Fox40 Covers Sarah Palin at Cal State, Forgets ‘All Mics are Hot’ Rule
If there’s a theme that ties this week’s events together, it’s to assume that all mics are hot, all emails risk becoming public, and all information captured by journalists no matter how off the record will eventually escape. David Brooks of the New York Times calls it “the Culture of Exposure,” dating it back to the 1960s and media coverage of the Vietnam War. (Which seems fair, as his employer leaking the Pentagon Papers was an early example of the Culture of Exposure as it was just taking off.)
Dave Weigel loses his plush gig at the Washington Post after being outed using the infamous Journolist for what everybody feared it was being used for: driving narratives and punishing conservatives. General McChrystal got caught believing that Rolling Stone (insert obligatory exclamation mark ! here) would keep his secrets safe and his staff off the record. And last night, Sacramento’s Fox40 affiliate forgot last night that all mics are potentially hot, and got caught running comments from either their crew or the college crew taping Sarah Palin’s appearance at California State University at Stanislaus, about 90 miles south of Sacramento, bashing her after her speech.
Sister Toldjah (found via Dan Riehl) has a transcript of some of the quotes that went out over the air, and onto plenty of TiVos:
Just got done watching the speech Sarah Palin gave at California State University, Stanislaus – the one that generated so much controversy from “concerned” students to the point they were digging in trash dumpsters looking for contract info.
Anyway, she gave a great speech as always (commentary/live Tweets are here) but at times the Fox40 live feed was hard to hear – they were having audio issues. But at the end of the speech is where it got interesting. Here’s what some of the audio/camera guys** were saying:
“The dumbness doesn’t just come from soundbites.”
“I can’t believe she quoted Kennedy – twice.
“How am I going to write about this-there’s nothing there-answer well there’s your story”
But who uttered these quotes? It depends on who you ask, Tammy Bruce writes:
The local station which live streamed the Palin speech has issued a complete statement regarding their review of the unprofessional and insulting comments made by technicians and others in the media room after the event. These remarks were picked up by Fox40’s live mic and live-streamed to the world. As you can tell by my original post, I’ve come to my conclusion about the source of those remarks. Fox40 has reviewed the same material and comes to a different conclusion. After the jump I’ve linked and posted their full statement.Bottom line — Fox40 insists it wasn’t them. None of the reporters, technicians or anyone else in that media room were associated with Fox40. There is no apology and they do not identify those making the comments.
As I noted in my previous post, is it possible university techies were manning that camera, yes. But come to your own conclusion about to whom that techie was apologizing regarding the Fox40 feed going down. Again, is it possible it was a random reporter not associated with Fox40? I suppose it is, unlikely, but possible. I believe Fox40 believe it wasn’t them. What I hear and see tells me otherwise.
So, come to your own conclusion. Although there will be no apology I think an important message has been sent to all parties — there are no more Free Shots at Sarah Palin. Not any more. And I think it’s also fair to say that this will be the last hot mic Fox40 ever allows.
Tammy has the video of the full speech, and there’s a cleaner high-res version at the McClatchy-owned Merced Sun-Star Website. Tammy also has a separate clip of the audio of the extracurricular comments that made the rounds on Twitter last night:
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YouTube Direkt
At Hot Air, Ed Morrissey adds:
The Sun-Star also reported that around a hundred protesters turned out for the speech, chanting slogans and carrying signs calling Palin “Sinister Sarah.” If that’s as good as CSU Stanislaus’ lefties can manage, things have gone downhill since my days in the CSU system almost 30 years ago in Fullerton. The mainstream media reporters covering the event couldn’t do much better, as Breitbart TV caught when the live feed continued after the speech and picked up the comments of the press corps.
If these were opinion journalists, these comments would be no problem. If they’re news reporters expected to render an objective, fact-based report on the event, I’d say that they have a bright future at MSNBC.
Not to mention the Washington Post.
