Category: CBS

No Honor Among Thieves, No Curiosity Among Journalists: Perez Hilton Re-Pirates Video, CBS News Repeats Smear

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The piracy of my video and the smearing of Michele Bachmann continue, despite my having done two posts — here and here — explaining the true story. Here is a screen-cap from Perez Hilton’s site, showing that he downloaded and re-uploaded the pirated/edited “Who likes white people?” video, imprinting it with his own watermark:

Look closely, and you’ll see that Perez’s re-pirated version had already gotten more than 30,000 views (the screen-cap was done at about 8 p.m. ET today) which is of course in addition to the many thousands who had viewed the first ripoff/smear version at the “On Knees” anti-Christian blog. But wait — it gets better:

Yeah — Michelle Castillo of CBS News (!!) made this smear job the No. 1 selection in “Top 5 Viral Videos of the Week.” You can skip ahead to about the 40-second mark of the video:

Castillo writes:

Everything that comes out of Michele Bachmann’s mouth is gold. A new video has her asking a crowd of people, “Who likes white people?” It doesn’t make any sense, so many explanations are surfacing from “White People Soul Power” being the band that played before, to the fact it was raining and Bachmann is asking about “wet” people.

What about the explanation “surfacing” from the guy who was there with the video camera, huh? But never mind that now. Before I continue excoriating Castillo and CBS News specifically, let me say that I have no earthly idea who originated this bizarre supposition that Bachmann was referring to the name of a band. She actually said, “Who likes wet people?” — a joking reference to the fact that it had been raining all day at the Aug. 5 Christian music festival — and there was no band performing with “White” in its name.

Because here is the weird thing: The lineup for the entire concert is online! Bachmann had been scheduled to be there about 6 p.m. but ran late, and so she didn’t speak until after 8 p.m., following Tim Cooper & Friends on the main stage. I know this because I was at the festival to cover Bachmann’s appearance, but it doesn’t take Woodward and Bernstein investigative reporting skills to discover, on the Spirit Midwest Ministries site, under a tab labeled “news,” that their media contact person is Julie Barnes, whose phone number is 515-577-8035.

So any reporter who had seen that silliness about the “White People Soul Power Band” — c’mon, really? I mean, really? — could have spent less than five minutes online, learned that there was no such band at that festival, and called the festival’s promoters to ask them the blindingly obvious question: “Did Michelle Bachmann actually say that stuff about ‘white people’?”

Evidently, however, Michelle Castillo of CBS News doesn’t know how to do a Google search, or browse a Web site, or pick up a fucking phone — what a brilliant journalistic innovation that would be — and call Bachmann campaign spokeswoman Alice Stewart (whose contact information is not top secret) and ask her what this is all about.

No, not at all. But please notice this curious fact:

Yeah, the time-stamp: “6:44 p.m. Aug. 30,” by which time Chris Moody’s accurate post at Yahoo News — identifying my video as the source from which the pirated/edited smear video was stolen — had been a top item at Memeorandum for more than 24 hours!

But wait, it gets better, because here are my two posts on this topic:

  1. Monday Aug. 29, 9:10 p.m. — MY VIDEO of Michele Bachmann’s Christian Testimony Used in SMEAR JOB
  2. Tuesday, Aug. 30, 10:58 a.m. — Lowlife Who Pirated My Video Apologizes for Smearing Michele Bachmann

If Michelle Castillo has the advanced journalistic skills necessary to click that second link, she will discover that, when informed that his copyright infringement was the subject of contemplated legal action, the video pirate had published an apology and deleted the video from his YouTube channel early this morning, more than 12 hours before Castillo included his piracy as the No. 1 selection in the CBS News “Top 5 Viral Videos of the Week.”  

As a veteran of 25 years in the news business, I promise you that if I were Michelle Castillo’s boss, I’d have several choice words to say to her, the mildest of which would be, “YOU’RE FIRED!”

