Yesterday President Trump came under fire for saying at the VFW convention, “Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening”:
In some ways what he said to veterans Tuesday is more extreme than his "enemy of the people" taunts. He crossed a line: "Just remember, what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening." https://t.co/lCWyUPvIyJ A direct assault on the sanity of his supporters.
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) July 25, 2018
Then MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow ran with that on her show last night and accused the White House of altering a video of the Putin press conference to make it sound like the Russian president never said he wanted Trump to win the election.
Maddow called it “information warfare and it’s being waged against us” and one of many now-viral tweets on the alleged conspiracy:
The president disappearing evidence that's laying there in plain sight, pretending that up is down and black is white, this is garbage time again.
It is a form of information warfare and it is being waged against us. pic.twitter.com/45739KPwVh
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) July 25, 2018
But, surprise! Rachel Maddow was TOTALLY wrong as the Washington Post’s Philip Bump explains today:
Maddow is wrong. The White House didn't edit a video or a transcript to remove a question posed to Putin. Nor did The Post, which had the same omissions.
Here's what happened. https://t.co/VaRdlefkUy
— Philip Bump (@pbump) July 25, 2018
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Basically, the White House and the Washington Post have the same video that Maddow said was deceptively edited by the Trump administration. This feed was provided to both the White House and the Washington Post by Bloomberg Government. Fox News, for example, used a different feed and had different audio:
We did not edit the question out. This is the feed we were provided.
In this version of the news conference posted by Fox News, you can hear something different. In this, the question being asked more prominently with the translator muted and in the background.
This is because it all depending on which audio channel — left or right — the feed contained:
If you’re wearing headphones, you can notice how the latter part of the question is suddenly audible in the right earpiece. At first, the right channel is only the translator. Mid-question, the reporter is suddenly heard in both left and right as the translator feed drops out. Notice, too, that Putin then picks up his earpiece — through which he can hear the translations — and puts it in his right ear.
Our transcript and the White House’s were apparently based on the feed that runs only in the right channel. A White House official told CNN’s Abby Phillip that its transcript “did not have Mason’s audio turned up in time,” referring to Reuters reporter Jeff Mason, who asked the question.
This is not a conspiracy from the White House. While the White House certainly has a track record of misrepresenting facts, this would have been a remarkably futile revision of reality to attempt. As it turns out, they didn’t.
Time for an apology, Rachel! And please delete these viral tweets. Thanks!
White House edits video to remove question about whether Putin wanted Trump to win. pic.twitter.com/ExlsHNlgF8
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) July 25, 2018
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Related:
TIME mag cover part II: The little girl's mom in the @Maddow video lives in Virginia and is not in ICE custody https://t.co/q2svzS5VbN
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 26, 2018
Using Rachel Maddow's own example with Trump and North Korea, Glenn Greenwald shows why Barack Obama was the REAL Putin puppet https://t.co/9x9EEY5lE8
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 13, 2018
ICYMI==> Rachel Maddow's reaction when shown pics of Obama-era detention facilities: 'dear god' https://t.co/uUnI0HnIkF
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) May 28, 2018
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