CONAN'S EMMY CRASH

What was the big news story today?

It was a tragic one. Forty-nine people were killed, more than lost their lives at Qana.

The Comair flight 5191 crash dominated the news. If one went online, turned on a TV or a radio, it was impossible to miss.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -- A commuter jet mistakenly trying to take off on a runway that was too short crashed into a field Sunday and burst into flames, killing 49 people and leaving the lone survivor _ a co-pilot _ in critical condition, federal investigators said.

Preliminary flight data from Comair Flight 5191's black box recorders and the damage at the scene indicate the plane, a CRJ-100 regional jet, took off from the shortest runway at Lexington's Blue Grass Airport, National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said.

Each life lost in the crash is a tragedy, a horrible loss for the individual's family and friends.

The deaths of Jon Hooker and Scarlett Parsley were especially sad. The couple had just been married the day before and were on their way to their honeymoon.

Their story--

A former pick in the First-Year Player Draft was among 49 passengers who perished Sunday in the Comair Flight 5191 plane crash. He and his new bride were bound for their honeymoon following a lavish wedding the night before in his home state of Kentucky.

Jon Hooker, 27, pitched for the University of Kentucky from 1998-2001, posting a 5-5 career record and a 3.23 ERA with 11 saves as a senior. He was selected by the Cleveland Indians after his junior season, in the 40th round (1,205th overall), but elected to return to the Wildcats for his senior year.

Hooker was undrafted after college but signed a free-agent contract with the Chicago White Sox in 2001, reporting to their mini-camp in Tucson, Ariz. He subsequently played professionally for Independent League teams in Fargo, N.D., and Joliet, Ill., before returning to his hometown in the Lexington area.

Hooker and wife, Scarlett Parsley, were married there Saturday night before 300 friends and family members Saturday night in a ceremony that featured a horse-drawn carriage, according to former Kentucky baseball coach Keith Madison, who was in attendance. The newlyweds then were on the pre-dawn flight headed for Atlanta, but the commuter flight crashed into a wooded area just after takeoff.

Given the tragic events of earlier today, I was floored when I saw Conan O'Brien's opening bit on the Emmys tonight on NBC.

It was a taped piece. O'Brien was dressed in a tux, on a plane, headed to the Emmys. The flight attendant asked O'Brien how he was doing. He replied that everything was great. O'Brien asked, "What could possibly go wrong?"

Then, the audience was treated to a rather lengthy crash scene. There were no exterior shots of the plane, only interior scenes of the chaos during the crash, people being tossed around, etc. Then, O'Brien emerged out of the ocean, a survivor.

The crash scene was long enough for me to get really creeped out by it.

On a day when a plane went down in Kentucky and 49 people were killed, I think it was in exceedingly bad taste.

NBC had plenty of time to at least whittle the opener down a bit. The crash could easily have been cut out without axing the entire spoof. It would have worked to show the exchange between O'Brien and the flight attendant, and O'Brien's "What could possibly go wrong?" Then, the next scene could have been O'Brien walking out of the surf.

That would have been a much more sensitive way to handle it.

It made me very uncomfortable to hear the audience laughing. I wondered how they could be so clueless. Didn't anyone make the connection between the skit and Flight 5191?

It was just another indication of how insulated and out of touch Hollywood is from the real world.

To their credit, Edie Falco and James Gandolfini mentioned the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan when they were on stage to present an award; but no one that I heard said a word about the crash of Flight 5191.

Within the course of the three hour broadcast, you'd think that there would have been enough negative feedback from affiliates that NBC would have changed course. Wouldn't you think some producer would have had the sense to realize that the opener was offensive, especially for those in Lexington?

Before the "In Memoriam" segment, it would have been fitting for O'Brien to have said something to acknowledge the 49 lives lost this morning.

That would have helped to diffuse the horrible lapse in judgment the show's producers made for airing the opening segment in its entirety.

NBC really blew it.