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Creative Editing…

Politico’s Dylan Byers writes about some…ahem…creative editing at Andrea Mitchell Reports which surely must be an embarrassment to NBC News…

Then, to illustrate the advantages of competition in the private sector, Romney shared an anecdote from his visit to the local WaWa chain store. “I was at WaWas, I went in to order a sandwich. You press a little touchtone keypad — you touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier — there’s your sandwich. It’s amazing. People in the private sector have learned how to compete. It’s time to bring some competition to the federal government.”

But in the MSNBC clip, which first aired on Andrea Mitchell Reports, Romney’s remarks begin with the WaWa anecdote and end at “It’s amazing,” an edit — first noted by conservative blogger Sooper Mexican — that makes it seem as though Romney was expressing amazement at the advent of touchtone screens.

The MSNBC clip feeds into the narrative, beloved by some on the left, that Romney is a 1950’s throwback. After the clip cut, Mitchell and MSNBC contributor Chris Cillizza broke out into laughter — which is understandable, given that they both had been led to believe that Romney was wowed by a simple machine.

Someone should lose their job over this. It’s no better than the Zimmerman edit. No, I take that back…it’s worse than the Zimmerman edit because this clip had to have been vetted to some degree by the Mitchell Reports staff, which is more than could be said for the Zimmerman edit, since Mitchell set the clip up the way she did before it ran. Didn’t anybody bother to stop and ask the question, “Is this in context?”

This entry was posted on June 19, 2012 at 6:11 am and is filed under MSNBC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

20 Responses to “Creative Editing…”

  1. fritz3 Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 6:17 am

    Not sure it’s a firing offense but a real apology is in order.

  2. icn2 Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 6:20 am

    Maybe not. But NBC made it one by establishing a precedent with the Zimmerman edit. People lost their jobs over that gaffe. This one was worse because it was internal to MSNC/NBC whereas the Zimmerman edit occurred outside of NBC News’ direct jurisdiction.

  3. savefarris Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 6:39 am

    It’s not an embarrassment. The producer/editors in question did their job: get dirt on Republicans.

    * Doesn’t matter if Obama did the same thing 2 days ago and you praised it.
    * Doesn’t matter if it’s not an accurate representation of the candidate/party.
    * Doesn’t matter if it was taken wildly out of context.
    * Doesn’t matter if it didn’t actually happen.

    Job #1 is defeating Republicans. Anything else (including the truth) is secondary.

  4. joeremi Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 7:33 am

    I saw the segment and it’s apparent Mitchell and Cilliza didn’t know they were being set up. Someone should be fired.

    Even in the altered context, I thought the segment was lame. It was obvious Romney was just being folksy…it didn’t appear he was stunned by “this newfangled technology”.

  5. Andy Marquis Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 7:59 am

    Romney is right about one thing, WaWa is amazing!

  7. Grammie Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 8:52 am

    In case anyone missed the importance and correct interpretation of the clip there was joyous speculation that this could be Bush 41 supermarket scanner moment for Romney.

    It seems to me that the propensity for this type of lying to the public by MSNBC/NBC is reaching the point that we must at least consider it is a deliberate coordinated effort to advance an agenda.

    BTW, re Bush 41 and the scanner, as a wife and mother of ravenous teenaged boys I purchased vast quantities of groceries and was totally amazed the first time my market switched to scanners combined with screens detailing the item and price. I always thought that was a bum wrap for the President because it was an amazing advance and the men in my family would have been as clueless as Bush 41.

  8. Grammie Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 8:58 am

    From twitter:

    Rschrim ‏@Rschrim

    #Fail “@DylanByers: #Break: MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell to address ‘WaWa’ video on today’s show: http://politi.co/KJORz7

    @MitchellReports @MSNBC”

    http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/06/andrea-mitchell-to-address-wawa-clip-126595.html

  9. joeremi Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 9:08 am

    The details of The Great Scanner Scandal have been lost to history. The technology was still relatively new, and what 41 was reacting to was a newer version of it, not the fact that the technology existed. It was a stupid story.

  10. danoregon Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 9:41 am

    Romney isn’t the first President to be mocked for having something they say taken out of context – won’t be the last.
    You do wonder what NBC’s editing standards are between the Zimmerman thing, this and – oh, yeah having a damning admission subpoenaed forcing you to admit you cut a pretty shocking statement from your Sandusky interview.
    They couldn’t cut an interview with Annie Liebovitz or postpone Williams report about a visit to the place that makes MREs?

  11. joeremi Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 10:07 am

    Andrea is on again with Cilliza. She said they “didn’t get a chance to play more of the clip”, then played it without comment. How ’bout apologizing for both of you babbling about how “out of touch” the candidate was? How ’bout apologizing for calling this Romney’s “scanner moment”? If this is MSNBC’s idea of “sorry”, they don’t understand the word.

  12. Grammie Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 10:20 am

    I wonder if this is a tipping point for Spud in his view, a subject some time back at ICN, that Andrea is not biased?

  13. savefarris Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 10:38 am

    This apology is worse than Ed’s “Black Cloud” apology.

  14. lonestar77 Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 11:03 am

    Tommy Christopher is scoring this a win for the MSM over evil right wing blogs and calling Romney a liar. That guy is all kinds of crazy. I believe him & Olbermann were hatched from the same pod. Coo-Coo.

  15. libertyandjustice Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 11:05 am

    Stop the presses! NBC is totally corrupt to the bone. Who would of thought!! I can’t wait to hear the liberals come up with a new creative excuse. Don’t worry, nobody in management will be held accountable. In fact, they may be promoted.

  16. Grammie Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 11:34 am

    ^^

    I’m shocked that he even bothered about it what with his 24/7 devotion to ferreting out Repub racist dog whistles in anything and everything.

    He must have really felt compelled to make sure Romney took some small a hit on this one.

  17. Grammie Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 2:52 pm

    More creative editing by MSNBC via Twitchey:

    MSNBC’s failed Palin smear attempt plus ‘informal Romney adviser’ equals comedy gold

    http://twitchy.com/2012/06/19/msnbcs-failed-palin-smear-attempt-plus-informal-romney-adviser-equals-comedy-gold/?utm_source=autotweet&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter

    They’re on a roll!

  18. mlong5000 Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 3:28 pm

    On top of that edit trick was the shot Lawrence O’Donnell took at Ann Romney and how she uses horses to help deal with her MS..

    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/06/19/lawrence-odonnell-attacks-ann-romney-riding-horses-combat-multiple-sc#ixzz1yFeibq2i

  19. Laura L Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 4:40 pm

    The problem is that the press always has to have a ‘meme’ or a template or whatever annoying word we’re using as a substitute for ‘laziness’. And everyone is always looking for “the next whatever” moment. It adds that special level of stupidity when it turns out to be wrong.

  20. WaWa-Gate: Update… « Inside Cable News Says:
    June 19, 2012 at 5:56 pm

    […] the intervening hours since I noted the controversy swirling around the Romney clip on Mitchell Reports, some things have […]

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