"Balanced" Fox News runs second batch of misleading data

[CarolinaGuy]

D'oh!

Seems our favorite news channel has been caught bulking up "live" crowd shots during GOP-friendly events.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts988

For the second time in just over a week, Fox News is coming under fire for misusing old news footage. The latest flap is leading some people to charge that the cable news network is intentionally misleading its audience, while Fox claims a "production error."

Wednesday's incident occurred when Fox News host Gregg Jarrett mentioned that a Sarah Palin appearance and book signing in Grand Rapids, Michigan had a massive turnout. As footage rolled of a smiling and waving Palin amidst a throng of fans, Jarrett noted that the former Republican vice-presidential candidate is "continuing to draw huge crowds while she's promoting her brand-new book,'' adding that the images being shown were "some of the pictures just coming in to us.... The lines earlier had formed this morning."

However, the video used in the segment was from a 2008 McCain/Palin campaign rally. In response to the minor uproar that arose after clips of Jarrett's report hit the Internet, Fox senior vice-president of news Michael Clemente issued an initial statement saying, "This was a production error in which the copy editor changed a script and didn't alert the control room to update the video."

On Thursday afternoon, Fox News issued an on-air apology delivered by host Jane Skinner:

Yesterday we told you about Sarah Palin kicking off her book tour and then we spoke to Sean Hannity about an interview that he did with former Governor Palin. When introducing the segment we showed you footage of people lining up in Michigan for a book signing that evening. In the tease before the segment, the tease to commercial, we told you how those people were already lining up to meet Palin. The problem is we didn't show you the video we were actually referencing. Instead we mistakenly aired what's called "file tape" of Sarah Palin. We didn't mean to mislead anybody in that tease. It was a mistake, and for that we apologize.

The current mishap comes on the heels of a controversy sparked last week when footage from a conservative rally held over the summer was played on "Hannity" during a segment on a more recent rally. During the clip, host Sean Hannity marveled over the large turnout for a Washington, DC protest. The Daily Show later pointed out that there seemed to be some inconsistencies with the video shown on Hannity's show, namely that the atmospheric conditions seemed to vary from shot to shot. Hannity later apologized on the air for what he called "an inadvertent mistake."

Barely a week into Palin’s blitz to promote “Going Rogue,” media coverage is becoming its own story. Fox News rival MSNBC caught heat last week for using altered images of Sarah Palin on the air, for which they later apologized. On Wednesday, Yahoo! News reported Newsweek’s defense of their latest controversial cover, which Palin herself blasted as “sexist.”
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Sorta reminds me of Bush's "Whatever it takes" tv ad.

[culatar]

Let's see how their going to spin this one!

[Swarner793]

This is a Man Bites Dog issue if ever there was one. While all the other oultlets have done it for years, and they have, it is only a story when FOX does it. I often felt it was almost an "I spy" game with the misleading "production screwups" that the network news outlets pulled off. It is funny, I get more pissed at Fox for this stupidity than I do the others. Half of me wants the masses to remain stupid and ill informed, it is better for business, so let the MSM lie away. But Fox knows the thumb suckers, mouth breathers and kool-aid drinkers are watching and would be all over this. They desreve all the ridicule they get.

Be safe (and stupid is stupid for all).

Scott

[Paradigm]

So...they used old footage. They apologized when called on it.

Palin is still enjoying huge turnout to her appearances, no matter what date the footage.

[CarolinaGuy]

So...they used old footage. They apologized when called on it.

Palin is still enjoying huge turnout to her appearances, no matter what date the footage.

Twice in a fat week?

That's quiiiite a coincidence. Not to mention that these accidents always went in the favor of the GOPeople. I could see if a dem got fake big crowds one week and a GOP the next....

I'm starting to get a sneaking suspicion that Fox isn't very fair and balanced after all!

[Paradigm]

Twice in a fat week?

That's quiiiite a coincidence. Not to mention that these accidents always went in the favor of the GOPeople. I could see if a dem got fake big crowds one week and a GOP the next....

I'm starting to get a sneaking suspicion that Fox isn't very fair and balanced after all!

Out of curiosity, do you think this came from Murdoch? Ailes? Some top producer? A singe videographer? A vast right-wing conspiracy?

I'll be waiting for your next thread where you fact check CNN and/or MSNBC. If you need help for material, check out Newsbusters.org. You'll be making new posts for months...

[arrrrgh15]

And just a few weeks ago they showed footage of a flying saucer balloon with a boy inside!!!! THEN they tell us the kid wasn't even in there. How dare they!!!!!

This is almost as bad as filming hours of interview but only cherry picking the stuff that makes the interviewee look like an idiot, then running it on national TV just before an election.

[CarolinaGuy]

Out of curiosity, do you think this came from Murdoch? Ailes? Some top producer? A singe videographer? A vast right-wing conspiracy?

I'll be waiting for your next thread where you fact check CNN and/or MSNBC. If you need help for material, check out Newsbusters.org. You'll be making new posts for months...

I see. So if Fox does it, it's tin foil hattery.

When the left does it, it's the "mainstream/driveby media" with an agenda and bias.

Which is exactly why I post this. The lefty media is well-documented here. I'm just trying to keep things fair and balanced.

[CarolinaGuy]

This is almost as bad as filming hours of interview but only cherry picking the stuff that makes the interviewee look like an idiot, then running it on national TV just before an election.

Would you say that the cherry-picking is fair and balanced?

I wouldn't. Why, I would call that unfair and off-balanced.

Which is exactly my point.

[arrrrgh15]

Would you say that the cherry-picking is fair and balanced?

I wouldn't. Why, I would call that unfair and off-balanced.

Which is exactly my point.

Nope. But then couric never went on TV to say that "to be fair and balanced, I'll admit that I slanted this interview to make Palin look like a complete window-licker, so please take that into account when viewing."

canned footage is used and missused all the time. If they fessed up to it, I'll give them points for at least trying.

Media is always slanted because people always have an agenda. If Fox runs 24 hours of factual news stories that are all Obama negative, but still true, and don't run any Obama positive, then I would say they aren't very balanced. But truth is, Fox runs more "even" news stories than all the others. So that's why I watch them.

I think this is a non-issue.