I’m not sure who moominvillea is, but they appear to have set up a twitter account for the sole purpose of tweeting news outlets about what he’s calling “beergate.” I don’t know much, but apparently “Finnish news anchor Kimmo Wilska [was] reporting on misconduct of bars selling alcohol [and was caught on camera pretending to drink a bottle of beer]. He was fired later at same day.”
According to the Helsinki Times:
The Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) has sacked Kimmo Wilska, a newsreader who pretended to drink from a beer bottle during a bulletin featuring a report on alcohol licence inspections on Wednesday.
Wilska had worked for YLE’s English-language service on an occasional basis.
Timo Kämäräinen, a managing editor in charge of the English-language service, said the public broadcaster did not tolerate the kind of behaviour seen on Wednesday in any of its news bulletins.
The UK’s Asylum adds the following details:
In what turned out to be his last on-air report for YLE, Finland’s second-largest TV channel, [Wilska] carried out a rather amusing prank that unfortunately got him oh-so-very-fired.
As you’ll see from the clip below, as he speaks over footage of beers being poured, the camera quickly cuts back to the studio to show Kimmo, beer in hand, the amber nectar dribbling out of the top.
He swiftly puts the boozy beverage down, and carries on with his report. A joke, of course, but his bosses failed to see the funny side, promptly giving him the boot.
Known as ‘Finland’s Barry White’ because of his sonorous voice, a Facebook support group has already sprung up, defending Kimmo for a joke he promises wasn’t meant to be aired, and was solely for the crew’s amusement.
A Facebook support page, the Kimmo Wilska Support Group, as of this evening has attracted over 48,000 supporters. Even the L.A. Times is covering the story.
Below is the video, at least for now. Several sources are saying that YLE is “forcibly remov[ing] the YouTube video claiming copyright law, even though there are GAZILLIONS of other YLE videos on YouTube. They seem to be particular[ly] angry about this one.” If it’s gone, just search his name and you’ll undoubtedly find another version, because I don’t think YLE will be able to shut down all of them now that it’s gone viral.
At first blush, it certainly seems like the television station’s knee-jerk reaction to fire him was a fairly stupid decision.
Now that is funny. I guess the Finnish TV powers that be need a dose of lighten up.