Posted on 09/12/2008 9:02:59 PM PDT by MindBender26
Did ABC cheat in Palin interview? Perhaps.
It’s not unusual for news anchors to wear almost hidden earpieces during their live anchoring. It allows the producers to clandestinely talk to the anchors during the newscast and anchors to hear reporters in the field, receive time cues and other important audio. It’s not unusual to see anchors holding their earpiece a little tighter into their ear if they are having trouble hearing what is being fed and said to them.
But an earpiece during a supposedly one-on-one interview would be very unusual. Why would the interviewer need support from producers or others DURING the interview, unless they were all “ganging up” on the interview subject.
Tonight’s Gibson-Palin interview was billed as an exclusive one-on-one, but was it really Sarah Palin vs. Charlie Gibson aided by a lot of co-conspirator news producers sitting off-set, feeding him supposedly spontaneous questions and quips?
If you have a copy of the interview, watch what happens at 10:36 (EDT). Gibson is aggressively questioning Governor Palin, but his right hand is back near his ear, in a very unflattering pose. It’s a picture all of us who have worked in TV news are very familiar with. It’s an anchor having trouble hearing what’s being said to him in his earpiece.
Was Charlie being coached? If so, why, and why weren’t we told it was a one vs three or four attempted ambush, not one-on-one interview as it was advertised. If he wasn’t being coached by off-screen producers, then why the all too familiar “fingers in ear” pose.
This is all very much like the Steve Martin tent revival minister character in the movie “Leap Of Faith,” who received supposedly divine messages radioed into his ear from an off-stage Debra Winger. By the way, that movie was inspired by an actual fraudulent Texas TV minister who used the very same technique…. and was exposed on ABC’s 20/20… the same show Governor Palin was on tonight/
What’s the truth? We may never know. I’ll accept whatever Charlie Gibson tells us is the truth about this issue, but after an hour of demanding answers from Sarah Palin, don’t Mr. Gibson and ABC owe us an honest answer too?
I have lost alot of respect for Charlie Gibson. If Gibson ever interviews Obama he better be pretty tough on him given the hachet job they tried to do on Palin. I was just watching a part of the Obama interview and Gibson sounded like an Obama campaign staffer. Just pathetic.
He looked like a pompus A@@, earpiece or not.
Pathetic the way he treated her. My wife and I just watched “Back to School”, where Rodney Dangerfield gets grilled by college professors who are trying to kick him out. That’s what the Gibson interview reminded us both of.
Gibson’s primary problem is that it was obvious what ABC was trying to do... and Palin handled him very well.
I’ve never seen such a patronizing interview outside of maybe Oreilly.. He spoke in this quiet, creepy child molestor voice.
He appeared to be in her space...and they did a lot of close shots of her...Very intimidating, very sneaky, very lousy. But what's new with the media.
Personally, I thought they had more fun in the editing room than they did with any (alleged) earpiece. I couldn’t believe the hard cuts. They were very carefully not to cut her off mid sentence, but they would immediately cut her off after her sentence.
Interesting question. I can’t stand watching this kind of stuff, so I didn’t see it. But it should be asked.
I think Obama uses an ear plug. That’s why he stumbles and stutters when something goes wrong with the technology. No doubt it’s teleprompter trouble in the speeches, but when he’s answering audience questions, I think it’s the earplug.
does anyone have a list of questions that were asked B.O.? it would be interesting to compare the two interviews...
Gibson interviewed Obama in June. It was a very different interview.
If the phrase ‘mischaracterization run amok’ means anything, yes, ABC screwed the pooch, took a dump on a Lady, set their lipsticked lips squarely in the DNC nasty behind. The more than seven minute lie-filled pre-interview piece of assassination aimed at Governor Sarah Palin is the most blatant network effort to serve the sycophancy for one political candidate that I have ever witnessed in forty-plus years following politics. If ABC had any credibility before, they spent it all and went in the red tonight with their whoring spectacle to try and dstroy the Sarah Palin VP image. ABC used lies and partial facts to mischaracterize this LADY. Damn them. They are demonspwan in need of eradication.
I know I should be serious, but you made me burst out laughing.....and I'm STILL laughing!.
Leni
I would have only agreed to a live, real-time interview if I was Palin. No edits. No earpieces. You know, like, reality TV (not).
Oh my, did I write that? ... Time for another double Magarita, obviously.
WHO’S GOING TO CHECK OUT B.O. BEFORE THE DEBATES? I have no doubt he’ll be using a plug. No doubt whatsoever. He’s utterly lacking integrity and character...he’ll do anything to win.
The IFB is a special intercom circuit that consists of a program feed sent to an earpiece worn by talent via a wire, telephone, or radio receiver (audio that is being "fed back" to talent) that can be interrupted and replaced by a television producer's or director's intercom microphone. On a television news program for example, a producer can talk to the news anchors, to tell them when they are live on the air and when to begin reading off the script on the teleprompter or cue cards.
I have it paused at precisely 10:36.
Camera is behind his head. He tells her time is running out so here comes some social issues.
When it swaps to the camera from behind her head, he has his right hand up to his right ear/jaw area. It appears his pinky is bent against his cheek. His thumb is against his cheek. They are forming a circle almost. And the other three fingers are extended straight and appear to be going inside his ear at an angle across his cheek.
It just looks weird. Almost like he is holding his ear and jaw to his head.
Oh, I haven't a doubt, either. But... I *do* wonder exactly *WHERE* said plug will be inserted...
the infowarior
I could suggest a spot...
Speaking of Obama and his speaking patterns, did you ever notice that he speaks in discrete blocks of words, two, three, and four usually at a time. He pauses, momentarily always, or stammers in rare instances, but he NEVER speaks fluidly except when he’s reading a teleprompter.
