I’m in the film business, which has given me the opportunity to learn just how powerful editing can be. If you’ve never shaped a scene in editing, you just have no idea. You can come close by seeing yourself edited in the media. I was interviewed for an industry magazine puff piece years ago and was stunned at how they turned me into a blithering illiterate. I’ve since wished that everyone could have that experience just once so they’d know to never trust the media on anything.
You can have that experience vicariously, sort of, thanks to Mark Levin. Read these excerpts of the Gibson/Palin interview and then be suspicious of everything you ever see that isn’t complete and unedited. Gibson and ABC were so egregiously heavy-handed (dare I say amateurish?) that even UPI thinks there may be a backlash.
I think that politicians, and anybody else getting interviewed, should run their own camera or audio recorder so they can post the raw interview on the web. And I’m not alone. It would be cheap insurance against typical MSM hatchet jobs, and any interviewer who refuses that as a condition has revealed himself an untrustworthy adversary instead of a reporter of fact.
Update:
It seems that some folks already do, with predictable results.
Glenn: Bravo for your column on the need for politicians to make their own record of interviews. I am a corporate communications consultant and I routinely advise my clients not to agree to taped interviews. If a taped interview is unavoidable, I tell them that when the news crew arrives and starts setting up its cameras and microphones, the interview subject should set up his own cameras and microphones. A few have taken my advice, but many do not, thinking it will tick off the media even more. I tell them the media is not your friend under any circumstances and you are foolish to trust it.
I must say, though, on the few occasions when my advice was heeded, I wished I had a camera of my own to record the priceless expressions on the reporters’ faces as we set up our own cameras. “What are those for?” one asked nervously. “Oh, we just have a policy of making our own record,” I said nonchalantly. He seemed a bit perturbed, but went ahead with the interview, which turned out tough, but reasonably fair. I can’t help but think that having our own record made at least some difference.