Shell
01-09-2004, 04:46 PM
man oh man, that's a bad day at work if you saved in the wrong place!
Wrong numbers! Celeb phones leaked
By Glen Warchol
The Salt Lake Tribune
Every fan has fantasized about picking up the phone and talking sports with Steve Young, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Mike Ditka. Or about asking Pete Rose why he would gamble away the Hall of Fame.
It's an impossible fantasy given brief credibility Wednesday by The Associated Press. The world's largest wire service accidentally transmitted an internal list of sports figures' phone numbers to many of its media customers.
The AP phone list, packed with more than 750 celebrity listings -- many of them home and cell numbers -- would seem a fantastic resource, if nothing else, for settling barroom bets.
Predictably, within 24 hours, angry sports figures were calling the AP to ask why their confidential numbers were released to the world.
Jack Stokes, an AP spokesman, said the list originated from the New York sports desk, and was transmitted only to newspapers and television and radio stations that subscribe to higher levels of the AP sports wire. News agencies, as members of the AP service, get stories, pictures and other information transmitted directly to their computer systems. The agencies then choose items from this information smorgasbord to print or broadcast.
Just after noon Wednesday MST, someone in the New York AP office improperly saved the internal sports contact list, somehow launching it onto the sports wire.
"It was a mistake," Stokes said. "It's a very internal list. It's only used by our people for their own purposes. . . . It was never released by The Associated Press. It was something that went out that wasn't intended to go out."
Stokes would not say how many members received the list. But by noon Thursday, just about anyone with an interest in sports knew about it.
The AP quickly sent out a high priority "kill" message to news editors:
"KILL the file PHONES that moved inadvertently . . .
Please make sure that the file is killed out of your system and is not published or distributed.
The AP"
It was too late. Although no member has published the list, someone apparently pasted it into an e-mail and hit "send."
And telephones around the country began ringing.
"For us this is extremely unfortunate because of the people on the other end [of the numbers]. I have personally received complaints from people and tried to explain how it happened and our role in it," Stokes said. "Some of these numbers were meant for internal family purposes."
Because any industrious sports fan probably can track down a copy of the AP list online, it is important to note: It is very old. Many numbers are now held by people who never threw a knockout punch or drove a NASCAR racer. And they probably won't be thrilled to hear from you.
In other cases, it is unlikely you could afford the long-distance rates even if the numbers connected for late football great Y.A. Tittle, male chauvinist tennis player Bobby Riggs, track star Florence Griffith Joyner or movie star and late Anaheim Angels owner Gene Autry. And you'll need a cryogenic miracle to chat with departed baseball hitting star Ted Williams, also on the list.
Meanwhile, the AP is trying to pin down exactly what happened and the extent of the damage, Stokes said.
"We are always taking precautions against sending out material that is confidential," he said. "But the AP sends out millions of words every day and we do make mistakes."
Who ya gonna call?
* Some of the prominent names included on the phone list:
Hank Aaron
Joan Benoit
Yogi Berra
President Bush
Jeff Gordon
Magic Johnson
Don King
Carl Lewis
Willie Mays
Merlin Olsen
Pete Rose
Bud Selig
O.J. Simpson
Mark Spitz
Wrong numbers! Celeb phones leaked
By Glen Warchol
The Salt Lake Tribune
Every fan has fantasized about picking up the phone and talking sports with Steve Young, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Mike Ditka. Or about asking Pete Rose why he would gamble away the Hall of Fame.
It's an impossible fantasy given brief credibility Wednesday by The Associated Press. The world's largest wire service accidentally transmitted an internal list of sports figures' phone numbers to many of its media customers.
The AP phone list, packed with more than 750 celebrity listings -- many of them home and cell numbers -- would seem a fantastic resource, if nothing else, for settling barroom bets.
Predictably, within 24 hours, angry sports figures were calling the AP to ask why their confidential numbers were released to the world.
Jack Stokes, an AP spokesman, said the list originated from the New York sports desk, and was transmitted only to newspapers and television and radio stations that subscribe to higher levels of the AP sports wire. News agencies, as members of the AP service, get stories, pictures and other information transmitted directly to their computer systems. The agencies then choose items from this information smorgasbord to print or broadcast.
Just after noon Wednesday MST, someone in the New York AP office improperly saved the internal sports contact list, somehow launching it onto the sports wire.
"It was a mistake," Stokes said. "It's a very internal list. It's only used by our people for their own purposes. . . . It was never released by The Associated Press. It was something that went out that wasn't intended to go out."
Stokes would not say how many members received the list. But by noon Thursday, just about anyone with an interest in sports knew about it.
The AP quickly sent out a high priority "kill" message to news editors:
"KILL the file PHONES that moved inadvertently . . .
Please make sure that the file is killed out of your system and is not published or distributed.
The AP"
It was too late. Although no member has published the list, someone apparently pasted it into an e-mail and hit "send."
And telephones around the country began ringing.
"For us this is extremely unfortunate because of the people on the other end [of the numbers]. I have personally received complaints from people and tried to explain how it happened and our role in it," Stokes said. "Some of these numbers were meant for internal family purposes."
Because any industrious sports fan probably can track down a copy of the AP list online, it is important to note: It is very old. Many numbers are now held by people who never threw a knockout punch or drove a NASCAR racer. And they probably won't be thrilled to hear from you.
In other cases, it is unlikely you could afford the long-distance rates even if the numbers connected for late football great Y.A. Tittle, male chauvinist tennis player Bobby Riggs, track star Florence Griffith Joyner or movie star and late Anaheim Angels owner Gene Autry. And you'll need a cryogenic miracle to chat with departed baseball hitting star Ted Williams, also on the list.
Meanwhile, the AP is trying to pin down exactly what happened and the extent of the damage, Stokes said.
"We are always taking precautions against sending out material that is confidential," he said. "But the AP sends out millions of words every day and we do make mistakes."
Who ya gonna call?
* Some of the prominent names included on the phone list:
Hank Aaron
Joan Benoit
Yogi Berra
President Bush
Jeff Gordon
Magic Johnson
Don King
Carl Lewis
Willie Mays
Merlin Olsen
Pete Rose
Bud Selig
O.J. Simpson
Mark Spitz