FN: NBC edits Romney rally speech to portray candidate as out of touch

[adam@section118]

nbc is taking heat again for selective editing a day after presenting video of mitt romney seemingly awestruck by the process of ordering a sandwich at a convenience store.


During an afternoon broadcast of "andrea mitchell reports," video of the gop presidential candidate seemed to show a politician out of touch as he discussed ordering a hoagie at wawa.


The video clip went viral after the blogsite soopermexican.com pointed out in a post that it appeared doctored.


“it’s amazing," romney said, as the pennsylvania crowd appeared to laugh. Then viewers saw romney say, "you have a touchtone keypad, and you touch that, touch this, go pay the cashier, there’s your sandwich.”


what viewers didn't see or hear was nearly three minutes of romney discussing the nightmare of paperwork faced by an optometrist he'd talked to in trying to get the post office to change his address. He expressed mock amazement at wawa's efficiency to underscore how the private sector often runs circles around the clumsy bureaucracy.
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"msnbc did not edit anything out of order or out of sequence and at no time did we intend to deceive our viewers," skowronski said.


Last august, ed schultz of msnbc played an edited clip in which then-presidential candidate rick perry described the national debt as a “big black cloud that hangs over america” to make it sound like a racial dig at president obama. Schultz later apologized.


And in march, nbc was caught editing the audio of george zimmerman's 911 call as he watched trayvon martin in the minutes before he fatally shot the florida teen. On a tape edited and played on the “today” show, zimmerman was heard calling martin “suspicious” and volunteering that he was “black.” but the full, unedited tape showed that zimmerman only mentioned martin’s race when asked by the dispatcher. The result made it sound like zimmerman was racially profiling martin. The network fired three people after getting widespread criticism.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012...-as-out-touch/

[Burgold]

Maybe it's my mood, but I watched the clip and didn't see anything horrific. The amazing part or the touch pad part actually didn't seem bad... what I thought was funny was the Wawa, wawa, wawa... Man, he said Wawa so much in that clip that they should pay him endorsement money.

Saying the name of the gas station that many times is what leads you to believe he has no familiarity with it.

And to say that was an editted clip... there was no attempt to hide the editting. It was clearly cut up. No disguise there.

But if you want to say they were having fun at his expense, I will agree with that and maybe that isn't appropriate.

[Predicto]

So, did NBC do something wrong here or not? Was the clip they showed accurate or not? (I can't tell from that article).

I don't think news organizations have a responsibility to include "nearly three minutes of romney discussing the nightmare of paperwork faced by an optometrist he'd talked to in trying to get the post office to change his address" if they don't want to. However, if they are cutting and distorting what they do show us, that is certainly a bad thing.

Of course Fox, who is breaking this story, takes minor Obama statements out of context all the time, but that is neither here nor there.
We shouldn't condone it from any of them.

[Redskins Diehard]

So, did NBC do something wrong here or not? Was the clip they showed accurate or not? (I can't tell from that article).

I don't think news organizations have a responsibility to include "nearly three minutes of romney discussing the nightmare of paperwork faced by an optometrist he'd talked to in trying to get the post office to change his address" if they don't want to. However, if they are cutting and distorting what they do show us, that is certainly a bad thing.

Of course Fox, who is breaking this story, takes minor Obama statements out of context all the time, but that is neither here nor there.
We shouldn't condone it from any of them.

But we should make sure to point out that they do it also....

[Burgold]

Just a rule of thumb, Predicto. For Top news, in radio... a clip should never be more than 20 seconds. The entire slug usually shouldn't be more than 45 seconds. In TV news, three minutes is an eternity. Very few clips ever get that... you won't even get three uninterupted minutes from a State of the Union.

[spjunkies]

Maybe FOX should just air that anti-Obama promo that they ran again tomorrow.

[Teller]

We're going to need another source, or this will just become FauxNews thread number 887,614.

I guess the usual suspects missed the part of the article that said the RNC and campaign both reached out to NBC about how the clip was edited. There are a lot of things during campaigns that make candidates look bad. I doubt every outlet that does so is contacted by the national party, and candidate's campaign.

But....OMGZ, Fox is reporting itz!!!!! So carry on.

