Fox exec. faults "copy editor" for Palin video "production error"
November 19, 2009 12:37 am ET by Media Matters staff
Following up on Fox News' use of 2008 Palin campaign rally footage to depict what the network described as "huge crowds" attending Palin's current book tour, The Chicago Tribune's Swamp blog reports:
"This was a production error in which the copy editor changed a script and didn't alert the control room to update the video,'' Michael Clemente, senior vice president of news at FOX, sad this evening. "There will be an on-air explanation during Happening Now on Thursday."
Second: He Splices & Dices to make absolutely sure any negative images of Sarah Palin he did get Rid.
Third: He Cues the ear piece of the Anchor Person & puts a Write up in the Teleprompter, at this point it's still a Reach.
Fourth: To pull this off the Anchor Person has to pretend he's too Stupid to tell the difference between a Vid of a Book Signing event & A Presidential Campaign Speech.
Speak truth to power.
Mr. News
This is only going to get funnier. Now that it's common knowledge that Fox News willfully misleads the American people, I think those within the propaganda outfit are going to begin to leave, so its already faltering ability to deceive America will continue to decline.
It's even harder to find honest people at Faux News.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action."
-Ian Fleming
That's actually worse. It's one thing to say, "Look, we take full responsibility. We wanted to remind people visually of the crowds that Palin's speeches drew during the campaign now that she's on her book tour. We understand why this decision faces criticism, and we accept it." That's at least accepting responsibility.
But to claim that your employees or tape filing systems are so disorganized that twice in two weeks you represented archival footage as current events on air with the exact same effect is to admit that you have no business claiming to be professional broadcasters. If an "18yr intern" is in a position to decide what footage makes it to air during a news broadcast, then FNC has got a problem far worse than bias on its hands.
The translation would be: We got caught. F*** you.
In reality, lying is the first priority. So it didn't matter whether there was genuine video available to use.
What would the on-air people at Fox be saying if something like this happened at another network?
What possible news value could there be running 2008 campaign footage during a story about a 2009 book tour? Unless it was to contrast actually 2009 video with the size crowds she used to draw just a year ago.
If the intent was to illustrate the story, then ClusterFox (GOPTV) should do what real news organizations do - run a still photo of The Gov'Nor.