Ok, I admit it. One of the reasons that I watch The daily Show is becuase sometimes you have to have a sense of humor regarding the news or you'll slide into a pit of depression.

Sure, it's funny to watch politicians get caught talking out of both sides of their mouths. The puns, the jokes, etc. It's fun.

But what I just saw (recorded last night) is something I find quite disturbing.

November 5th there was a gathering in DC called, by it's supporters, a "Superbowl of Freedom" against the proposed health care bill. Now, on Fox News they talked about how 20-40,000 people were there, or as the Washington Post put it, about 10,000. This got a lot of coverage from Fox as a big story (as opposed to them not covering some 80,000 in DC for gay rights).

As they were showing footage of the crowd, you saw them go from some tight shots of a moderate gathering to then cut to a huge throng on the mall - with a caption of "Earlier". Hannity was talking to one of the oragnizers who was exclaiming how it was "complete word of mouth", a wonderful turnout.

Somehow, the weather had changed during all this. What started, in the tight shots, as a clear fall day with the leaves turning, had morphed into a somewhat overcast day and all the trees were suddenly green in the shots of the huge crowds on the mall.

Turns out that Hannity was talking about the November 5th gather and showing footage shot and shown on Glen Beck's show covering the "9/12" rally almost 2 months ago.

So Hannity uses Beck's almost 2-month-old footage and actually says it's what they just shot. Deliberately lying, just like Michael Moore did in "Bowling for Columbine" when he misused footage, ran voice-overs from different events than what was being shown and spliced things out of order to do a hatchet job on Charlton Heston and the NRA.

It's one thing to have a dissenting opinion. And, quite frankly there's plenty there for good, honest debate. But out and out lying to make yourself look better. There's no defense for that.

Oh, and before I hear the "well they do it to", I would remind people of the old salt "two wrongs don't make a right". In high school semantics we learned "7 Fallacies of Debating". One of them was the "You're another" tactic.

"We Report, You Decide"? This isn't just "spin". This is out and out lies. As my grandfater used to say, "a bald-faced preverication".

Talk about lies. Where did you pick up these lies.

Fox covered the Gay thing as much or more than any "lame Media" did.

O'rielly did 15 minutes twice in one week.

If Fox news used the wrong footage, they should announce this on the Hannity show, where this apparently occurred. Since I do not watch Sean Hannity on a regular basis, I will not be able to know if he has done this. If they do, then Jon Stewart should give this equal emphasis. Given his politics, I doubt this will ever happen.

Originally Posted by djplong

Ok, I admit it. One of the reasons that I watch The daily Show is becuase sometimes you have to have a sense of humor regarding the news or you'll slide into a pit of depression.

Sure, it's funny to watch politicians get caught talking out of both sides of their mouths. The puns, the jokes, etc. It's fun.

But what I just saw (recorded last night) is something I find quite disturbing.

November 5th there was a gathering in DC called, by it's supporters, a "Superbowl of Freedom" against the proposed health care bill. Now, on Fox News they talked about how 20-40,000 people were there, or as the Washington Post put it, about 10,000. This got a lot of coverage from Fox as a big story (as opposed to them not covering some 80,000 in DC for gay rights).

As they were showing footage of the crowd, you saw them go from some tight shots of a moderate gathering to then cut to a huge throng on the mall - with a caption of "Earlier". Hannity was talking to one of the oragnizers who was exclaiming how it was "complete word of mouth", a wonderful turnout.

Somehow, the weather had changed during all this. What started, in the tight shots, as a clear fall day with the leaves turning, had morphed into a somewhat overcast day and all the trees were suddenly green in the shots of the huge crowds on the mall.

Turns out that Hannity was talking about the November 5th gather and showing footage shot and shown on Glen Beck's show covering the "9/12" rally almost 2 months ago.

So Hannity uses Beck's almost 2-month-old footage and actually says it's what they just shot. Deliberately lying, just like Michael Moore did in "Bowling for Columbine" when he misused footage, ran voice-overs from different events than what was being shown and spliced things out of order to do a hatchet job on Charlton Heston and the NRA.

