When they go to the tape on the news, do you believe what you see?

/ November 3, 2014
(From syracusenewtimes.com)

(From syracusenewtimes.com)

When I sit with my dear wife Karen in our home in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Syracuse and watch the local TV news, I believe what I see.

The clips are true.

The film is righteous. Accidents, on the spot, shot by crew or freelancers or …

So I picked “Nightcrawler” as this week’s opening-run movie for my Monday review on the Syracuse New Time’s mighty good-looking site.

Click the link below if you’d like to read my review.

http://www.syracusenewtimes.com/nightcrawler-every-picture-tells-one-story/

Jake Gyllenhaal does a mighty great job as the creep who falls in love with the task of Nightcrawler in Los Angeles after he, quite by accident, discovers that cash can be made by grabbing a camera and sticking it in the face of unfortunate folks who crashed their cars. Or, worse, were victims of crime. So Louis Bloom, in this crime thriller drama, scoots around from midnight until production has to be set for the earliest morning news shows, chasing the scanner reports and other freelancers to get the best shots.

Louis learns he can bend the rules and manipulate more than people. He’s a scary cat.

And I started thinking … hoping, really …

This kind of crap would not be allowed to happen in major markets. It just couldn’t.

No matter how interesting a movie matter it makes for Jake Gyllenhaal to creep his way through.

Do you think rogue camera-shooters are manipulating video and getting it on the air as news in our country, and why? Do you think legitimate news organizations would put it on their shows if they knew it was happening in the name of ratings, and why? What stories have made you suspicious, and why?

Fish of Gold

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31 thoughts on “When they go to the tape on the news, do you believe what you see?”

  1. I’ve always called the news “the bad news” because it’s been so negative since the mid-80s or so. So I don’t watch anymore, but I read it instead. However, I don’t doubt that some of them would pump it up for ratings sake.

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  4. huh. Definitely not a movie for me. I don’t watch news as it’s too depressing and absolutely sensationalistic. Even if they do stick to facts (which I’d like to think they do), it’s always the spin. Usually my headline is whatever domestic issue (homework, laundry, heartbroken tween daughter, etc) is demanding my attention most loudly. *Liz moves over to the couch for a sit,* Funny as I grew up in a house when the TV was only for watching sitcoms etc in the eve. My husband grew up in a house where news was on 24/7 (and this was before cable). So hubby likes news and I ignore it. Seems to work well 🙂

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    • Your Mom News Network is the pulse of the household for these important years, Liz, and they trust your spin!

      Interesting. My father was always busting my hump to pay attention to the 6 o’clock New York City local and 6:30 network national news before our nights of sitcom/dramas/movies/sports, and it worked. I liked all of it.

      Your house has the spousal seesaw balance. Bravo.

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  7. I love the Dustin Hoffman and others movie, “Wag the Dog,” on this subject. I heard from at least one ‘real’ journalist, at the time this movie came out, that there were manipulations in scenery and the war zones sometimes were enhanced or changed! It is quite scary, I agree. But you do know we have a lot of censoring even if we don’t have everything censored, the government keeps things for years, until we are ‘ready’ and prepared to receive the information. I won’t go into too many details, but I am not sure this movie is about espionage just a creepy guy taking advantage and possibly creating certain dismal scenes. I won’t be seeing this, I am afraid. I did like Jake Gyllenhaal in other movies, though. Including “Brokeback Mountain!” (I did like it, not just because it was controversial, but the way the men expressed their feelings like cowboys, they didn’t open up and talk about them, it was realistic, I feel…)

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    • This not about espionage, you are right, but he goes so far over the line in other ways. That’s all I’ll say because I don’t want to spoil it, Robin, for those who want to see Jake G in all of his creepiness.

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  8. it’s sad that things like this do happen within newsrooms and stations. hard to imagine, but it does happen nonetheless. ever since entertainment departments and news departments merged, the networks have blurred the line more and more over time. hard to separate the two at times.

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  12. Sadly, misreporting stories seems to be the norm on TV outlets, especially the 24-hour news ones. It’s probably one of the reasons that more and more Americans are getting their news from “The Daily Show” rather than a news network. And if half the stuff they report there about the news is true…well, details get fudged. So, my long-winded answer to your question is that I couldn’t even begin to tell what’s true and what’s not anymore, because of the angle news agencies are reporting from.

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  15. Did you watch “The Wire”? That kind of reminds me of the Baltimore Sun reporter’s shenanigans with the murder investigations.

    I don’t think I get suspicious of stories, but I think there is a lot more is behind the soundbites that sound the most outrageous. I always go back to the McDonald’s coffee lawsuit; it’s been years but that was played up as the most stupid lawsuit ever by the news. Let’s all laugh at this, ha ha. Actually if you look at the court documents it’s amazing she didn’t die from traumatic shock.

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