And in case anybody’s wondering, local Fox affiliates have nothing to do with Fox News and its middle America-friendly tone, other than having the option of using them as a news feed if there’s a big breaking national story. Remember Dallas journalist Rebecca Aguilar badgering an old man who had legally defended his property with a shotgun? She was with KDFW, a local Fox affiliate, as we discussed in this early edition of our Silicon Graffiti video blog from April of 2008:
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YouTube Direkt
Finally, a quick tip to those want a permanent record of Fox’s hot mics last night: Download Helper and similar programs and applets are your friend, as these sorts of videos have a tendency to disappear fairly quickly on YouTube.
Related: Maggie’s Farm asks, “Journalist or Kindergarten Ethics?”, and a commenter below reminds us of another recent open mic meltdown across the pond, when Gordon Brown’s now infamous remarks helped cost him his job as prime minister in early May.
Update: Salon’s Joan Walsh is apparently pretty cool with journalists anonymously blurting comments into hot mics, as long as they’re attacking from left to right.
This is a case of deja vue. During the most recent British election, in fact towards the end of it, Gordon Brown was campaigning, and I guess he forgot he was miked.
A grandmother was complaining about immigration, and he was grousing about that, and who set up the encounter.
That helped seal Brown’s fate.
vu
Ed: It’s ‘regardless’.
Thank you for that little cleanup, ahem!:) That violation makes me about as crazy as the phrase, “I could care less.” Grrrrrr…………
Wow, tough room tonight!
Emma: Yeah, a double negative.
Ed: Damned Skippy.
Don’t use no double negatives. And don’t never use no triple negatives!
All almost all the local news outlets are full of Lefties. And for quite sometime.
Imagine that. The left handed are finally a majority. My husband will be glad to hear that, after the guff he was subjected to in elementary school from his penmanship teacher!
Say, that IS good news! Now my husband can’t call me a “freak of nature” anymore…!
And I really hated those “lefty” scissors they made me use in grade school.
I’ve read the comments on her speech on other sites…lotta liberal drivel out there folks.
The guys should be banned…it won’t happen , but it should.
I like Palin. I don’t think she’s the end all.. she is better than the crap being spewed from women like Pelosi, Boxer etc..
I’m tired of all the put downs..it’s really getting old. There is no constructive criticism..just silly childish jr high putdowns..
Ann wrote: “I’m tired of all the put downs..it’s really getting old. There is no constructive criticism..just silly childish jr high putdowns..”
Hmmm, sounds like what I have been saying.
Hi Dwight. You look good in your new slacks and dark sunglasses. Hey, are you President of the Peggy Lee Fan club? Wow, Light Ash Blond, 9 1/2A! Looks good!
Moderate Liberal Carp Kareoke Roundup :
Fever in the mornin’
Fever all through the night!
3:24am fever –
143. Dwight
“…crazy stuff in the fever-swamp of many righty brains.”
June 25, 2010 – 3:24 am
Jr. High Sub Hot For Teacher –
145. Dwight
Hey, great scholarship. Keep studying my stuff….and if you are lucky, it may help soothe the fevered brain.
June 25, 2010 – 12:28 pm
147. Dwight
Evidently, you guys are sensitive about being called “fevered…”
June 26, 2010 – 4:22 pm
Fever in the mornin’
Fever all through the night!
126. Dwight
“…from what I do, which is ‘centrist boilerplate,’ er, profundity.”
“You guys are drama queens.”
June 23, 2010 – 4:42 am
“absurd hyperbole…” “fever”
12. Dwight
“…a number of the denizens of this site border on the pathological…
…in their blather against “our President,” and they get each other all stirred up as well. I hope that there is at least a strand of rational discourse amidst all the absurd hyperbole…”
June 22, 2010 – 3:28 am
” all stirred up…” “fever”
Dwight
Can you say howling and yowling drama queens?
June 23, 2010 – 7:47 pm
Pissed off partner, even –
12. Dwight
“…what the hell am I doing here? My wife certainly asks that question all the time.”
