Subliminals, or Implying Something That Isn't
Reported by Marie Therese - June 29, 2004 -
June 28, 2004 5:36 PM EDT
Host John Gibson and his guest Assad Ali, an Iraqi-American expatriate, spoke in positive terms about the transfer of soveriegnty to Iraq, while FOX aired a clip of Arab men singing, clapping hands, dancing, smiling, beating drums, waving American flags and generally having a great time. The casual viewer, and even the not-so-casual viewer, would immediately assume this clip was footage shot in Iraq on June 28, 2004 after news of the handover reached the general populace.
Wrong, wrong, wrong!
For a very brief few seconds, towards the end of the clip, FOX flashes the date "4/9/03".
The lightbulb goes on (if you happen to catch the date).
This is file video of unidentified Middle Eastern men, dressed in warm clothing. It is clearly NOT summer in Iraq. It is spring in some American city. As is typical with FOX, one cannot be sure. They rarely encode their clips with specific dates, times and locations.
Other news outlets - CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, etc. - are usually careful to encode their old clips with the words "File Footage" or "From the Files".
FOX is not so careful. Just one more example of tabloid journalism!
