Captioning screwup during Clinton's interview last night

JanEllenBall

JanEllenBall

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Last night, I sat and watched Peter Jennings talking to Former President Clinton about his new Presidential Library in Arkansas. We always use the CC because otherwise we would have to turn up the television so loud we'd scare the neighbors. (wink) Anyway...President Clinton was talking about some foreign dignitary or leader somewhere (I think in Africa somewhere?) that did away with FEES in their schools...and the CC came across the screen that he did away with THEIVES in their schools.

Um....

I was a bit confused for a while there...until my Dad explained to me that the captioning was incorrect. Thank God for Dad! LOL!

We are constantly finding blunders like this...but it's usually during our local news programming and not as much with the National programs...it sure can lead to confusion though, especially when there's no hearing person around to set you straight. Sometimes you can figure them out on your own...but sometimes they are just WAY off the mark and leave you sitting there saying ...


"huh?"

LOL!
 
Captioning always screw up on FOX News Channel. Why dont we sue the person who types up mispelled words? ;)
 
ROFL, Ravensteve...

Nah, let's not sue them...maybe they're pedaling as fast as they can...hehehe...this was just a case of typing the complete wrong word, so maybe the catptioner's hearing isn't all that great either? (grin) Maybe they heard "thieves" instead of "fees".

Stranger things have happened, no?

I just thought it was awfully interesting. I didn't realize they did so many "bloopers" on the Fox News Channel...lol...I'll have to check that out. Our local news is just HORRIBLE with mistakes...and they will be talking and as they cut to a commercial, they'll completely just stop showing the captioning for what they just said so you will likely only get a partial sentence. It's really aggrivating.
 
Captioning Screw-Up

This is my first post on these boards. I stumbled onto this site and found it very interesting. Upfront, you should know I have no problems with hearing.
I am a NJ court stenographer hoping to better understand the needs of the hearing-impaired and how to use my skills in meeting those needs.
ROFLOL! Please don't sue captioners!!! Most are court reporters and we are only human! We don't "type"; we "write." And we write what we hear -- and we don't hear words; we hear sounds. People from different geographical areas speak differently -- i.e., New Yorkers drop their final "r"s and say "brotha" instead of "brother." Others speak so quickly, they slur "th" and it sounds like "s." When one is trying to write at 225 words per minute, it sometimes too late to correct an error AND keep up with a speaker. Also, we have a limited number of keys and are taught to write phoentically. It's sometimes difficult to write words such "there" "they're" and "their" the correct way. Like all people, our weakest fingers are the 4th fingers on each hand. That's the one we use to write "ing." Sometimes the weak 4th finger doesn't hit the keyboard hard enough to register. I have written "sinning" instead of "singing." And that was in church!
So please -- understand that realtime court reporters have put in many, many hours of trying new ways of writing words that sound the same, proper names (some of them are doozies!), medical terms, chemical terms, and foreign phrases we're not even sure we heard correctly!
We are trying.
- Kathy
 
Kathy,
Thanks for the information in regards to CC. I had always wondered how it worked. I didn't know if somebody there was typing what was being said or if there was something like voice recognition software that translated it into text (we tried something similar at a radio station I worked at with voice recognition so the deaf could 'watch' the radio news over the internet).

I've seen some strange goof-ups that didn't look like a person did it. Sports games seem to suffer most, as well as our local newscasts. Its interesting to know that there is a human on the other end who is typing as fast as those fingers can go :)

BTW, Welcome to AD!!!!
 
The errors, screw-ups and whatnot usually occur during live broadcasts. You will see FAR fewer mistakes in programming that is not live, like your movies, etc.
 
Captioning Screw-Up

Thank you both for your replies. I think, and maybe I'm biased because I'm a reporter, captioning is far superior to voice recognition software. That still has so many bugs to work out. One of the biggest bugs is word boundaries. Voice recog. scans its databases for a match to a sound -- you may say "my greatgrandmother," but the software spits back "migrate grandmother." You may say "warehousemen" and the computer spits out "we're house men."
Live captioning is the most difficult. You don't get a second chance. And a huge problem in news is all the foreign diplomats/heads of state, etc., names. If a captioner is well-versed in sports figures' names and there's a special broadcast right in the middle of a sport captioning, well, sometimes the best the captioner can do for Koffi Annan may be Coffee Anon!! The captioner must think quickly of any words stored in the dictionary that most closely replicates the real words.
But, as most captioners would tell you, the HOH are just that -- HOH -- not stupid.
So bear with us. Some errors will always occur.
- Kathy
 
Kathy,
I hope you didn't get the impression I was being critical of your profession...thats not the case. I've seen the errors you've mentioned on the voice recognition but thought broadcast companies would have something superior to what the average user would have at home. It is nice to know that there are folks on the other end doing that. It is definately a greatly needed and greatly appreciated service. Just don't get upset if we crack a little smile during the mistakes, much like when your watching the news and the anchor makes a mistake and sends it to the wrong person or the weather map suddenly comes up on the screen when they are talking about an abandoned building fire...we shouldn't laugh, but sometimes we do ;) I meant no disrepect at all and I hope I didn't come across that way.
 
