Much more soon on Rightwing propagandist Andrew Breitbart and James O’Keefe’s quickly unraveling ACORN “Pimp” Hoax, just how much of a hoax it really was, how the media and Democrats shamefully failed their due diligence in reporting and/or acting on it, and coverage of a lot of new commentary on it all that has been coming in rapidly from the Left, Right, and Other over the last week or so.
Until then — and as we still wait for Breitbart and O’Keefe to release the unedited versions of the videos which they’ve charged for six months demonstrate serious crimes they apparently don’t want to show us, and while we continue to wait for the embarrassingly discredited hard rightwing L.A. County District Attorney Patrick Frey, who blogs pseudonymously as “Patterico” both at his own site and in comments at The BRAD BLOG and at Breitbart’s websites, to explain how it is that as a Deputy D.A. he’s authenticated the “unedited audio” that he claims proves some form of criminality by ACORN that neither the Brooklyn D.A. nor the former MA Attorney General [PDF] nor the Congressional Research Service have been able to find — here is a short, instructive video worth a quick look.
It’s from 2007 and demonstrates just how simple it is to edit raw video in order to show something other than what actually occurred…
The lessons above are worth keeping in mind given last week’s Brookyn D.A. finding that the O’Keefe/Giles/Breitbart Brooklyn video shows “no criminality,” and that, as reported in Rupert Murdoch’s own New York Post was “a ‘heavily edited” splice job” where the low-level ACORN Housing employee’s “seemingly crime-encouraging answers were taken out of context so as to appear more sinister,” and as the New York Daily News similarly reported a NY law enforcement official last week confirming that O’Keefe and Giles “edited the tape to meet their agenda.”
Meanwhile, the “paper of record,” the New York Times, which grossly misreported the story time and again, is, as The BRAD BLOG originally reported, and as Katrina Vanden Heuvel at The Nation reminds us today, still standing by its damaging and inaccurate coverage of the entire ACORN “Pimp” Hoax.
As mentioned, much more coming soon…
Yeah, but if we really want to get into the lessons of editing, there’s Forrest Gump, who as a kid meets with Elvis, grows up to look over Gov. Wallace’s shoulders when Wallace is trying to block integration at the University of Alabama, drinks too many coca colas at the White House, prompting JFK to say, “I think he said he has to take a piss,” pulls down his pants, prompting President Johnson to say, “Damn son,” and who then stays at the Watergate Hotel at the suggestion of President Nixon, only to blow the lid on the burglary at the DNC.
I guess some people will believe anything they see.
The Times has been the ‘paper of record’ in reputation only for a looooon time. When the movie “Firestarter” came out in the mid 80’s the better half and I went to see it having read King’s book by the same name. At the end of the movie the child, Charlie, ends up seeking refuge from the government in truth- that is, she is going to the NYT to tell their story and have it published. When the movie ended the better half said that they (the movie-makers) should not have changed the ending. The book had Charlie telling her story to Rolling Stone, not the NYT. All in all the book was a more accurate observation about the virtue of the respective newspapers than was the movie. And that was in the mid 80’s; by the mid 80’s Rolling Stone wasn’t the paper it had earlier been either! LOL.
Keep at ’em Brad.
Ernest, I like your lateral thinking. That’s exactly what is going on, history is being edited on the fly to fit the political needs of the moment. Hmmm, kinda’ Orwellian, that.
Forrest Gump did meet with Elvis! – Patterico Frey
I’m home today…and have the mis-fortune of trying to watch “The Daily Rundown” with Chuck Todd and some brain dead bimbo on MSNBC.
What a sleepy, slobbering, fascist (smiling fascism) program….my god no wonder America is dumber than a pigeon coup…seriously this crap is unwatchable for anyone with a working brain.
I’m sorry Brad, but this is a MUCH better example of creative editing intended to evoke a predetermined response…
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=DMoWt0wnlUw
You have the original audio, Brad. Why don’t you ever show explicit examples, using the audio and comparing it to the video, to demonstrate these charges?
The fact is that their is no context to excuse their behavior.
Brian Garst @ 7:
Actually, we don’t know that we have “original audio” at all. We have what O’Keefe and Breitbart have represented as “unedited audio” and also text transcripts. Both are unauthenticated as legitimate because they refuse to release the unedited video.
That said, I have already shown explicit examples that show how the video does not represent what happened according to the text transcripts a number of times, most recently here: https://bradblog.com/?p=7725
Discussions in comments at BRAD BLOG with L.A. County Deputy D.A. Patrick Frey (who blogs pseudonymously and inaccurately as “Patterico”) also have shown same with other points in the transcript versus the edited hoax videos.
We will have more such examples for you soon as well. You’re welcome.
As to “context to excuse their behavior”? Who is “they” and what behavior are you referring to?
Since the Acorn video was doctored , the next logical step is to indict Giles and O’Keefe for conspiracy ! If they don’t go to jail , it will be a huge mistake !