It would seem that MSNBC has been caught in an act that can only be called tantamount to journalistic prostitution. Ace of Spades reports (h/t Instapundit) that the cable news network ran a clip showing an airport rally where Mitt Romney introduces Paul Ryan and the audience starts shouting, according to the chyron at the bottom of the screen, “Ryan! Ryan!” and Romney interrupts saying, “No, it’s Romney-Ryan! Romney-Ryan!” This, of course, makes Romney look both churlish and pathetic at the same time.
The only trouble is that the crowd wasn’t yelling “Ryan! Ryan!” it was yelling “Romney! Romney!” when Romney interrupts and graciously insists that his running mate is a vital part of the team–just about the exact opposite. The video, apparently, came from a left-wing blogger who put the clip on YouTube, including the chyron, and it was just much too good for MSNBC to check.
How does it work? It’s the McGurk effect, which, I confess, I had never heard of before this afternoon. Vision rules the human sensory apparatus. If our eyes tell us one thing and our ears another, the eyes, to coin a phrase, have it. We “hear” what our eyes tell us we heard. There’s a fascinating video at Ace of Spades of a professor explaining it.
So if you want to make the audience hear something that wasn’t said, simply put it in a chyron and you have, almost literally, put words in another person’s mouth. That’s a neat trick, especially for “journalists” who have an agenda and no integrity.
Sorry, Charlie. Voices can clearly be heard chanting, "Ryan, Ryan," before Mitt interrupts with his correction. Churlish and pathetic is still the verdict on Romney.
Well, what I saw and heard was Romney joking around. To me it certainly sounded like the crowd was chanting "Ryan" – because Romney had just gotten done praising him! "What a guy." Then Romney pretends to be discomforted by the chant and "sets the crowd straight", so to speak. What is unbelievable is that anyone would miss the humor. What is also unbelievable is that while the President continues to lie about Libya, the economy seems poised to collapse again, etc., etc., people like pjcaper are fired up by the MSNBC spin on this video. Now that is churlish and pathetic.
It sounded like the chant was "Romney" to me.
Romney to me too!
It was clearly “Romney” and if you heard something else you’re delusional.
odds are there were some chanting ryan and some chanting romney. people wil hear whichever voices you are listening for. the chants were so pitiful whatever they were chanting, the rally was weak. i heard ryan even on the cspan feed with no suggestive chryon. that may be because i saw the morning joe version 1st. i dont know . the problem with mitt is that the morning joe version is believable because he's already shown himself to be a clownish figure. you'd never believe that story if it was Obama. one thing he wouldnt have such a corny rally in the first place.
Um, actually I would believe that story if it was Obama because he's a malignant narcissist. And there are all kinds of examples of Obama saying stupid things at his rallies on youtube. You know, making him look like a clown.
What?
Technology, social media, and public engagement is just he//, isn't it? =)
According to this woman, who was there, they were chanting Romney. Also, when you look at the scene from the CNN clip, which was taken further back in the audience, you can hear they are saying "Romney, Romney.' So, better luck next time, pjcaper. n
Close your eyes while listening to the CNN clip and you clearly hear : "Romney. Romney. Romney."
Sounded like “f***ing coons” to me.
If you are Villaraigosa you can hear anything you want.
Shocking, MSNBC lies? What next, you're going to tell me squirrels eat nuts?
Another distraction.. 16 trillion debt, 49 million on food stamps, 1 in 6 in poverty, median household income down 4300.00 dollars, manufacturing flat, housing market flat, economy in the tank. Pay not attention to the idiots behind the curtain at MSLSD….
It's not prostitution… they're giving it away for free!
If they weren't yelling Ryan-Ryan, then why did Romney have to correct them? And exactly how is it journalistic prostitution to report this? n nWhat a dumb article.
What a dumb question.
The McGurk effect is quite wonderful, and I'm glad it was brought to my attention, but it's not what is happening here, at least for me. -I- didn't hear "Ryan-Ryan" on the clip, I just heard some unintelligible crowd noise which the Chyron informed me was "Ryan!". You can't correct the McGurk effect, but in this case if you pay attention you can clearly hear that the "ney!" noise is dominant and too extended to be "an!". But I could see why it would slip by newsreaders inclined to believe the worst of Romney, biasedly but not deliberately so. It's not prostitution if the groupies are eagerly giving it up. The question is, did they admit the error or ignore it or did they double down the way Andrea Mitchell did on her misrepresentation of what Romney said about WaWa's sandwiches?
Editing a video is nothing new for NBC, MSNBC…Just as they did in the Zimmerman, Martin shooting it make it appear that Zimmerman was racist.NBC or MSNBC cannot be considered a legitimate political news source,because of their extreme liberal bias,and in my opinion this even includes NBC Nightly News.
What I would like to see is someone run "lying" across the bottom of the screen at random parts of random portions of Obama speeches and THEN have folks claim that this trick doesn't work. n nIt is the same thing that causes motion sickness — the inner ear knows that the body is in motion but the eyes see the plane/subway car/whatever not moving and the visual cue is more strong so the (correct) information that the body is moving is rejected as incorrect and interpreted as a symptom of food poisoning with vomiting being the body's self-defense mechanism to dump the perceived poisonous food before it kills you. A really good mechanism for when humans were on foot, not so good when riding backwards through the DC METRO. n nWere someone to do this — just random parts (when Obama *wasn't* lying), it would so discredit the practice as to end it.
Even conservatives are mortals — and depending on the integrity of their staff (including interns). It isn't Scarborough whom we should be upset with but the schmuck(s) who didn't bother check this out. Or worse, knew it to be false and forwarded it to him anyway. n nRemember too that unlike Biden, who is at best a pathetic joke, Paul Ryan is himself a potential future POTUS. (Biden thought he was 25 years ago — until that little issue of repeating everyone else's speeches…)