Bay Area TV: Three KTVU Producers Fired Over Namegate

KTVU-TV has dismissed at least three veteran producers over the on-air gaffe involving the fake names of those Asiana airline pilots that became an instant YouTube hit - and a major embarrassment to the station.

According to sftgate.com, investigative producer Roland DeWolk, special projects producer Cristina Gastelu and producer Brad Belstock were all sent packing following an in-house investigation into the July 12 broadcast of four fake names of the pilots involved in the Asiana Flight 214 crash at San Francisco International Airport on July 6.

A fourth told colleagues he was leaving for health reasons.

During its noon newscast on July 12, anchor Tori Campbell announced that "KTVU has just learned the names of the four pilots who were on board" the ill-fated plane - then proceeded to read from a teleprompter while the phony names were displayed on a graphic.

Two days ago, blogs began posting that Cox Communications, KTVU's parent company, had sent copyright infringement notices to YouTube - demanding that the offensive video of Campbell's newscast be removed.

Sources told sfgate.com,  the fake names - which had been posted on the Internet at least two days before - came to the station via e-mail from an expert source who had provided information to the station in the past.

Read More Now