Maybe he can borrow one of Bidens plugs.
Thank you for posting this. Inquiring minds wanted to know.
"Hang on a minute, I can't hear myself."
Ummmhmmm... GMTA. I believe we are thinking of the same place...
the infowarrior
I saw that clip and thought it was odd. Most people would say, "I can't hear myself think.
Bring it. We can handle 4 of theirs.
But let’s put Obama to the same test. Give him Hannity, Hume, Elder, and Limbaugh.
quesney has already done the heavy lifting for us. "Two Very Different Interviews."
That’s what I thought, some kind of stalker, serial killer who was trying to terrify her into making a mistake.
I’ve never appreciated Charlie Gibson nor have I ever enjoyed watching him report the news. He’s better at being involved in a cooking segment.
I am very interested in this angle. I was taken aback during the first interview (towards the end) when Gibson asked Palin to slow down/back off because he was “getting lost in a blizzard of words here.” It struck me as very odd and I wondered where all these ‘words’ were coming from. In fact, I sent an e-mail to Gibson noting that this senior with no journalistic credentials had no problem following Palin’s remarks and wondering why he did. My parting remark to him was, “Lets keep up here, eh, Charlie!” But his words overload could have had an unseen source, as you suggest.
I’m going to try never to watch the networks again, just cable news. It’s sad to think that when I was a kid, the networks actually had something to offer. Now, it’s just boob-tube wasteland stuff. I’ll stick with FOX and Glenn Beck on CNN Headline as long as the networks don’t reform.
Glad to have your expert insight on this. I’ll be sure to watch that portion for what you observed.
We have a lot in common, though you’ve got some years on me; both vets, have a mutual friend, I’m in DC & I majored in communications at one point before switching...
I wonder if anything will come of this angle? Could be worth some mileage in the already deep & broad support for Palin.
Good point about Charle’s blizzard of words. Especially when the so called blizzard response amounted to 43 words. Someone counted them, I think on NRO.
Now I KNOW he is a liberal, sexist thug.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Obama was indeed choppy, very choppy at that forum on the evening of 9/11....but not as many errs, and ummhs lately.
Makes perfect sense!! They were having technical difficulties. Obama was literally on that stage not knowing what he was going to say. When the little voice in his ear didn't work, he was lost. He was stalling, while waiting for them to correct the issue.
The in-ear part is different though. It comes electrically to a standard earplug, like what you showed, at about waist level. Then it moves acoustically through a small clear plastic tube to a clear molded earpiece the is especially fitted for each ear.
Rather comfortable, and very hard to see.
The in-ear part is different though. It comes electrically to a standard earplug, like what you showed, at about waist level. Then it moves acoustically through a small clear plastic tube to a clear molded earpiece the is especially fitted for each ear.
Rather comfortable, and very hard to see.
http://marklevinshow.com/gibson-interview/
Have you read the transcript? Look how much was cut! I cannot believe this blatant hatchet job!
That's exactly what it is called, an IFB. I didn't want to get too technical in the original post.
The in-ear part is different though. It comes electrically to a standard earplug, like what you showed, at about waist level. Then it moves acoustically through a small clear plastic tube to a clear molded earpiece that is especially custom fitted for each person's ear.
Rather comfortable, and very hard to see.
I’ve just been watching the Gibson setup and interrogation of Sarah Palin tonight (Fri. the 125th). Throughout all of it, all I could do was keep yelling at the teevee screen was “What a chintzy HACK job this is!”
I’ve done a lot of video editing and I could see/hear all kinds of obvious edits hacking this “interview” together. This was obviously a serious hack job, done under time pressure, as most of the edits were rather crude, compared to how well they could have been done. Anyone with any editing experience was probably cringing at how badly it was done. Almost jump cut edits, clipped words and sentences, sentences pieced together— it was really obvious and truly crass, attempting to show her saying something other than what she actually said!
Well, I was cringing not only at how badly the edits were done, but also the total, biased “gotcha” setup that Gibson consistently followed, trying his d@mnedest to trip her up and get her to say something incriminating. It was certainly clear that they couldn’t do that, so they had to hack this piece of trash together to make it SEEM like she had said something that they could jump on and yell “Gotcha!”
The McCain team should REQUIRE that a complete, uncut, unedited copy of every microsecond of recorded video be provided to them by ANY MSM organization that they deal with. The best thing to do would be to NOT do these kind of recorded “interviews” because they can be edited to make them look bad. If these completely unethical, immoral “news” organizations want to do any interviews, then do it live, unedited. Then at least all they could do is pose misquotes and gotcha questions, which would show the MSM as the biased, ignorant slobs they actually are. Live, not on tape.
Again, what an amateurish, biased hack job this whole thing was! Even a liberal Democrap would be ashamed of the Gibson/ABC obviousness and poor job. Sarah came off looking calm, sincere and presidential and Gibson just looked biased and foolish.
This is why James Dobson REFUSES to do interviews with any of the alphabet DBM. He was burned in the early ‘80’s giving an interview on a particular issue, and I remember him talking about it. He said on his radio show that the only way he would EVER do one again was under the condition that NO edits would be made, and that “Focus on the Family”
retained ALL rights to the video that was taken.
I guess that’s why the DBM won’t interview him.
4 or 5 against one is what the lamestream national media considers “fair and balanced.”
The agenda driven media isn’t about reporting, only furthering the agenda.
Psssst... Charlie... ask her if she can hear Russia from there...
Charlie... can you hear me now?
-PJ
No earpieces, no notes, no researcher/experts in the booth, soft music in the background, no hangers-on in the studio, done live....now there’s an interview.
I was in the business for 35 years. Most all the talking heads are coached via earphones. It’s just too damned important to have anyone look stupid. It’s all illusion, folks. In radio it’s even more prevalent.
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