Friday, March 30, 2012

3504 This kind of crap really jerks my chain

Friday, March 30, 2012

Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for good reason.

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From http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/03/30/the-am-roundup-roberts-crucible-doctoring-supreme-court-audio-more/?mod=WSJBlog


Evidence tampering: A Republican Party advertisement on the president’s health-care law uses doctored audio from the arguments earlier this week to make Solicitor General Donald Verrilli look bad, according to Bloomberg.

A spot circulated yesterday excerpts the opening seconds of the March 27 argument in which Verrilli is heard struggling for words and twice stopping to drink water. “Obamacare,” the ad concludes. “It’s a tough sell.”

According to Bloomberg,
A review of a transcript and recordings of those moments shows that Verrilli took a sip of water just once, paused for a much briefer period, and completed his thought, rather than stuttering and trailing off as heard in the doctored version.

What kind of idiots .... ?
... and some people continue to believe ...
Sigh. I give up.
.

6 comments:

rockygrace said...

They played the audio on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" on NPR this morning. I'm not sure if it was the supposed doctored version or not, but Verrilli sounded ... well... it wasn't good.

rockygrace said...

and I guess it says something of the resourcefulness of the Republican spin doctors that I heard it on NPR this morning and just thought, "Wow, man, that guy's an idiot". I had no idea it may have been manipulated until I stopped by here.

And again, I don't know if I heard the doctored version or not ...

~~Silk said...

From Bloomberg.com:

Recordings of the court proceedings reviewed by Bloomberg News reveal that the audio has been edited. While Verrilli paused once to drink water during the opening moments of his presentation, he stopped talking for only a few seconds before continuing with his argument. In the RNC ad, he pauses for about 20 seconds, seeming to lose his train of thought.

The RNC’s transcript of Verrilli’s delivery, circulated with the web ad, is as follows: “For more than 80 percent of Americans, the ah insurance system does provide effective access [pause]. Excuse me. Ah [cough] it ah be-be because the ah the ah the [pause]. Excuse me.”

In the actual proceedings, Verrilli finishes his thought. “For more than 80 percent of Americans, the, ah, insurance system does provide effective access,” Verrilli says, pausing briefly and saying, “Excuse me.” He quickly continues, “But for more than 40 million who do not have access to health insurance, either through their employer or through government programs such as Medicare or Medicaid, the system does not work.”


So, which did you hear on NPR?

~~Silk said...

I found the unaltered audio. It's at http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-03-30/politics/31258908_1_rnc-new-video-obamacare
Scroll down to near the bottom.

He doesn't sound to me like he's stumbling on what to say. Rather, it sounds like he's got an allergy-tight phlegmy throat.

rockygrace said...

I just went back and listened again - they played the first version. And then the panelists riffed for a few minutes on how incompetent the guy sounded.

I just ... I mean, NPR? I listened to the excerpt one more time, and it was pretty obvious it had been messed with. And yet NPR just played it ...

little red said...

Here's the deal. If you believe anything you hear on radio, tv, or read in newspapers or magazines, you're being mislead. People need to stop believing anything and everything. Get rid of your TV, get rid of cable, don't read newspapers and don't listen to anyone who wants a political seat. If they are running for political office, they are liars, and no longer credible by any stretch of the imagination.