Number Six: NBC News Again Caught Selectively Editing Video.
I have a very simple question:
How can someone working for an organization with the word “News” in it ethically do this?
And the answer is contained in the article’s conclusion…
This is the sixth time in just a few years that NBC News has been caught red-handed manipulating audio or video to benefit whatever agenda the left happens to be pushing at the time. But as a result, we hear nary a peep from those currently running around with Kurtz’s head on pike.
The message is clear: if you’re pushing Obama’s agenda, there is no code of journalistic ethics. (emphasis added)
Bernard Goldberg explained how this happens. He said that the videos used in news broadcasts are created by assistant producers who work in a back room of the studio. The producers are typically not monitoring this process. So the assistant, being dishonest, produces a video with a “message,” and the producer of the broadcast uses it, sometimes unawares.
It reminds me of the stories I used to hear about years ago where in the workplace someone needed a laptop with certain software on it. They’d go to an IT person with the request, and instead of getting Windows installed on it with MS Office they’d get back a Linux install with OpenOffice. When the higher ups would complain, the IT person would just shrug their shoulders, ignoring the complaint, still thinking they did their good deed for the day, understanding they didn’t give what was requested. Not that I have anything against Linux, etc., but just to illustrate that people asked for one thing, got something else that was intentionally screwed up, and the person who screwed it up feels justified in doing it.
Another example was when Michelle Bachmann came on the Jimmy Fallon show, and the band played some tune with dirty lyrics (not singing the lyrics, but the audience “got” the joke). Again, the producers were not aware this was going to happen. Fallon didn’t even know, so the story goes. The band freelanced. The show apologized, but the damage was done.
This is low-grade sabotage by underlings.
Typically these assistant producers get fired after this sort of thing happens, but there are always some new jackasses to take their place. Apparently the punishment is not that bad, or else these guys would quit doing it.