Media Matters Caught Context-Editing a Tape — Hey, Where Have We Heard That Before?
Media Matters was all about getting the “full context” of Andrew Breitbart’s Shirley Sherrod video
from day one. From that controversy, everybody walked away with a good refresher course in the importance of “full context” in the name of honest debate — everybody except Media Matters.
From
Media-Ite by way of
Sister Toldjah:
Let’s end the week with some Shirley Sherrod-ing – editing a clip to make it sound like a person is saying something that is actually the complete opposite of what they’re saying.
In this case, the offender is Media Matters, which tries to prove that Glenn BeckÂ’s radio co-hosts were saying Keith Olbermann was responsible for the deadly Manchester workplace shooting.
Here was Media Matters’ (sic’ed) headline: “Beck sidekicks Gray and Burguiere: Keith Olberman and media responsible for Manchester shooting.”
The sidekicks are Pat Gray and Stu Burguiere, who co-hosted with Beck out today. And why did Media Matters write this? Well, because that is what Gray and Burguiere said – at first. Gray: “Obviously Keith Olbermann is responsible for those eight people dead.”
And Burguiere: “A guy like that who’s a little bit unstable anyway can’t help but react to the constant pressure of Keith Olbermann on the air on MSNBC and all of MSNBC talking about all the racism there is out there.”
But the problem is, the co-hosts were being sarcastic, to make a point. A minute later they get serious, and Stu says “Keith Olbermann was not responsible for any shooting,” but that part is conveniently out of the Media Matters audio. Because Media Matters cut the audio right before they make it clear.
Media Matters issued a
correction and altered the title when their attempted Sherrodding of BeckÂ’s people was discovered:
CORRECTION: The original headline on this clip did not make clear that BeckÂ’s co-hosts were being satirical when they linked MSNBC host Keith Olbermann to the Manchester shooting. The original clip also did not include their subsequent statements that Olbermann was not responsible for the shooting. Media Matters regrets the error.
Even without the “full context” of the recording it was painfully obvious that Burguiere and Gray were being sarcastic, but this is where Media Matters often gets tripped up.
