June 16, 2009
Reverend Wright and Media Censorship! : Jared as Multimedia Instructor
I am angry – really angry. But it isn’t about what you think.
I have been out of town for about a month so I have missed quite a few news items and only recently heard/read about the latest Reverend Wright controversy.
By now most have read or heard the quote in question. When asked if he had seen Obama since he was elected Wright said “Them Jews ain't going to let him talk to me…"
I am not writing discuss the opinions of Reverend Wright or his later clarification that in the interview when he said “Jews” he meant “Zionists”.
What I want to talk about is professionalism and journalistic ethics and what I didn’t hear until I investigated some.
I first heard the quote while surfing around YouTube and saw this video from Keith Olbermann (which is not a news source for me):
I felt I needed to look further and I found this:
At this point what came to my attention was that after Wright’s first statement there is a moment of silence before the clip continues. A momentary gap or pause at about 27 seconds into the clip. It sounded like either the audio went out or that something had been removed.
In order to find the complete version I went to the original news story which I found here:
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-local_wright_0610jun10,0,7603283.story
This story included the audio clip with a slide show:
When I listened to it I noticed two things.
1) Same gap in the audio at 27 seconds.
2) The interview faded out before its completion
So I went back to see if I could find more.
This next part shocked me!
This clip is the exact same clip as the one posted on the DailyPress website except that the audio gap is not there.
At 27s into the clip, after Wright says “Them Jews ain't going to let him talk to me…" the interviewer (David Squires) says “Right” and then laughs (quite heartily). It was this laughter and him saying “Right” that was editing out.
So where did this unedited version come from? It came from the DailyPress website and had only later been replaced with the gapped audio one (which explains why it is a gap and not just a clean edit).
So why? Why did they censor their own interviewer?
What was David Squires thinking?
What follows here is supposition and opinion only but it is what angers me the most about the situation.
The saying of “right” and the laughter appears to be more than just a “yeah – go on” it appears to be a supportive encouragement of a statement that was clearly going to be condemned later. Otherwise why would it only later be removed? The fact that there are two versions means that someone clearly had second thoughts about it.
Why should David Squires not be put to task for his actions here? Was he not being complicit even if in just milking this for sensational content? Why didn’t he stop Wright and say – do you really think the Jews are behind this or ask him if he felt that the phrasing was the best way of putting it? Journalism is not just about giving someone enough rope to hand themselves it’s about investigating. Was he so excited about this titillating sound-bite that he would agree with him just to keep him going?
David Squires in the interview says “I was just letting him talk”. No you weren’t.
And why shouldn’t he be held responsible for what he said? How come he gets off the hook? Because it makes him look bad? Then he should be more careful when he interviews. If it was an honest mistake and just nervous laughter and an innocent or even sarcastic “right” then he should defend it – explain it – but leave the interview intact.
The unedited version is still not any better but it isn’t simply a person talking to a reporter but someone who is being coaxed in a friendly fashion by someone who is like-minded. I already knew Reverend Wright had strong and outrageous opinions so the only thing newsworthy here is that Davis Squires will do anything for a story (or that he really thinks “Them Jews” are keeping Revered Wright at bay) and that the DailyPress thinks that censorship is ok as long as it makes them look good.
Disgraceful!
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