![]() HOWARD DEAN WINS THE FOX AUDIENCE! Howard Dean had a good ideaand no clue about basic facts: // link // print // previous // next //
THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010 Andrew Breitbart gets a pass: On the bright side, Andrew Breitbarts reputation has been damaged by last weeks events. As you may recall, Breitbart posted a piece of tape which was so deceptively edited that even the mainstream press corps noticed. The gentleman has been routinely criticized, even by a string of pundits on major Fox programs. Breitbarts sliming of Shirley Sherrod will be widely remembered. In the future, deceptive edits by Breitbart will almost surely be discussed in this context. On the other hand, the mainstream press corps has clearly decided to take a powder on Breitbarts past. The public is not being told about the gentlemans previous adventures with deceptive editing. In particular, the clownish history of the ACORN tapes has largely been sent down the memory hole. Consider the way the New York Times has handled this past, clownish matter. The Times shot its wad on the Breitbart affair in its Monday edition. On the front page of its Business Day section, David Carr wrote a column about Breitbart and Sherrod. Next to it, on that same page B1, Brian Stelter wrote a news report about the same topic. Each piece made some good pointsbut the editing of those ACORN tapes was treated in gingerly fashion. Heres how Carr summarized the incident, early in his column:
Welcome to Pravda! If you already knew what occurred in the ACORN case, you might have understood what Carr meant when he referred to heavily edited video clipsheavily edited clips which suggested the poverty organization had provided advice to a conservative activist posing as a pimp. But if you didnt already know what happened, you couldnt find out from Carrs column. In what way were those ACORN clips heavily edited? Was anything wrong with the way they were edited? Did ACORN really provide advice to a conservative activist posing as a pimp, or did the tapes just suggest that this happened? Just a guess: Most Times readers wouldnt know how to answer those questions. And if they didnt know, they couldnt find out from reading Carrs column. But then, the same problem obtained in Stelters report, which appeared right next to Carrs piece. Stelter heavily focused on Breitbart, but discussed the ACORN matter thusly:
Much later, Stelter notes that Breitbart is the person who last fall released the Acorn tapes to Fox News. But look at the way that episode was described in those highlighted passages. The ACORN tapes were heavily edited, Stelter wrote, using the euphemistic phrase which has clogged the Times coverage of these events. And as with Carr, so too with Stelter: The tapes appeared to show counselors at...Acorn giving advice to an ostensible pimp and his prostitute about evading taxes and setting up a brothel. But did the tapes really show such a thing? Did such conduct really occur? Like Carr, Stelter never explained. Readers were left on their own. In fairness to Stelter and Carr (and their editors), this is an awkward topic for papers like the Times, which did a poor job covering the ACORN matter in real time. In fact, those heavily edited tapes did show some ACORN employees misbehaving in certain ways, as several investigations have found. On the other hand, at least one ACORN employee was wrongly fired because of Breitbarts tapes (as Sherrod was wrongly fired last week), and a gross misimpression was widely conveyed by the clownish use of a pimp costume, which got paraded all over the land. These tapes involved a type of editing which was grossly, deliberately deceptive. Lets repeat: A gross, deliberate act of deception characterized Breitbarts last adventure with heavily edited tapes. Some HOWLER readers may not understand what were talking about. In part, thats because the mainstream press corps failed to report the clownish deception involved in Breitbarts last edits. They didnt report this matter in real timeand they decided to take a pass on the topic this week. Stelter and Carr seemed to be writing for Pravda with their murky references to heavily edited tapestapes which appeared to show certain things. (The less euphemistic term would be deceptively edited or misleadingly edited. But Gothams great rag took a pass.) That said, the greatest failure in Mondays Times occurred in its news section, Section A, where the paper presented this parody of news reporting. Breitbart and Sherrod were in the news. This would have been the time and the place to let readers know that Breitbart had engaged in such conduct before, even getting another innocent party fired last year. Instead, the Times played duck-and-cover, offering a thoroughly pointless report about the White House telephone office. Why couldnt this famous office get Sherrod on the phone? the Times dimwittedly