Captioning Screw-Up

I didn't think you were being critical and I wasn't offended at all. I've seen my own mistakes!! Preacher once said after we die, we would fly. Well, I wrote after we die, we would fry! The worst was when preacher said, when Jesus performed a miracle, He "dipped into his deity." Well, not that day. That day Jesus "dipped into his diet tea"!!!
I have thousands of words, prefixes, suffixes in my dictionary -- I didn't know "deity" wasn't there!!!
But, with all the complaining you deafies do -- at least you don't deal with one thing court reporters deal with:
I never heard yet of anyone signing with a stutter or a lisp!!!!
LOL!!
- Kathy
 
kathy said:
This is my first post on these boards. I stumbled onto this site and found it very interesting. Upfront, you should know I have no problems with hearing.
I am a NJ court stenographer hoping to better understand the needs of the hearing-impaired and how to use my skills in meeting those needs.
ROFLOL! Please don't sue captioners!!! Most are court reporters and we are only human! We don't "type"; we "write." And we write what we hear -- and we don't hear words; we hear sounds. People from different geographical areas speak differently -- i.e., New Yorkers drop their final "r"s and say "brotha" instead of "brother." Others speak so quickly, they slur "th" and it sounds like "s." When one is trying to write at 225 words per minute, it sometimes too late to correct an error AND keep up with a speaker. Also, we have a limited number of keys and are taught to write phoentically. It's sometimes difficult to write words such "there" "they're" and "their" the correct way. Like all people, our weakest fingers are the 4th fingers on each hand. That's the one we use to write "ing." Sometimes the weak 4th finger doesn't hit the keyboard hard enough to register. I have written "sinning" instead of "singing." And that was in church!
So please -- understand that realtime court reporters have put in many, many hours of trying new ways of writing words that sound the same, proper names (some of them are doozies!), medical terms, chemical terms, and foreign phrases we're not even sure we heard correctly!
We are trying.
- Kathy
Click to expand...
I've always figured that. I applaud these people for their effort. Of course, it's up to us to use our common sense to figure out what they're saying. :thumb:
 
Captioning Screw-Up

Nesmuth,
I see you are a professional in the HOH organizations. Please read my posting "I need Advice." I really, really do need advice. I'm so angry that I put in so many hours building my dictionary, trying to caption, doing research - and now the State won't recognize that as credit to keep my court reporting license. You know what they would accept? Taking a seminar in accounting!!! AARRGGHH!!
I'm a court reporter. My license is in court reporting. Captioners are court reporters. What the heck do I want a seminar in accounting for??????!!! What would I do with 4 hours of accouting lessons??? My checkbook is already balanced (that's what husbands are for).
- Kathy
 
Hi, I'm new to AllDeaf and am really enjoying looking around! I'm hearing and learning signs and I had to laugh when Kathy said:

kathy said:
But, with all the complaining you deafies do -- at least you don't deal with one thing court reporters deal with:
I never heard yet of anyone signing with a stutter or a lisp!!!!
LOL!!
- Kathy
Click to expand...

I actually have caught myself "stuttering" as I sign! I've noticed that I tend to repete or bounce certain signs. I have also been told that sometimes my signs are a little unclear, so you could say I "mumble" too! lol Obviously I have a lot to learn and need more practice signing! :)
 
CC Methods... Revisited...

This thread is almost 2 years old now. Kathy was explaining how CC is accomplished and the reason some words tend to come out jumbled, broken, wrong, etc. on live broadcasts. Also, how CC on movies tend to be better since it is not live.

From this AD forum, I learned that our TV could do CC and leave the audio on; simultaneously. I always thought CC was not activated until the audio was muted. Now my wife (hearing) and I (HoH) can watch the same TV. :ty:

My wife and I have noticed how live broadcasts continue to have errors, esspecially on the "critical" word of the whole sentence. LOL

We have also noticed how movies seem to have CC synced with the audio.

MY QUESTION

For live broadcasts, are they still using humans punching out word sounds at 225 WPM or has the technology changed over the past 2 years?

I was hoping to be able to understand the spoken news broadcasts better with CC but I'm still missing words because the CC terp did not get it right either. Hmmm...

Anyone out there in the CC business that has the inside scoop? I'm curious. TIA! :ty:

Dave
 
Hi kathy, great to see you posting here and clearing that up.

I'll remember to be more understanding in the future. :)
 
I remember the first time I heard my mother swear was when the word ship got captioned as sh*t. She thought it was funny. I was surpised at her reaction and her humor. I've never heard her swear since.
 
When My husband and I was visiting at my sister's house. My sister turned on TV with CC. My sister gave me the bad look! I asked her what was wrong? She said that their voices did not matched with CC on TV! My sister is a hearing person. I told her to thanking for telling us about the CC itself.

JanEllenBall, You are exactly right!!!
 
OK, I just have to add a little humor to this thread! Hmm, Clinton dealing with THIEVES, are you sure that is a typo? Seriously!

Also, As I was reading the title and the beginning of the first post, I was expecting the error to say something like "I DID have sexual relations with that woman" or Instead of saying "I did not inhale" I was expecting to see "I did not EXHALE" For years now I have been saying that he screwed up his words. I bet he meant to say he did nt exhale (he held his hit until it was all gone!

Sorry, back to the serios nature of this thread.
 
Wheelin Rev said:
For live broadcasts, are they still using humans punching out word sounds at 225 WPM or has the technology changed over the past 2 years?
Click to expand...
Yes, CC is still done by live people rather than machines. The technology can HELP the captioner, but it is still mostly up to the person to get it right.
 
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