Like most red-blooded Americans, I love videos of newscasters making giant flubs on the air — like this one, this one, and (especially) this one. But the following clip, in which CBS News reporter Serene Branson’s post-Grammys report devolves into gibberish, is actually kind of unsettling. Suspicions that something may have been wrong with Branson were raised further after a (totally unconfirmed) report surfaced earlier today that she was hospitalized shortly after the segment aired. Calls to CBS News were not returned. Here’s hoping everything is okay and it was just a run-of-the-mill goof. UPDATE: CBS Los Angeles reports that Branson was not hospitalized after all. She was examined by paramedics immediately after her broadcast, who found her vital signs to be normal.
Feb 14
2011
01:15 PM ET
What happened to tongue-tied CBS News reporter Serene Branson?
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tongue tied? you couldn’t understand one word. That seemed like something was going on
damn! the link is down. can someone please tell me where can i watch it? thanks
rumor has it she had a stroke
This isn’t a run of the mill flub. You can see it in her face – scared lady.
Nah man, there is something wrong with her–medically.
Yikes…a stroke maybe? I hope she’s okay. :\
Variety is reporting that she was checked out by an EMT but everything was normal. A friend gave her a ride home. Doesn’t sound like she had a stroke.
Being checked out by an EMT doesn’t guarantee that you DIDN’T have a stroke. Some can be very minor and may only affect speech or short-term memory, leaving other problems to be discovered later. If you have one of the disorders that increases your body’s blood production, an event like that may not even track AS a stroke until later.
one can have what’s called a TIA. It’s a “mini stroke”. My mother had one.
There is no way that girl had a run of the mill gibberish attack. Something happened. Word Salad or Stroke or TIA. Whatever it is, I’m not laughing and do hope she’s ok.
Good lord. My first thought upon watching is that she may have had a stroke – her facial expressions, her eyes in particular, seem to suggest that she is mentally alert and trying to speak, but what she is trying to say isn’t actually coming out. Very scary stuff… hope she is ok.
Sad…that went far beyond tongue-tied. It fits all the classic symptoms of a stroke.
Yeah, that isn’t tongue tied, and she doesn’t look drunk at all.
i bet it’s a hemiplegic migraine – google it. similar symptoms to stroke. i get them. VERY scary.
I had one of those a few years ago — it scared the living daylights out of me. I was 34, sitting in a meeting, when I felt a stabbing pain behind my right eye. The right side of my face started feeling droopy, and when I spoke to someone, I sounded like I had just left the dentist with a mouth full of novacaine! It freaked out my coworker and they checked me for the other signs of a stroke. The rest of the right side of my body was moving fine, and I had no trouble walking. As quickly as the “droopiness” came, it disappeared. I had a crazy headache for the rest of the day, but the other stuff never came back.
Oh man! I feel so bad for her! Hope she’s okay.
Sounds like word salad – common stroke symptom.
Does this remind anyone else of the pilot episode of House?
No
My mom spoke like that when she had her TIA…..but once it was over, the hospital didn’t think she’d had a TIA til had catscan…hope she gets checked out fully at a hospital. Scary.
At the end, she looks like she’s trying hard not to get upset and cry on camera. I hope she’s ok, that seems very scary.
My goodness, this wasn’t a joke. This poor woman had something happen to her brain at that moment. I wish her well and I hope she’s fine. A friend of mine in her early 40′s just had a stroke and this is similar to what happened before she passed out.