[Redskins Diehard]

Just a rule of thumb, Predicto. For Top news, in radio... a clip should never be more than 20 seconds. The entire slug usually shouldn't be more than 45 seconds. In TV news, three minutes is an eternity. Very few clips ever get that... you won't even get three uninterupted minutes from a State of the Union.

So in your opinion it is okay to edit a 3 minute speech which is about the efficiency of the federal government vs the efficiency of the private sector down to a clip that says it is amazing that you touch a screen and a sandwich pops out? Because that is the rule of thumb? Great industry.

[Duckus]

The video clip is of a show on MSNBC and the title of the article from Fox News says NBC.

The opening line also mentions NBC.

I am lost.

Are they intentionally confusing NBC with MSNBC? Or are they selectively editing that.

[SpringfieldSkins]

So they edited it. There probably isn't any way that MSNBC could have edited that video that would have made Fox News happy.

The guy who shot the "youtube video" has the attention span of a small child. This worries me even more. This is a sample of the type of person who intends on voting for Romney.

[Teller]

So in your opinion it is okay to edit a 3 minute speech which is about the efficiency of the federal government vs the efficiency of the private sector down to a clip that says it is amazing that you touch a screen and a sandwich pops out? Because that is the rule of thumb? Great industry.

Editing happens all the time. It has to. As Burgold alluded to, there just isn't time to show ALL of every speech that's made.

A concerted effort should be made not to change the impression of what the person said though. I believe that most news organizations do a pretty good job of that.

[Bang]

Here's what i think.
The editing can be defended or attacked and i don't care. That's what always happens. To me what stands out is this.
I am NOT out of touch, and I think that the fact you can order a sandwich thru a computer you hold in your hand and carry in your pocket IS pretty friggin' amazing.

If that's an attempt to display him as out of touch, then it's not a very good job of it. We do live in an age of wonders.

~Bang

[Burgold]

So in your opinion it is okay to edit a 3 minute speech which is about the efficiency of the federal government vs the efficiency of the private sector down to a clip that says it is amazing that you touch a screen and a sandwich pops out? Because that is the rule of thumb? Great industry.

Watching that did you know it was edited? Was the cutaways, extreme abruptness not telling? Without having seen the speech which I guarentee was a lot longer than three minutes I would guess that the particular section had multiple purposes. One is to connect with the audience and say "I am one of you" that's why politicians get all homey and talk about places like Wawa. Do you really doubt that was the reason why he chose that convenience/gas station as his vehicle for communication.

As such, the clip did show Romney accurately. They didn't reorder or imply anything that Romney didn't intend. Now, they did shortchange him... but who knows what was said after the clip abruptly cut off. What was said by Mitchell after they edited the portion of the segment they wanted to share with you?

That said, you may be right... they certainly made light of him and cut it for a laugh. Not really cool, but I don't know that this is the smoking gun that FOX is looking for either. However, if anything it made him appear human and more likeable.

[Predicto]

We're going to need another source, or this will just become FauxNews thread number 887,614.

I agree. I want to know if there is fire under this smoke.

I guess the usual suspects missed the part of the article that said the RNC and campaign both reached out to NBC about how the clip was edited. There are a lot of things during campaigns that make candidates look bad. I doubt every outlet that does so is contacted by the national party, and candidate's campaign.

I disagree. Romney and the RNC have people who contact the networks every single day to complain about everything under the sun. So does Obama and the DNC. It's called "working the umpire."

But....OMGZ, Fox is reporting itz!!!!! So carry on.

Like I said, I want to know if this was actual bad editing, or not.

---------- Post added June-19th-2012 at 05:02 PM ----------

So in your opinion it is okay to edit a 3 minute speech which is about the efficiency of the federal government vs the efficiency of the private sector down to a clip that says it is amazing that you touch a screen and a sandwich pops out? Because that is the rule of thumb? Great industry.

Is that what happened?

[Duckus]

Forget the editing - what the **** is Romney talking about in the entire clip.

I mean, don't get me wrong. A good WAWA is nice on a road trip. Get some gas, take a piss, get a soda and a sandwich. Very efficient. Most of the time clean.

I fail to see the comparison to the tasks and issues that face the government of the most powerful nation in the world and how it shows why private enterprise is better than government.

Maybe that is just me though.