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I have to admit not much leaves me speechless. But this is so incredibly awful and shows such a lack of judgement that I simply cannot believe it happened.
On Tuesday night, Fox News was the only major U.S. cable network (with the exception of NewsMax) to carry Donald Trump's post arraignment speech from Miami, in which he repeatedly called the charges against him a "witch hunt.".
During the coverage, they did a split screen showing President Joe Biden also addressing a separate crowd at the same time. But the chyron that accompanied that split screen was so outrageous, there's bound to be immense fallout from it. In fact, they should issue an apology and possibly fire the people responsible. Here's what it said on nationwide TV:
Apparently, it was only up for about 30 seconds, before wiser heads prevailed. I can only hope this is some kind of hoax or a deep fake. But I fear it isn't. If this happened, it's a new low for this network. Wow. As a person who's worked in news all my life and even did on-air graphics at a Toronto TV station for 10 years, this is simply unbelievable.
Fox News chyron calls Biden a 'wannabe dictator' who had his 'political rival arrested' as president spoke at the White House after Trump indictment
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Despicable
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I remember a headline on the Toronto Sun Facebook page a number of years ago
It too was up for just a few minutes at most & if you blinked you would have missed it
When the Blue Jays employed R.A. Dickie on their pitching staff he had the misfortune to be pulled from the starting lineup because of stiffness in his throwing arm.
The Sun Facebook page headline read..."Stiff Dickie pulled from Jays lineup"...
And then it was gone
All in good fun
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Yes, the Sun is great at those kinds of headlines. At least that one is relatively harmless. I've done lots worse in the headlines I used to write. (One of my all time faves was the day they were announcing the nominees for the Academy Awards and we put this on the screen in promoting the story: "They'd love to be an Oscar Admired winner." Then there was the day Wayne Gretzky landed with the Kings, as he tried on his new uniform. And the caption read, "He may be going to L.A. but he has a New Jersey!" I'm surprised I wasn't ridden out of town on a rail for that one but I thought it was hilarious...)
But the Fox one wasn't amusing or lighthearted. It was outrageous. There is no way I would ever have put that up on the screen, even if my job was threatened. It was so far over the line, you can't see the line anymore.
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Speaking of strange keys, PBS also ran a very strange one during Trump's speech, which it decided to show as part of the PBS News Hour. I have to say I've never seen anything quite like this, either:
PBS Slaps a Jawdropping Warning Label On Trump Speech
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Even when tRump hears the cell door slam behind him, he won't shut up. Imagine occupying an adjoining cell and having to listen to all the whining and blaming everyone else but himself...the actual criminal who broke all these laws.
Remember all those vampire 'B' movies in the '60s and 70s? Apparently there is only one way to kill a vampire.
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Fox has tried to explain that bizarre and offending chyron. But did they?
Fox News says it ‘addressed’ onscreen message that called Biden a ‘wannabe dictator’
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It boggles the mind to think back to all the horrific BS that tRump's lying mouth has been swilling across Planet Earth for years.
If you sense Canada's politics heading toward the guardrails, it's not hard to see a direct line from tRump's big mouth to easily-influenced people among us who happily swallow his BS.
Has Rupert Murdoch learned anything from losing $3/4 Billion? Apparently not. Rick Wilson coined the most accurate statement about the former guy... everything tRump touches dies.
Last edited by Dial Twister (June 14, 2023 9:24 pm)
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Dial Twister wrote:
It boggles the mind to think back to all the horrific BS that tRump's lying mouth has been swilling across Planet Earth for years.
If you sense Canada's politics heading toward the guardrails, it's not hard to see a direct line from tRump's big mouth to easily-influenced people among us who happily swallow his BS.
Has Rupert Murdoch learned anything from losing $3/4 Billion? Apparently not. Rick Wilson coined the most accurate statement about the former guy....everything tRump touches does.
The Dominion lawsuit is just the beginning for Fox. More and bigger lawsuits are to come. When Rupert leaves this life, I wouldn't be surprised if Fox News Network is sold. It is starting to lose money.
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re: Just When You Think Fox News Could Not Get Any Lower...
@unclefester ..
we trust you did post your comments on Fox's website about this? ..
Last edited by g121 (June 15, 2023 8:19 am)
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The headline on this story asks an intriguing question. It was written by a former Fox Network exec.
Is It Time for the FCC to Take a Close Look at Rupert Murdoch’s Licenses?
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The more I think about that idiotic chyron, the more convinced I become that it was created as an internal joke, never meant to go on air. That may explain why it was only up for 27 secs. Bad as Fox is, I find it hard to believe even they would stoop that far on purpose.
Something not quite as egregious but equally stupid happened on City TV many years ago. SOWNY member CityPulse News 15, who was there at the time, recalled how a rather risqué promo wound up on air when it was just shot as a joke and meant only for those inside the station - and maybe the Christmas tape. As it turned out, the audience watching the news that night got quite an eyeful.
His story from a 2018 post is here.
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"Only up for 27 sec." You would need to have a pretty slack crew or director to not notice for that length of time. Fox News Network is a little bit of a bigger news organization than City TV. What happened at City a couple of decades ago is irrelevant. Sorry, Fox doesn't get a pass on this and especially on such a huge story. Stop making excuses for them RA.
It is totally believable that they would go that far on purpose. And their past record proves it.
Even during their supposed "hard news segments" during the daytime, Fox is still very biased, smug, condescending and constantly talking about how the Democrats and Joe Biden have ruined America. Their programming has no hint of balance with constant editorializing. Sad to see what John Robertson has become.
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Wow. I'm not making excuses for them. I have no idea where you got that idea. Re-read my original posts. To quote myself:
"...they should issue an apology and possibly fire the people responsible...it's a new low for this network...As a person who's worked in news all my life and even did on-air graphics at a Toronto TV station for 10 years, this is simply unbelievable."