asked. The paper might as well have asked what color shoes she was wearing. According to Nexis, Breitbarts name hasnt appeared in the Times since Monday. But then, the Washington Post hasnt made the slightest attempt to report Breitbarts back-story either. Almost surely, Breitbart will have to be more careful when he edits tapes in the future. But he has received a pass for last years conduct, in which his tapes were baldly deceptive, even clownishly so. By the way: Do you remember Juan Carlos Vera, the innocent party who got fired last year? If you do, youre better than most! On Monday, we cited Annette John-Hall, the Philadelphia Inquirer columnist who reminded her readers of what happened to Vera (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/26/10). Last years unjust firing of Vera is remarkably similar to the unjust firing of Sherrod. But Sherrod is famous this weekand Vera remains in a memory hole. According to Nexis, John-Hall is still the only journalist in the country who has mentioned Veras name since the Sherrod matter broke. Sherrod is famousbut Vera is toast. And Breitbart has gotten a pass. What does heavily edited mean: Please note: In Carrs column, even the tape of Sherrods speech is described as heavily edited. We have no idea why Carr said that. (Perhaps his editor made him.) What is heavy about the editing? The tape presented a two-minute clip from a much longer speechbut that sort of thing is done all the time. As far as we know, there were no edits within the shorter clip. If that clip is heavily edited, then heavily edited video clips appear in the news all the time. The correct term here is deceptively edited. The tape was edited in such a way that it gave a grossly misleading impression. Why not just come out and say so? Would that involve telling the truth? With respect to the ACORN tapes, the term heavily edited is more accurate. But as it was used in Mondays Times, the term was also straight outta Pravda. A newspaper reader would know what it meantif she already knew the story. HOWARD DEAN WINS THE FOX AUDIENCE (permalink): Why does he go on Fox at all? On Monday night, Howard Dean was asked this question when he appeared on the Ed Show. Ed Schultz often says that Dems should stay off Fox. He asked Dean why he appears there:
On balance, we tend to agree with Dean. But however one might judge this question, there are surely things to be gained by talking to Foxs large audience. Some Fox viewers are hard-core Republicans with fixed views; presumably, other such viewers are not. Presumably, there are things to be gained by talking to that large audience. Then again, theres little to be gained by going on Fox and grossly bungling, in a way Fox viewers will quickly spot. And that is largely what happened last weekend, when Dean appeared on Fox News Sunday, paired with Newt Gingrich. Chris Wallace started with questions for Gingrich, challenging him rather tartly about his loud accusations of racismhis harsh accusation against Shirley Sherrod, his harsh accusation last year against Sonia Sotomayor. Why so quick to call people racists? Wallace asked. (See THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/28/10.) Truly, thats an excellent questiona question for the current age. We thought Wallace questioned Gingrich fairly well, though the two-guest format is restricting. But then, he turned to Deanand though we like Howard Dean a lot, wed have to say he did a horrible job bringing The Message to the Fox audience. Can we talk? Dean was gruesomely unprepared for his appearance this Sunday. And even though we like Howard Dean, wed have to say he behaved in a bit of bad faith, about our nations most important, most sacred topic. Dean came out of the box quite hard, though bungling lay just down the road:
At this point, Wallace broke in. Text of disaster below. We wouldnt have started that way ourselves, though its hard to weigh such approaches. Absolutely racist is a very tough chargethe kind of charge which tends to make people who arent on your side stop listening. And just for the record: in failing to find out what was really in that clip, Fox News had done the very same thing the Obama Administration had done; the NAACP had failed to find out as well. (Duh. Gingrich had just finished making this point in defense of his own accusations.) For ourselves, wed like to see people suggest to Fox viewers that all that New Black Panther Party coverage was misleading and overwroughtthat it was frequently less than accurate, that it may not have been fair and balanced in this networks grand tradition. Were not sure if calling the coverage crap, and referring to that racist fringe, is the best way to launch such a task. Do we liberals want to influence votersor do we want to call people names? Newt Gingrich isnt a racist, the governor grandly proclaimed, failing to show his work on the subject. He then suggested that the audience to whom he wanted to talk may be comprised of such people! We wouldnt have started that way ourselvesbut its hard to weigh such approaches. Calling, or seeming to call, people names aint always a great way to start. But if Governor Dean wanted to influence that Fox audience, what happened next almost surely brought his effort to a halt. Wallace pushed back in defense of the hearthand Dean floundered and failed. We like Howard Dean a lot, but what followed was simple malpractice. Theres no earthly point in going on Fox if you plan to bungle in the way Dean now started to bungle:
