NBC News does story on Greg Packer

NBC Nightly News | 7/11 | me

[Charlie OK]

I flipped over to NBC last night, and caught the tail-end of Nightly News. Brian Williams was doing a story on our man, Greg Packer. I had the volume down, so I couldnt catch everything, but it almost seemed like they were admitting they had been duped by the guy before, and were having a laugh at their own expense.

[Charlie OK]

Not a big deal, but I wonder if anyone else caught this and found it interesting. If anyone has a transcript or remembers what was said, please chime in.

[Support Free Republic]

Hi Mom!

[dighton]

...

[NeoCaveman]

Greg Packer spotting.

[Wright is right!]

I saw the whole thing and they NEVER admitted to having been duped, nor did they allow that the REST of the media had been duped. Instead, they cast him as an "amusing hobbyist" who simply hangs out at celeb- and non-celeb events and seeks to get on-camera or to talk with a reporter. They never mentioned that a Lexis-Nexis search would reveal him to have been quoted by dozens of AP stories, Washington Post and NY Times stories on subjects about which he has/had no knowledge. They DID say that he rarely knew much if anything about the PEOPLE he shows up to see - but they completely left out the real meat of the matter of his hoodwinking MANY news outlets by acting as a Man On The Street.

It was a perfectly-orchestrated DNC Defusing Of The Issue by half-reporting, so that if anyone brings up the subject later, they can say, "Oh, we already covered that."

Michael

[dead]

Ha ha ha! We got duped. Great fun!

In other news, President Bush is a liar. He took the opinion of somebody who said a report was geniune over the opinion of somebody who said it was not.

Our man on the street, Terrance Wilkerson, interviewed people in Times Square today about the very real possibility of impeachment...Terrance?

Thank you, Tom! I'm standing here with a 38-year-old gentleman from Huntington, Long Island. Mr. Packer, do you support the impeachment of President Bush who lied to everybody?

Hello, Terrance, long time no see. I do. I do support impeachment...

[Semper Paratus]

They were not duped. They used him as a reliable 'liberal man-on-the-street'.
I bet he is also the infamous "Sources Said", "Some Say", "It's been Said".

[Charlie OK]

that was what I figured. I bet the NYT is kicking themselves that they couldnt have used this strategy with Blair, huh?

[Sonny M]

Instead, they cast him as an "amusing hobbyist" who simply hangs out at celeb- and non-celeb events and seeks to get on-camera or to talk with a reporter.

Personally, and I don't know if your going to agree with me or not, but I think these news media folks call him up and tell him to go the events and even go so far as to give him quotes to say. Most media folks are elitists, they feel more comfortable talking to somone they know and have spoken to numerious times and also has the same liberal view as them. I saw him on msnbc, and I have my doubts about wether or not he really does come up with his own quotes, he didn't come across as the most literate guy.

[alloysteel]

Ha. NBC NEVER has a laugh at their own expense. This was a subtle effort to defang the viper at their breasts. The major media has made a business of keeping a few tame interview subjects on hand, to substantiate the editorial vein they continue to put in their news reporting, in an effort to change attitudes in the remainder of the viewing public. This worked, back in the days of the three networks and domination of media by AP. But now, their seamless pipeline for propaganda has been ruptured, and they are trying to reinvent themselves on the move.

[Wright is right!]

"but I think these news media folks call him up and tell him to go the events and even go so far as to give him quotes to say. Most media folks are elitists, they feel more comfortable talking to somone they know and have spoken to numerious times and also has the same liberal view as them."

I certainly wouldn't put it past them - after all, how do you think they come up with all the people they use to illustrate various stories?

Let's say Bush puts forth a tax-cut plan. That evening, each network will do the story by showing you a family who will not benefit from Dubya's proposal. Each network will have a different family or families, but the net result will be the same - no matter what Dubya proposes, the nets will find only families who won't benefit.

And how, exactly, do they FIND these people? Simple. The network reporters simply call up someone at the DNC and says something like the following:

"Hi, Terry, Lisa Myers at NBC. We're doing 3 minutes on Bush's tax-cut proposal and we need a couple of families that it won't help. We can have crews on the ground in St. Louis and Denver in 90 minutes. What do you have?"

The DNC staffer says he'll call Myers right back. 5 minutes later, Myers' phone rings and she has two names and addresses and the crews in St. Louis and Denver are dispatched to get some footage. The families, probably local party stalwarts, will have been given things to say BY the DNC guy when he lined them up. So the crews will get what is, in essence, DNC canned-but-fresh footage, NBC will get its anti-Bush segment, and the DNC will be rewarded later.

That's how it works. And the media doesn't want you to know.

Michael

[VOA]

bump

[eggman]

Nothing but liberal media damage control. The Greg Packer thing was getting out of hand so they had to create a "Made for the Nightly News" segment to explain the story for the viewers.

Greg Packer, if that is his real name, is just a media tool for getting their views across in the news.

[Charlie OK]

I seem to remember NBC saying he was a homeless guy. I thought before they said he worked for the city of New York or something.

[Wright is right!]

"I seem to remember NBC saying he was a homeless guy."

Nope, they said (while showing a picture of him lying on the sidewalk) that he MIGHT "APPEAR" homeless, but in fact he was camping out all night to be at some media event for some singer about whom he knew nothing.

Michael

[Grampa Dave]

You nailed this effort by NBC!