"The Fox [chyron] wasn't amusing or lighthearted. It was outrageous. There is no way I would ever have put that up on the screen, even if my job was threatened. It was so far over the line, you can't see the line anymore."
I know you like our sometimes-spirited arguments, but there's no love in there for them at all and I certainly was not making excuses for what they did. It was, in a word, unforgiveable.
I suggested it might have been an internal accident, a joke that accidentally hit air, only because I did that job for a decade and know how people like to fool around behind the scenes. The fact of its brief appearance on screen lends at least some credence to that possibility. We made up some silly stuff on my graphics machine, too, over the years.
But I can assure you anything we did was erased well before airtime to prevent it from ever seeing the light of day by accident. If this was deliberate, then as The Thing used to say in the X-Men comics, "It's clobberin' time!"
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Very odd if it were an accident or just the crew having some fun, that the graphic would run again later in the evening when the program it appeared on was repeated. This was reported on by AP. So it was either intentional or Fox has some pretty incompetent people on staff to let this appear twice.
No idea where I got the idea you were making excuses for Fox?? Re-read your post at 11:22 this morning please...pretty obvious.
Last edited by paterson1 (June 15, 2023 3:35 pm)
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paterson1 wrote:
Very odd if it were an accident or just the crew having some fun, that the graphic would run again later in the evening when the program it appeared on was repeated. This was reported on by AP. So it was either intentional or Fox has some pretty incompetent people on staff to let this appear twice.
No idea where I got the idea you were making excuses for Fox?? Re-read your post at 10:22 this morning please...pretty obvious.
The repeat, which I didn't see, (in fact, I didn't see any of it, as I don't watch Fox News and certainly not when Trump is blathering on) is easily explainable - they taped it that way and thus when it was rerun, it was there again. But they should have and could have fixed it, nonetheless.
I'm guessing you've never been in a TV control room, where it's often chaos during a live hit. You've got the director setting up the next shot or looking at the line-up, the producer talking to everyone including the talent, the technical director on the switcher, the production assistant counting down the time and checking the script, and the sound guy in the next room making sure the mics are all working for the next segment and remote.
Is it possible someone accidentally put up that key in all that turmoil and left it there for a few seconds without knowing it? Yep. I've seen it happen. You'd be surprised how often people aren't looking at the monitor because they're busy setting up something else - especially on what is essentially a static camera shot. I'm not saying that's what was happening, only that it has.
I can see no other reason for Fox to do something so incredibly ridiculous or reckless, because as odious as the network is, I can't imagine that even they would go this far. But if they did do it on purpose, there isn't enough condemnation they can be given. So having been in that chair, there's at least some part of me that hopes there's enough professionalism in the crews who work there (as opposed to the on-air talent), that it could have simply been an error.
Either way, accident or purposeful, they deserve all the opprobrium they get. It was one of the worst and most irresponsible things I've ever seen anyone do in broadcasting. I can't make it any clearer than that.
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RadioActive wrote:
Bad as Fox is, I find it hard to believe even they would stoop that far on purpose.
Fake News has been found legally culpable for lying about the 2020 election. Fake News continues to promote division, disharmony and non-truths. Let's not forget how Fake News had a role in spreading and supporting the Orange Guy's COVID-nonsense. Many 10s of thousands of people died who, if they had watched a different non-fake news source, may have lived. And THIS is a company that you find "hard to believe they would stoop that far on purpose"? Compared to these things, I doubt those responsible at Fake News would bat an eyelash over calling the legitimate president a dictator. Outrage, venom and lies is their forté.
What I'd really like to understand is why people believe the nonsense peddled on Fake News. Apparently, they ignore hard-learned lessons, gained over a lifetime's experience, and simply choose to worship a dangerously-flawed individual (aka the Orange Guy). Can you say, "Cult"?
No amount of logic, reality, nor even EVIDENCE, can dissaude them from sticking their heads in the sand while screaming, "Witch hunt!", and sending money to a "billionaire". There's a descriptive word for people like that but each of you likely have one in mind already. Imagine having people like that in your family, or as neighbours? Sad.
The sooner Fake News, and Rupert Murdoch, leave the planet, the better. Hopefully there will be enough people of good will to pick up the pieces.
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"I am guessing you've never been in a TV control room.." I was employed at three companies that had television in addition to radio and was in TV control during productions various times. One station I produced our radio promos for TV. Also in college I directed a number of "live" productions over the three years and was in both the studio control room and at the remote mobile quite often, as switcher or director.
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Then you should be able to appreciate the chaos or at the very least the tumult that can go on when you're doing a live show. It doesn't have to be that way, but I've often found that all it takes is one thing to go wrong and if you're not careful, it can all unravel. A lot depends on the temperament of the producer.
I remember one especially good guy, a real pro when it came to newscasts, was in the CR when all hell was breaking loose and nothing was going right - tapes wouldn't roll, the mics weren't tested and didn't work, the talent wasn't sure what was next, etc. Just when it looked like the show would explode, the producer put us in black, pointed at each one of us and said - "you're OK, right?" and we nodded.
We came back up out of black within 5 secs. (which felt like an hour) and continued the newscast, which went off after that without a hitch. It was because he calmed everyone down that it worked.
On the other hand, I had another guy who would fly off the handle and start to scream at everyone if a single thing went wrong. During a live show with so many elements, that was always possible. And then at the end of the hour, with everyone's nerves stretched to the max and people shaking, he'd go back to the newsroom and wonder what went wrong.
He should have looked into a mirror for the answer.
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Fox fired the person responsible. He was a veteran Tucker Carlson producer, who (of course) Tucker defends in this story.