was in the train when the attendant re-told the story. He had the presence of mind to tweet things out, but was not (a) the attendant or (b) the passenger in the fight with said attendant. Yet, for one day (and presumably more until he cut it off) he was the most wanted guest in TV news.

Think about it…if the reporters could find Phil’s PARENTS, why couldn’t they find anyone else on the plane to talk? Again, this is a really interesting look into the rat race world of TV news.

SPORTS, MORE

Nick and I compare Phil’s “fame” to Antoine Dodson before arguing about sports matters including Jim Gray v. Corey Pavin and the NYDN article on K-Rod. People seem to like when we argue, so…you’re welcome.

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Posted on August 12, 2010 at 9:19AM

 

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  1. Becky Catelinet
    08/12 2010

    I’m Phil Catelinet’s mother – I live in a small town in southwestern PA. I just listened to the podcast and agree with you that the media circus is the real story. You commented about how weird it is that the media found Phil’s parents. It’s really more than weird- it’s frightening. I asked one of the news people who phoned looking for Phil how he found me. He told me that there are advanced search engines that list much about a person, including social security numbers. As we were chatting he looked me up somewhere on line and told me that the first 5 digits of my social security number were listed on that particular site. That scares me! On a different thread – one media person found me at 4 PM on Tuesday (very late, I thought, since CNN phoned at 6 am!). That person wanted to know if Phil knew what beer the attendant took with him. She phoned the next day to ask if Phil had any description of the offending passenger or the passenger who talked to the attendant on the air train. She said that if she had any descriptions she could use a process of elimination to figure out those people’s names and contact them. She must have gotten a passenger list – but would it have included age, hair color, eye color, height, weight? And how desperate are the media for someone, anyone to talk to? Our local tv station would have done an interview with me, asking me how I learned about the incident, if Phil had not phoned them. Good grief! This episode has been quite an eye-opener for me!