June 22, 2010 – 3:28 am
Fever in the mornin’
Fever all through the night!
110. Dwight
“I was awake, but I will confess to frequenting righty sites…”
June 22, 2010 – 4:24 pm
Admission of past sins –
Dwight
“OK, Try to follow this, guys. Obama has some past extreme associations with lefty or wacko types. How the hell else does a poor boy from Hawaii get to the top?”
“‘Obama sucks’ Got it.”
June 24, 2010 – 8:07 am
Classic moderate Liberal projection – Not me! Never!
147. Dwight
“Evidently, you guys are sensitive about being called “fevered,” since you don’t respond to much else in my posts…”
No. No, evidently. Really.
“…which are trying in quite a few different ways to put Obama in some reasonable personal, political, and historical context. You guys, on the other hand, are continually pushing for “worst ever.”
Fever in the mornin’
Fever all through the night!
“Obama has some past extreme associations with lefty or wacko types. How the hell else does a poor boy from Hawaii get to the top?”
Fever in the mornin’
Fever all through the night!
“…despite your claim that you don’t get that involved with politicians.”
Please, No Gore details.
Fever in the mornin’
Fever all through the night!
“Or maybe you guys are more rational about him than I have realized.”
Then “realize”.
June 26, 2010 – 4:22 pm
Dwight
“Commie, commie.”
June 24, 2010 – 8:32 am
Everybody’s got the fever
That is somethin’ you all know
The Moderate Liberal Carp. Hook, line, and Mr. President.
It’s amazing how self deluded most liberals are.
Either that, or Dwight just doesn’t mind lying.
Blah blah Liberals blah blah Left Wing Conspiracy blah blah Lamestream Media.
You need to stop blaming everybody except Palin for Palin’s shortcomings. She’s a lame duck. Throw her under the bus.
And just how, specifically, was Sarah responsible for what some dimwits said on an open mic?
Talk about blaming, and blaming the victim in this case…
Yeah, what a lame duck! How many of those whom she endorsed won their primaries? How many that he, the mad duck, endorsed won? Not even with a tax payer paid job offer dangling in front of their opponents. Sad! Our soccer team is the latest victim of his endorsement.
Oh, and as for “Throw her under the bus,” that’s a lefty’s way of doing things, not ours.
Jason look’s to me that you be Obama’s Bus Driver.
Jason, you forgot to mention “it’s Bush’s fault.”
You ‘progressive’ types crack me up.
Even the Vichy Republicans we have now take out their trash.
You Democratic National Socialsit types keep re-electing yours.
Hop on over to http://palingates.blogspot.com for investigative journalism, fact-checking, and critical thinking. They do not accept spoon fed information, rather, they dig for what is behind the “information.” Funny, but there ARE 2 sides to every story, which people can see if they make an effort to not be hamstrung by partisan blindness and deafness.
Indeed there are two sides to every story.
However, I fail to see how Sarah herself was responsible for the actions of the people in the control room.
Your pathetic attempt to shift the blame onto the victim is, I must inform you, an EPIC FAIL.
CS, this is why I ♥ you.
Shifting blame I a Lib Game. You can’t win because when the you take their pawn and then their Queen they cry foul and throw over the chessboard.
Palingates? Seriously? That’s a Trig Truther blog that spends all its time examining pictures of a pregnant Sarah Palin to prove her kids are not hers.
Palingates? Investigative “journalism”? Fact-checking? Critical thinking? This is either MaryBee’s poor attempt at sarcasm or a cry for help from the delusional.
Investigative journalism?
I doubt you’d know real journalism if it bit you on the arse.
The common denominator on that site is pretty low – when all they have is criticism of her hair – and find the comments by the video crew to be ‘hilarious’. But not a mention of the speech. WOW! Now that is real investigative journalism. Replete with links to the Daily Kos which we all know is ‘fair and balanced’ – right?
