'We must be in heaven together'
Friend says DiMaggio well after seeing death reported
Posted: Tuesday January 26, 1999 07:36 AM
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DiMaggio was very upset after watching NBC's false report of his death AP |
NEW YORK (AP) -- Joe DiMaggio was watching NBC when the network reported
he had died, a friend said Monday.
"He was livid," said Morris Engelberg, who was with the New York Yankees great
when the erroneous report was broadcast Sunday night. "Then I made him
laugh. I said, 'Joe, we must be in heaven together."'
NBC said a technician in the network's New York control room
inadvertently sent the erroneous report during the "Dateline NBC" program.
The report came on as a "crawl," or words running at the bottom of the
television screen, at about 7:30 p.m. EST: "This is an NBC News Special
Report. Baseball legend Joe DiMaggio has died at his Florida home. He was
84 years old and had." The message was then cut off.
NBC ran another crawl about 20 minutes later, saying its previous report
was inaccurate. "Mr. DiMaggio remains in stable condition at his Florida
home," the report said, running over a taped Katie Couric interview with
actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
"He just hit the wrong button," network spokesman Cory Shields said of
the technician. Shields would not identify the technician.
Engelberg said he and DiMaggio happened to be watching a video of a
movie, "Gunfight at the OK Corral," and had just stopped the tape when the
report was aired.
DiMaggio, who has lung cancer, was released last week from Memorial
Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla., after spending 99 days in intensive
care. He is too weak to undergo chemotherapy.
An NBC employee had typed the report and stored it in NBC's computer
earlier in the day after reading a New York Daily News report that DiMaggio
was in grave condition. The report quoted a source as saying DiMaggio had
been released from the hospital because there was nothing else that could
be done for him. Engelberg called the report "absurd."
Not only is DiMaggio not dead, he is not in hopeless condition, his
doctor said today.
"He is progressing nicely since his discharge from Memorial Regional
Hospital one week ago," Dr. Earl Barron said in a statement faxed to The
Associated Press. "Over the weekend, his physical therapy has
progressed to the point that he is walking. Reports of his condition
worsening are not true."
NBC was trying to reach DiMaggio's camp to apologize but hadn't reached
anyone yet, spokeswoman Alex Constantinopole said today.
Although the erroneous NBC report was sent out only on East Coast
stations, some affiliates in the Midwest or West may have also picked up
the report and run it, Shields said.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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