To think that I was recently singing the praises of how the Internet allows everyone the opportunity to alert the world to wrongs brought upon it by corporations or individuals. Here is an example of how the powers of the Internet and sloppy journalism can be abused.
Apparently, Baltimore television reporter John Sanders got creative last week, and created a YouTube video in which he doctored the speech of conservative Fox News Radio host John Gibson. And not just a little. In the spirit of using monkey symbols to connote racism, Sanders decided to cast Gibson in the role of over-the-top racist, with comments that seemed to compare Attorney General Eric Holder to a monkey with a “bright blue scrotum.” Sanders engineered this colorful bit of dialogue by splicing a clip about such a monkey, which had escaped from a Seattle zoo, with Gibson’s comments regarding Holder, who is African American.
After posting the video online with a disclaimer that it wasn’t true, the upshot was that Sanders was fired from his television station, and Gibson claimed to be personally affected by the video. “These days it’s really dangerous on the Internet,” he said. “These things go viral, and people don’t see the correction and the mea culpa. You can’t unring the bell.”
The problem was not just that a television reporter had made an inflammatory video, presumably for the amusement of his friends, but that the news website, The Huffington Post, picked up the doctored video and posted it without any disclaimer and without calling Gibson or Fox for comment.
I’m sure I would disagree with most of what John Gibson and his guests have to say on his conservative talk show. Many of them may indeed be racists, for all I know. Still, I can’t condone a deliberate and false attack on someone’s character just because of different philosophies—this is especially wrong for a journalist.
How did a reporter not know that making public a fake video on a nationally known personality, even with a disclaimer, would reflect badly on his television station? If he is not aware of libel laws, I’m sure his former employer is familiar with the expensive damage that can be caused by a defamation of character lawsuit. And c’mon, The Huffington Post was so eager to jump on the racism bandwagon that no one called to confirm legitimacy and sources? And no one noticed the disclaimer?
The combination of careless reporting and the ease of access offered by the Internet can make for some ugly consequences. People are all too eager to believe outrageous news, even if it is false. Reporters have a responsibility to their profession and themselves to use their heads before diving into murky waters.
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This type of behavior is really getting out of hand. We have people doing these things and have no regard for how it is going to hurt others. Is it, because we now have a black president that many have been in some way controlling their racist ways. If you work in the media you should really be careful about what you do on the internet and television. Even though the video was fake someone lost their job, because they thought this was a funny joke. Not knowing or cared that, The Huffington Post or any other type of media would see it. Excellent post.
ReplyDeleteWow. You always surprise me with your posts. And yes, I know how easy it is to doctor a video. I've made a short video myself for fun, not of the harmful kind, and I've watched my boyfriend string together many-a music video or short film.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad that we have so many people in today's society who will just gobble garbage up, as long as it has drama or something bad happening.
It just goes to show you that some jokes can be taken too far, and those jokes hopefully have consequences as a result, like this one did.
I mean most videos on you-tube are garbage. So I am not at the least surprised that so politically charged/inappropriate videio ended up on the website. It sounds to me though that they handled the situation well. The man did something immature that made the company he worked for look bad and he got punished for it. Serves him right!
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that so many people are rooting for change in our society and others are constantly turning back to the ways that we are running from.
ReplyDeleteI guess change is not for everyone, but some things are just not acceptable. I think this is just an opener of what's to come but how we handle it makes all the difference.
Not to be funny but if you saw Spiderman than I'm pretty sure you heard this pharse: "With great power comes great responsibility." This pharse can be used regarding the internet. It is so many things that a person can do that can greatly harm other people. And your post is another example of it. For us to advance as a society, we have to work together and not try to humiliate or defame somebody else.
ReplyDeleteyoutube videos, have a little peice of ridicule in them, and many of them are just seen as spam, or just want-to-be rich videos. the fact that this guy is reaching as far out, very immaturly, to posting videos on the web about this issue. i think that slumping to this level is unprofessional and immatture.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Diane...this is getting out of hand. You would think that the racism and hatred would be lower. It is sad and so distatseful that ignorant people find it amsusing to harm others and hurt eachother. So many people out there make disturbing vidoes...but, nothing can really be done because of free speech. So i guess we will just have to turn our heads to the ignorant idiots out there!!
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