Lights, Camera, Oops

NBC News anchor Brian Williams led his "Nightly News" broadcast last Thursday night by discussing the "staged" discussion between President Bush and soldiers in Iraq. Here's how Williams opened the show:

"It was billed as a chance for the president to hear directly from the troops in Iraq. The White House called it a 'back and forth,' a 'give and take,' and so, reporters who cover the White House were summoned this morning to witness a live video link between the Commander-In-Chief and the U.S. soldiers in the field as the elections approach in Iraq. The problem was, before the event was broadcast live on cable TV, satellite picture from Iraq was being beamed back to television news rooms here in the U.S. It showed a full-blown rehearsal of the president's questions, in advance, along with the soldiers' answers and coaching from the administration. While we should quickly point out this was hardly the first staged political event we have covered, and we've seen a lot of them in the past, today's encounter was billed as spontaneous. Instead, it appeared to follow a script."

With all the emphasis on staged events, it was surprising to turn on NBC's "Today" show this morning and see something that looked suspiciously like, well, staging. Introducing her story on the flooding in New Jersey, correspondent Michelle Kosinski was shown paddling in a canoe, shifting her oar from one side to the other, giving the impression she was in some pretty deep and treacherous water (as noted in some comments below).

Only problem is, just as she was explaining how the street was "essentially" part of the flooded river, two men wearing waders and carrying grocery bags walked right in front of her live shot. The depth of the water? Just above their ankles.

Co-host Matt Lauer made light of it coming out of the piece, asking Kosinski if those were "holy men" who could "walk on water" and a lot of laughs were shared. They probably weren't chuckling too much at the White House. NBC explained that Kosinski had been in deeper water prior to the live shot but there were concerns about the strength of the current. A spokesperson for the network said, "it's not like we were trying to pass it off as something it wasn't."

I'll let you be the judge of that. The incident made the rounds in the blogosphere over the weekend and a lot of laughs were had at NBC's expense. In the media, as in politics, a certain amount of stagecraft takes place. Trust is an issue in both instances. The difference, of course, is that one is a president dealing with soldiers at war, the other a reporter floating in a couple inches of water.

[steve1431]

I think its all staged or a lot of the news and thats bs, giving the people lies and pointing fingers thats what that all dose.

[ikez78]

Kudos to CBS for having the guts to criticize fellow members of the mainstream press. Too bad the rest of them refuse to accept any criticism or do any self criticism whatsoever. All they have to gain is credibility and viewers.

[jalbright88]

As for the NBC fiasco, why do we insist on blaming the reporter? As frequent readers of PE know, the news business is a complex one, with many decisions made by people behind the cameras. Which producers and directors were responsible for setting up that live shot? As for the president\'s faux conversation, we should all realize that politicians don\'t do anything spontaneously. It\'s all election-driven controversy. The question is, why do these staged events even make the news?? Isn\'t there enough real \"news from the front\" in Iraq? Do we really need to watch a phoney feel-good moment with soldiers who obviously feel very uncomfortable with this awkward photo op?

[theanchores]

Well, call me crazy, but it just seems to me to be entirely sensible that when a bunch of soldiers, unused to cameras and microphones and talking to presidents are set to do one of these things, it makes sense that an advance team would go over who would respond to which themes, and how the mic should be passed. I can\'t help but think that to do less would be to make the soldiers feel insecure and uncomfortable, and keep the whole event from running smoothly. But I\'m a naif. Clearly, the whole thing was a charade from start to finish and our soldiers were merely being used...just like the rocks Bill Clinton managed to gather together, to make a cross on stoneless Normandy Beach. :-)

[apauga]

Staged news goes way back. Some 25 years ago I participated in a political demonstration against the Soviet Union, near UN. It was a fairly quiet group of about a hundred people, with placards stating our issues. There was a network reporter, and a cameraman present. The reporter told us that unless we produced some \"action\", it was a waste of his time, and the network would never put this on evening (or any other) news. So on his cue of \"three!\" we all yelled and screamed, and waved our placards. After a few minutes of that he stopped the tape, told us it was done, and they left. We went back to our quiet and \"boring\" demonstration. Is this type of \"news production\" still being done regularly?

[mailpro56]

Didn\'t Dateline stage a vehicle crash to achieve a specific outcome?