Despite History of Deceptively Edited Videos, Right Wing Videographers Still Taken Seriously
July 27, 2015

 
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Right-Wing activists have a checkered history of posting deceptively edited video to suggest events are taking place that in fact aren’t, and despite acknowledging that these videos have been selectively edited by the author, The Media still takes them seriously and gives their “findings” an aire of legitimacy & respectability by suggesting they are evidence of something terrible. Then the accused is paraded around TV defending themselves having to point out (again) that the damning video was chopped & spliced within an inch of its life, and STILL the accusations are taken seriously.

Anyone else remember Shirley Sherrod? In 2010, an intentionally deceptively edited video of her talking about overcoming past prejudices and treating everyone with respect was promoted by a Right-Wing smear site called “Breitbart.com” (named for it’s RW ambush-videographer founder who had a history of doing this very thing) as PROOF of an openly racist appointee of the Obama Administration bragging of refusing to help an elderly white couple. Another infamous hack wannabee ambush-videographer named James O’Keefe used seriously & deceptively edited video to get the Social Services Organization “Acorn” defunded and put out of business by posting a video of himself claiming to be a pimp seeking housing assistance for him & his hoes, going so far as to post a ridiculous video of him and his girlfriend dressed like a cartoonish caricature of what he believed a pimp & prostitute looks like. Truth was, O’Keefe did NOT in fact wear his ridiculous costume during his interview, editing out responses by the dubious Acorn agent, not even AWARE of the phone call the agent made to authorities after O’Keefe left after playing along with his little ruse.

Seeking a return to the spotlight, craving his sudden fame from 2010, O’Keefe again tried to peddle yet another deceptively edited video during the 2012 election claiming to have evidence of undocumented immigrants and even “the dead” were casting ballots in South Carolina as evidence of the need for “Voter ID” laws. But O’Keefe’s reputation proceeded him, and further investigation found his claims to be utter horseshit.

Two more questionably edited videos were released in the past two weeks: one, showing the traffic stop & arrest of “Sandra Bland”, who was pulled over for “changing lanes without signalling” (an incredibly petty offense considering she appeared to be simply moving out of the way of the officer’s cruiser). An understandably annoyed Bland was screamed at, ordered out of her vehicle, wrestled to the ground and arrested, only to end up dead three days later, found hanging by the neck in her jail cell. The video of the event released by the police department was clearly edited, with passing vehicles appearing & disappearing) in a manner that raised questions about what was omitted and why. But one wonders why the video had to be chopped up (not just trimmed) in the first place? No news organization would show an entire FIVE minute arrest video live on the air without editing it themselves. Why did the Hempstead (TX) PD feel the need to release an edited version of the video?

And more recently, another deceptively edited video by “Pro-Life” activists discussing the purchase of fetal tissue for their research laboratory, was made public last week, creating a firestorm. While Planned Parenthood acknowledged and apologized for the “flippant” manner by which some of the people in the video discussed the subject, the video… which the authors claimed was PROOF of PPA profiting off fetal tissue donations (which is illegal)… “innocently” clipping out the ten times the agents pointed out that PPA does not profit from the “sale” of fetal tissue and that all payment simply goes to recoup the costs of getting the tissue/organs to the recipient intact and viable.
 

Republicans truly believe that if we closed every abortion clinic in the country, women would simply stop having abortions. Closing abortion clinics doesn’t prevent abortions, just SAFE abortions. It’s the whole reason they exist.
 

But “Planned Parenthood of America” (PPA) is FAR more than just an “abortion clinic”. Despite inviting on famed Medical Researcher Carly Fiorina (yes, that’s snark. Fiorina is the failed former tech CEO turned failed Senate candidate turned soon-to-be-failed 2016 presidential candidate) onto Fox “news” Sunday yesterday to criticize the organization, host Chris Wallace had to point out that “abortions” are only a small percentage of some of the healthcare services provided by PPA:
 

PPA Services
Wallace points out some PPA services that would be lost if their funding was cut

 

Fiorina’s snarky response: “I thought that’s what ObamaCare was for?” So now she NEEDS ObamaCare to allow her to eliminate a medical services provider? Besides being a monster hypocrite, let’s not forget that Fiorina (like EVERY Republican), wants to do away with “ObamaCare” too. And the REASON that PPA provides these services is because many clinics do not. Certainly not as cheaply.

(BTW: If you Google Fiorina’s exchange with Jess McIntosh of “Emily’s List” on FnS yesterday, Fiorina apparently “DESTROYED” McIntosh despite making bizarre non-sequitur arguments about “fetal heartbeat” in a discussion about donating tissue from deceased fetuses, and choosing instead to ignore any discussion regarding the lives that are SAVED by these tissue donations, instead complaining bitterly that the people outraged by this “highly edited” video didn’t seem to mind attacking “Mitt Romney” over his “heavily edited [97%] video or Edward Snowden.” Huh??? Unless someone spiced Romney’s words to form a sentence Romney never actually spoke, or left out him saying “of course we must care about everybody!”, she’s sounding pretty desperate by this point. And I have NO idea what she’s talking about regarding Snowden… whom, to the best of my knowledge, has only released documents, not a video.)

Outraged Republicans (are there any other kind?) are now demanding that we discontinue ALL Federal funding to PPA (something they’ve been looking for an excuse to do for years) over this video, claiming it is PROOF of crimes being committed by the organization. Actually, it’s more the flippant & cavalier attitudes of the agents filmed that is the source of their outrage. But just as in ANY social situation, we REFLECT the attitudes of the people we are talking to. The videographers were flippant & cavalier (even joking) about what they were requesting, and the agents unfortunately responded in kind. Most people don’t respond to smiling happy guests with the stern & dower seriousness that quite possibly might be called for in that situation.

So these clearly chopped up videos are shopped around, the mainstream media catches wind of them via a flurry of Right Wing outrage on The Twitter Machine, and they are hyped on the network news hoping to spur the very outrage & controversy the authors intended. Willing patsies, and one wonders if they even realize they are being used… or for that matter, if they even care.
 

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July 27, 2015 · Admin Mugsy · No Comments - Add
Posted in: Abortion rights, Civil Rights, Crime, fake scandals, myth busting, Right-wing Facism, Scandals

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