Can we talk? As things turned out this day, Governor Dean didnt seem to know much. By the time he finished answering Wallaces question, well assume that he had completely failed to gain purchase with anyone watching Foxwith people who did know the basic facts he himself didnt seem to have learned. As he continued, Dean was reduced to asking questions about the way Fox had covered this matterand to imagining, quite bizarrely, what was about to happen at the time Sherrod got fired:
It was about to go on Glenn Beck? Readers, avert your gaze! In fact, Beck went on the air that nightand he didnt mention Sherrod at all, even though the news of her firing hadnt yet reached the press. Almost surely, most people in Sundays Fox audience knew that. Presumably, they simply stopped listening to Dean when they saw that he didnt. Simple story: Dean was ginormously unprepared for his appearance with Wallace. He went on to ask more questions about the coverage on Foxquestions whose answers he should have known before he appeared on this program. He didnt even know enough to challenge one small part of what Wallace had saidto note that the edited clip of Sherrods speech had been available, that first day, on the Fox News web site. But if you want to see a good example of the way not to stage an appearance, you just have to read through Deans performance, culminating with his absurd remark about what was about to occur on Becks program. Whatever one thinks of Howard Deans theory, a performance like that will never change the minds of Fox viewers. More likely, it will harden a long-standing notion: You simply cant trust what Democrats say, especially when they talk about Fox. One night later, Dean made matters worsethough this time, only liberals were watching. When he appeared on the Ed Show, he was praised for the brilliant way he had stood up to Wallace. (Howard Dean went into their own Fox-hole and gave it right back to them, Schultz said.). Eventually, incredibly, Governor Dean ended up saying this:
We happen to like Howard Dean. But the governor should be ashamed for making such ludicrous statements. They were pushing this story very, very hard all day? It may be true that they didnt mention her name, but they sure did run the tape without mentioning her name? We have no idea what Dean was talking about. The story did exist on the Fox web site, but Sherrods name was on the site too. Dean seemed to be saying that Fox News had pushed the videotape on the air, without actually naming Sherrod. We have no idea why he said such a thingbut this statement was weirdly inaccurate. Schultz could have clarified the facts at this point. Instead, he turned to the R-bomb. So is Fox News racist in what they do? Sure they are, Dean replied. Dean wanted to talk to viewers of Foxand then, he did so, in the worst way. One day later, he still didnt seem to know the simplest facts of this case. In such ways, our unprepared liberal leaders often make themselves look bad. In the process, they often make worthless conservative hacks come off looking good. And oh yes, this one last thing: They also display their sneering contempt for the blood of our racial martyrs. We liberals claim that we care about race. Why do we tolerate conduct like this? Is there any subject on which we expect our leaders to be respectfulto show up minimally prepared? Tomorrow: Making Matt Lewis look good! Are they dumber than third graders too: Any third grader could have told you that the tape was cut off, Dean said, in a setting where knew he wouldnt be challenged. This was his way of telling us liberals that Fox News had been absolutely racist. But Benjamin Jealous didnt tell us that the tape was cut off, over at the NAACP. Tom Vilsack didnt tell us that either. Are they dumber than third graders too? Is Jealous racist, like Fox? Fox has offered some horrible coverage of some matters involving race. (On Tuesday, Chris Matthews authored some very similar coverage of the New Black Panther affair.) Wed love to see someone go on Fox and make this case in a skilled, informed way. But that isnt what Dean did. And he kept misstating on Monday.
Why so quick to call people racists? Wallace asked this question of big loud Newt. But its a fairly good question all around.
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