It's one thing to have a dissenting opinion. And, quite frankly there's plenty there for good, honest debate. But out and out lying to make yourself look better. There's no defense for that.

Oh, and before I hear the "well they do it to", I would remind people of the old salt "two wrongs don't make a right". In high school semantics we learned "7 Fallacies of Debating". One of them was the "You're another" tactic.

"We Report, You Decide"? This isn't just "spin". This is out and out lies. As my grandfater used to say, "a bald-faced preverication".

I saw that report....and my wonder was...why is there not the same outrage and laughter at CNN, MSNBC or any other network that has made so many more of these kind of mistakes ??/

Like ABC when they were doing a story years back on Ford trucks exploding gas tank if you got hit broadside.

Turns out when you play the video back in slow-mo during ABC's own crash test experiment you could see a small charge go off right before impact. Opps.

Or how about Dan Blather's fake bush military document. Another opps.

Originally Posted by dklassen

Like ABC when they were doing a story years back on Ford trucks exploding gas tank if you got hit broadside.

Turns out when you play the video back in slow-mo during ABC's own crash test experiment you could see a small charge go off right before impact. Opps.

Or how about Dan Blather's fake bush military document. Another opps.

There have been so many of these type "errors" on the Chris Matthews show it is almost accepted !

If you let Fox News know about your finding, I am sure that they will fess up and post a correction if one is due.

Yoda

UPDATE

Tonight, Sean Hanity acknowledged the error and apologized.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/108118/the...rotest-footage

Bump

Just like when it was reported that 60,000 were in Sumter Landing listening to Palin last year.

When we hold events and give crowd reports, we have been known to do the same thing from time to time. Listen carefully, the reporter woman mentioned "Between Twenty and Forty-Five Thousand People"
Last month we attended the Southern Tandem Bike Rally in TV.
People who missed it asked about the turn out
We exclaimed, between "Five and Six Hundred couples came!
Yes, 220 people is between FIVE and 600. Just a bit of a word thing, but in our case we explained soon after the awe.
L&L

Minor nit: It was Dateline NBC that showed the faked, or more appropriately, "induced" explosions in the pickups.

As far as there being an accident, well, I could see it if it was footage from the day before - but they went almost two months back to get the 9/12 footage. In all honesty the verbal hyperbole of crowd estimates didn't bother me as much because we have all, unfortunately, become used to exaggeration. It was the deliberate misleading of the public by SOMEONE who edited that footage or ordered someone to splice the old footage in - that's what absolutely shocked me.

Originally Posted by djplong

Minor nit: It was Dateline NBC that showed the faked, or more appropriately, "induced" explosions in the pickups.

As far as there being an accident, well, I could see it if it was footage from the day before - but they went almost two months back to get the 9/12 footage. In all honesty the verbal hyperbole of crowd estimates didn't bother me as much because we have all, unfortunately, become used to exaggeration. It was the deliberate misleading of the public by SOMEONE who edited that footage or ordered someone to splice the old footage in - that's what absolutely shocked me.

AND when that happens on other networks do you post your displeasure ?

No excuse, but never would be a thread on here (havent been) on any errors of this ilk with MSNBC or CNN !!! I am not a defender of Fox...just find it quite humorous the outrage that is very conveniently directed !!! And please tell me that those other guys never had such an error !!

Originally Posted by Bucco

AND when that happens on other networks do you post your displeasure ?

No excuse, but never would be a thread on here (havent been) on any errors of this ilk with MSNBC or CNN !!! I am not a defender of Fox...just find it quite humorous the outrage that is very conveniently directed !!! And please tell me that those other guys never had such an error !!

I believe this was discussed in djplong's initial post. Let me remind you...

Oh, and before I hear the "well they do it to", I would remind people of the old salt "two wrongs don't make a right". In high school semantics we learned "7 Fallacies of Debating". One of them was the "You're another" tactic.



I saw Stewart's segment also. I love when he catches someone in "doublespeak." My favorite segments of his are about Cheney in "You Don't Know Dick." Hahhaha!

Yep. Hannity apologized for the "mistake." Mistake, my left foot. Hannity was was caught with his pants down!

"I love when he catches someone in "doublespeak."


Even Democrats ?