Posted on 08/27/2014 12:47:08 PM PDT by Kaslin
For more than 24-hours, CNN has been regularly playing a clip of audio which purports to reveal the exact moment when 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot by Officer Darren Wilson. Each time it was played, the CNN anchors and hosts noted that the sound could not be independently verified by the network, but it was just too good to wait to play it for viewers.
CNN’s ratings have been phenomenal since the violence in Ferguson erupted, and the network has displayed a tendency in the past to latch onto any development no matter how dubious that keeps a ratings-grabbing story alive. The suspect audio supposedly of the moment when police shot and killed Brown may be another of these moments.
On Wednesday morning, CNN’s Michaela Pereira invited two former law enforcement officials on the program to discuss the authenticity of the tape.
“I’ve told your producers that for all I know this is one of Howard Stern’s punk people,” former LAPD officer David Klinger said. “It came out, what, two weeks after the event, and so I don’t have a high degree of confidence in it.”
“But, it could be real,” he added without much enthusiasm.
Klinger noted that his first inclination is “someone is trying to punk CNN.”
CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes seemed to share Klinger’s opinion. He left open the possibility that the audio, which to him sounded dubbed, may have been manipulated by CNN’s producers before it was aired. “My producer says that’s all we were given,” Pereira said.
“When I heard this yesterday, I thought the exact same thing: it’s a hoax,” Fuentes added.
He went on to note that, even if the tape is real, it supports the claims of both Brown and Wilson’s supporters and is not of much evidentiary value.
CNN guests tell CNN their Brown shooting audio may be a hoax
If this audio does prove to be a hoax, it is not an understandable mistake that anyone could have made – if only because everyone didn’t make it, just CNN. When a story that still commands significant audience attention runs out of facts to report, incidents like these are more likely to occur.
CNN’s coverage of the events in Ferguson has, for the most part, been both compelling and informative. The ratings the network has earned are deserved. However, if this audio does turn out to be inauthentic, it would be another opportunity for CNN to learn the lessons of their saturation coverage of the missing Malaysian passenger airliner; sacrificing credibility for ratings is never a good tradeoff.
Agreed.
In the past, the news was15-30 minutes. With 24-hour news programs, people have to come up with stuff to broadcast. That’s when the networks start to create news and go after ratings to turn a profit.
I was being a bit cynical in my comment about banning commercials, but in all honesty I think if you take away the profit motive, you’ll see a lot less sensationalism on the news programs.
The issue is whether it would under any stretch of the imagination, be admissible in court. I was also wondering about that other recording although it was found almost if not the day of the shooting.
Considering the chicanery this crew is capable of, that wouldn't surprise me at all.
I wonder if it is possible to search Howard Stern’s lines from his show for the exact language used by the caller in the audio.
A prankster might use actual lines from the show as a marker.
(1) The guy was too into what he was doing to pay attention to the gunfire.
(2) He waited two weeks to submit it, because he was embarrassed by the content but felt that "justice" should trump his misgivings.
CNN doesn’t care about evidence, it cares about stirring up trouble. The angle was the number of shots, which goes to the “out of control rabid killer-cop” idea.
When the police report is released, we’ll know how many shots were fired, and I bet the numbers don’t match.
“I think it should be illegal for programs to profit off of news. Broadcasting news should be a public service.”
Then the only news you would get would be from PBS.
I would hope they would do a better job than that obvious fake. They guy talking into the phone doesn't skip a beat or show any reaction at all while 10 or 11 shots are supposedly being fired right outside his window. What kind of person does that?
I’m all for defunding PBS.
I aplaude CNN—they are showing true captalistic tendencies. Go for the ratings! News Flash—a Giant Ten Feet tall, peterified has been dug up in Cardif, New York! Special report of the Cardrif Giant at 11.
The commend was sarcastic, but it raises an idea.
What if there was a News Public Utility with watchdog oversight appointed by both political parties that produced straight news each evening?
Could it serve as a benchmark for the rest of the media?
My first guess is probably not as it would be corrupted quickly.
Public Utility? CPB?
You mean tax funded??
Don’t we already have PBS and NPR??
Yes, corrupted very quickly they were
How many spent casings have been recovered?
“What if there was a News Public Utility with watchdog oversight appointed by both political parties that produced straight news each evening?”
The news is NOT a function of the feds!!!!!!!!!
CNN, like all leftist media, cares more about its agenda than about truth.
The agenda is to stir up more anger and strife among people, and when people fight with each other, CNN will happily film it all, gleefully adding to the fire.
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