Just like stupid people everywhere – they just don’t know they are stupid.
“pailingates”
Fatuous drivel even by leftoid standards.
Thoughtless and careless are the hall mark catch phrases of the media and journalists alike today. “Unprofessional” stems from those two behaviors. As long as outlets (Fox40 or whom ever) tolerates the lack of professional integrity we will be the recipients of this kind of tripe.
Fox New’s is just MSM @ it’s worst.Keep employing Raciest Latinas Fox nice way to go.
Invest in a reading comprehension course. Ed specified in the article above:
That takes care of your little jab quite well.
Before you invest in that reading comprehension course, try learning the basics of capitalization (THE BIG LETTERS, upper case) & punctuation.
The point of Journalism, the ultimate reason we pay journalists, and accord them additional protections over and above the actual text of the first amendment; is to accurately gather information about an event. While the report may be shaded by perspective, all journalists owe their audience a reasonably complete, accurate, and unbiased report.
We expect Public Relations representatives to confine their speech in front of the cameras and media. We should expect no less of the Journalists. Whatever they may think of the political person they’re covering, shut up until the coverage is over. Then, gather up your thoughts, and editorialize all you like.
The event here shows bad judgment of making up one’s mind before the event is over. There are valid reasons for not agreeing with Sarah Palin’s politics. However, very little of what we see from the left is anything but catty, hateful, and wrong.
“…making up one’s mind before the event is over.”
Uh, nope. Most liberals have their minds made up long before the event is even planned, much less over. They have their fairy-tale view of the world and nothing – absolutely nothing – is going to make them change their opinions.
These “reporters” forgot to mention that Sarah’s appearance was the most profitable fund-raiser Cal-State Stanislaus ever had. Maybe they were all dreaming about careers at HuffPo, TPM, or Gawker.
“Throw her under the bus” ? That is an endorsement for violence, such trash, but a lefty is a lefty, and they continue to keep proving how trashy their thinking is.
Is not a big deal. Sarah Palin made a great speech, earned some good money and raised money for the school. These reporters looked and sounded like fools. End of story.
LOL. These people are so wrapped up into their own thinking that if Gov. Palin said E=mc^2 and recited the theory of relativity they would still think it was wrong. Its a very militeristic way of thinking.
Incidents like this, along with a plethora of additional incidents over the years, confirms for me my opinion that a bailout or subsidies for media operations, whether it starts just funding so called “public broadcasting” or not, is a definite no go. The very idea taxpayers would be on the hook to fund the vitriol spewed by media types is as repugnant an idea as any other government intercession idea has been. The concept that there are some calling for media funding is in complete diametric opposition to the past decades of screaming foul by the left if anyone even mentioned limits after hearing vulgar tirades spewed by what we thought were anarchists, but who it turns out look like many mainstream liberals. Over the years we were all told “there can be absolutely no limits on speech at all!” Now that these type folks have congressional & administration power, it looks like these same types are seeking onerous internet regulation & talk radio “localism” regulations. Such restrictive concepts amount to plans to limit & infringe on speech liberals hate. Namely, anything or anyone who even sounds like they could possibly be conservative or have a single conservative thought! (Hollywood has covered the entertainment industry by providing us w/ a long list of anti-America, love socialism movies & super star endorsements of clowns like Hugo Chavez.
The “media” operations who are the ones seeking government funding, are the same media operations whose market share has plummeted. Why? The public is rejecting their leftist opinionated laced news reports just as the public rejected Air America’s vile aspersions cast at anyone who even remotely resembled a conservative or who showed the possibility they were having a conservative thought. These same folks attack Fox News (the national network, not locals). Perhaps Fox is good, & perhaps they are not. However if one spends any amount of time following reports by all of the nets, one would find Fox ‘News’ presents an excellent report that is not laced with patently obvious leftist liberal bias. The Fox networks ‘opinion’ shows are biased. That is obvious & the commentators come right out & tell you that. But opinion shows on every network are biased. That is not news. The difference is in the ‘news’ operations, which are what is helping Fox take over ‘national’ TV news reporting as ‘the’ channel to watch. These folks are truly, out of touch, with the balance of America. You know, the folks who actually keep the nation functioning.
