Selectively edited videos are bad. Except when they aren’t.
That’s at least one of the big takeaways from the press’ promotion this weekend of bogus allegations of racism against teenagers at the March for Life.
The real story is that students from Covington Catholic High School were harassed by both an elderly Native American protester as well as a hateful sect known as the Black Hebrew Israelites. Things went from bad to worse, though, after the press seized on a single, selectively edited video to claim that the teens had “taunted” and “mobbed” the Native American.
Forgive my eye-rolling as I think back to the high standard of proof that the national media set in 2015 following the release of the undercover Planned Parenthood tapes. Back then, newsrooms dismissed the videos outright, claiming that they were “selectively edited” and therefore unreliable.
A court has since concluded that Planned Parenthood videos were indeed authentic. The March for Life video, in contrast, actually was selectively edited.
The New York Times claimed in a headline published Saturday that high school students in “Make America Great Again” hats mobbed Nathan Phillips, the Native American protester.
“A Native American Vietnam War veteran was seen being harassed and mocked by a group of MAGA hat-wearing teens,” read a headline published this weekend by the Huffington Post.
The Huffington Post also featured the story on its front page Saturday under a banner that blared: “MAGA HATS, MEGA HATE: HARASSMENT AT NATIVE MARCH.”
Politico ran with the headline, “Oklahoma senator blames hateful rhetoric for teens harassing Native American.”
“Video Shows MAGA-Clad Teenagers Harassing, Mocking Native American Vietnam Vet,” read a headline from Slate.
Mother Jones likewise claimed the teens “taunted” an Omaha Elder.
Every single one of these stories is based on a single, shaky video that was posted to YouTube with the caption, “Is this how we make America great ‘again’?” The video is exactly three minutes and 44 seconds long. It begins in the middle of the March for Life incident, and it ends abruptly before the conclusion of the alleged confrontation. Obviously, the tape is missing important context. It does not capture what led up to the incident or its aftermath.
This video was apparently enough for certain newsrooms to jump in and get behind a story of something that didn’t actually happen, that the teens had tormented an elderly veteran.
And to think it was just a few years ago that these exact same media organizations casually dismissed the Center for Medical Progress’ hours and hours of uncut undercover footage, claiming it was “selectively edited.” These newsrooms went to great lengths to downplay the group’s claim that it had caught Planned Parenthood associates discussing the processes by which organs from the remains of aborted children can be harvested and sold (er, donated for a fee), alleging that the materials provided by the pro-life activists were untrustworthy.
“Second Heavily Edited Planned Parenthood Attack Video Is Also a Big Bust,” read one Slate headline.
“[A] little-known anti-abortion activist,” Mother Jones reported, “ignited a firestorm by releasing … selectively edited videos.”
“Report for Planned Parenthood finds sting videos manipulated,” Politico reported following the release of a “study” the so-called women’s health organization commissioned from the Democratically aligned Fusion GPS. The Politico report was careful to note that Fusion GPS went so far as to bring in “video and transcription experts” who are “not associated with Planned Parenthood.”
The firm’s “findings” are the first “comprehensive account of the video’s discrepancies,” Politico reported.
“Planned Parenthood Videos Were Altered, Analysis Finds,” the New York Times also reported at the time.
The Huffington Post went with this: “‘Sting’ Videos Of Planned Parenthood Are Totally Manipulated, Forensic Analysis Finds,” adding that even “the supposedly unedited ‘full’ footage is misleadingly altered, experts say.”
For what it’s worth, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, after an exhaustive review of hundreds of hours of tape, found last week that the tapes had not been unfairly doctored. But I guess none of that matters now that the press has made selectively edited tapes great again. It’s just so weird that certain newsrooms developed a standard for verification that lasted exactly as long as it took for the Planned Parenthood fetal tissue scandal to blow over. Quite a mystery.
