Within hours of the release of Lila Rose’s shocking and dismaying Planned Parenthood video, the leftist media trotted its favorite phrase for shutting out citizen journalists: “selectively edited.” I suggested jokingly that it would happen, but sadly, the left is all too predictable.
Of course we see that smear from all the usual suspects: Media Matters’ initial knee-jerk reaction was to dismiss the video merely for being “abridged,” then put in an update with a link to “what [Live Action] say[s] is” the full video. The New York Times’ blurb coverage of the event repeated Planned Parenthood’s claim that the video was questionable because it was “edited.” CBS News uses the phrase twice, first trying to associate the video with the discredited and unrelated allegations of selective editing levied against James O’Keefe, then as weasel-word insinuation: “Seemingly in response to criticism that it may have selectively edited the video, Live Action on Tuesday afternoon made public what it says is the full video of the New Jersey Planned Parenthood sting.”
First off, I would love to see what kind of “context” can justify recommending that a pimp have his post-abortion underage sex workers only perform sex acts “above the waist.” Progressive commenters, please let me know what sort of ancillary statement can put that comment into perspective. Second, it’s time to take that “selective editing” phrase and shove it back in the face of the MSM.
Editing, by its very nature, is selective and subjective. You have too much video/audio for the time you believe your audience will pay attention to your message, so you select which footage you want to include. “Selective editing” is as redundant as saying “jacket coat” or “blowhard Olbermann.” But if the MSM believes that the very act of editing video immediately destroys its credibility, then we need to hold them to the same standard.
Take this recent news package from CBS:
[youtube MUVSQ2OWLuE nolink]
In these 4 and a half minutes, there are 65 edits, including title screens. In the Live Action video, there are a total of 14 edits at the beginning, including title screens and a quick montage of lines that are shown in full context later on. As for the hidden camera portion that makes up the bulk of the video, there are eight edits total, including a repeat of a 2-second phrase for effect. So, including the final switch to a title screen, we have 23 edits in a 10:58 video, using the most strident standard against Ms. Rose and her organization. That’s one edit for every 28 seconds of video, whereas CBS’s SOP is one edit for every 4 seconds of video– 7 times as often. From CBS’s careful, objective, even-handed report on the Live Action video, we have to apply the same standard here and hesitate to label the weather in the midwest a “blizzard,” at least until they release the full, unedited footage that eventually became this news segment. Or, at the very least, CBS needs to notify us viewers of how many seconds of video were cut from their raw footage at the end of each show, if only for full disclosure.
Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Well, welcome to our world. As long as these shenanigans continue– automatically dismissing any investigation because it isn’t cut like the restaurant scene in Goodfellas— we will demand the same of you. So far, James O’Keefe and Lila Rose have both released the full footage of their respective controversial videos, so they’re already one step ahead of you. So please, network news programmers, join us this new era of “No Cutting” journalism. All the bloopers, all the yes/no questions your anchors ask which bring interviews to a screeching halt, all the banter between commercial breaks, all the b-roll. We want it all available on your websites, and we want it now.
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