The “old establishment mainstream media” has become pathetic & their views represent an education wasted on ideological brainwashing based in utopian theory & not in real world facts.
Because of the technical difficulties of the Fox40 livestream, it was hard to really follow the speech.
However, it was a very good speech if you click on the link to the good video.
Sarah really covered a lot of areas. I especially liked her story of British official Napier who said that if the locals in India continued to follow their practice of burning widows alive on their dead husband’s funeral pyres, that he would kick in his practice of hanging the men that burn them (or something along those lines).
Humor, great quotes, spunky, patriotic, and a great understanding of why we are where we are, because we failed to educate our children in liberty.
Her quote of Tocqueville was particularly relevant especially for those who think that we can have a republic without an emphasis on morals: “America is a great country because America is a good country”.
I’ll throw in another of A de T’s: “The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.”
Right now, Sarah is the biggest champion politically of Western Civilization.
I believe our spirited version of Neo is of the ‘red pill’ crowd.
To November.
One question for those who would try to shift the blame onto Mrs. Palin.
Would you have the same reaction if a local TV station did the same thing to a speech by a prominent Democrat, such as Mr. Obama or Mr. Biden?
The answer given will be yes. Until it actually happens to Obama. Even then, the problem will be corrected immediately, by either:
1. The station fires those who offend Obama or,
2. The station finds itself the attention of immediate hostile FCC and other agencies’ investigations until the offenders are fired.
It’s the Chicago way.
C’mon. $arah was railing away at people trying to SILENCE her during that speech….so there was a little more freedom of speech from the peanut gallery.
Let’s not forget Palin makes sense to a very small fraction of Amercians. Those reporters who offered commentary are talking for the rest of us. She SOUNDS moronic. TRULY.
I know her supporters like to think people are afraid of her or jealous of her but REALLY $arah simply sounds moronic. I am not even talking about the donkey bray voice, I am talking about what comes out of her mouth.
Sounds bites, disjointed, up and down, side ways, not finishing, contradictions, mistakes, sing song, lies,,,,$arah is a mess.
Boy, you really don’t have a firm grasp on the facts, do you?
Sarah was giving a speech… that is, she was up in front of a crowd, standing behind a podium.
For some reason, Fox40 wasn’t able to put their camera or microphone inside the venue where the speech was being given. Therefore, the station had to aim their camera and microphone at a live video feed of the event at a separate location. This is attested to by multiple stories, including a written statement from the station itself. Therefore, the hecklers we hear on the videotape were not even in the same room as Mrs. Palin! So please explain to me how this is her trying to silence the people heard on the videotape?
Because I myself was able to find three other websites publishing this information (not linked in this comment because I don’t want to run afoul of the spam filter, but you can easily find them by following the links in Ed’s story above), I can only conclude that your ignorance of the facts is deliberate, because you clearly haven’t done even a modicum of research.
You may now slink off and come back later with a different sock on your hand.
Forgive me, but I must. You stand on a podium. You stand behind a lectern.
Do you actually believe that the half dozen people who are willing to spend time with you, constitute a valid cross section of America?
“$arah was railing away at people trying to SILENCE her during that speech”
Sarah Palin comes down to give a fund-raising speech for a state university and ex-governor Moonbeam thinks that’s grounds for a criminal investigation.
But, nobody’s trying to silence Palin.
Whatever.
No biggie… just your typical left wing liberals jonesing for it to be over so they could go smoke a doobie..
As shocking as it is, at one time in history, the title of “journalist” garnered respect. Today, they are the dregs of society.
I worked in Television for 40 years. There are a lot of idiots in News Departments. Example: After losing power in the station due to weather…Reporters were concerned that the toilets might not function. This is typical…