And I’ll have a few more things to say about the egregious incompetence being practiced by the mainstream media in regard to this story, but first I’ve got to call my lawyer. CBS is going to be getting a letter from my lawyer P.D.Q., and if Michelle Castillo is not instantly terminated for this astonishingly shoddy excuse for journalism, I’d be greatly surprised.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! As for the Professor’s remark about funding my retirement, it may take years of expensive litigation to force the thievish scoundrels to pay up, and in the meantime I’ve got bills to pay, so please hit the freaking tip jar.





UPDATE II: Linked by Bob Belevedere at The Camp of the Saints — thanks!

Just got off the phone with my lawyer, who was finishing up the demand letter to Perez Hilton, whose site has a statement about their willingness to protect the intellectual property of others, with contact information for complaining about copyright violation.

In such letters, it is customary to demand that a retraction/apology be published with the same prominence as the original item about which complaint is made. But having included pirated video in their “Top 5 Viral Videos” round-up, what will CBS News do?

Besides firing Michelle Castillo, I mean . . .

UPDATE III: Thanks to Dana Loesch at Big Journalism for this link to a corrective video by our friends at the Media Research Center:

See? That’s what’s called “fair use” — employing a brief clip from my video in pursuit of truth, as opposed to recycling the pirated ripoff smear video in pursuit of a lie, which is what CBS News has done without even the slightest suggestion of effort toward what lawyers call “due diligence.” (Take notes, kids, this could be on the final exam.)

Meanwhile, our fellow fedora-wearer Ed Driscoll takes a walk down Memory Lane, to that long-ago era when Ken Layne was interested in truth.

UPDATE IV: Maetenloch at Ace of Spades HQ:

Even though it wasn’t what she said and made no sense in context, Ken Layne of Wonkette ran with it proclaiming Bachmann to be a crazy racist. But when it was shown to be a blatant hoax (with the original poster apologizing) he refused to make any corrections and has doubled down on the snark.

Now, I think some people may be misunderstanding my end of this situation. Bachmann is the one with the case for defamation, and that’s her business. My lawyer is pursuing action for copyright infringement, and you see how — with the pirated/edited video having been re-uploaded by Perez Hilton and recycled by CBS News — the original pirate set in motion a chain of events that is now beyond his control.

Already, I’ve seen at least two other versions of the pirate’s ripoff version re-uploaded to other YouTube accounts. (My lawyer is sending takedown notices as quickly as time permits.) Evidently, people do this kind of stuff — re-uploading ripoff videos — all the time, seeking to gain extra views to their YouTube accounts through online thievery.

The YouTube pirates may be doing this in ignorance of copyright law. Ignorance of the law is no defense, of course, but in most cases the original copyright owner is a big commercial enertainment outfit — Time/Warner for example — and once the pirated video is deleted from YouTube, their interest in the pirate ends.

In my particular case? Not so much.

“Good Lord these people are stupid.” You can say that again, brother. This left-wing anti-Christian jackwagon ripped me off and dishonestly edited my video to create a false smear against Michelle Bachmann, an honorable member of Congress, deserving of admiration and respect. The pirated smear video was then posted at numerous Web sites, recycled by other pirates, and included as the top item in a “viral video” roundup by a major news organization.

Dude.

I rattled the tip jar to get enough money to travel to Iowa to cover the campaign leading up to the Ames Straw Poll. I stood in the rain and mud at that festival to get video of Bachmann’s Christian testimony. And you’re going to take my hard work, funded through contributions from my loyal readers, hijack it and pervert it into a vicious smear?

Don’t you see what an overwhelming incentive I have to extract the maximum legal penalty from your sorry ass? And don’t you know that there are many thousands of people — including some very shrewd lawyers — who have been waiting many years for just such an opportunity as this, with some anonymous blog-pest like you caught red-handed in undeniable wrongdoing?

You had better pray God will have mercy on you.

Because my lawyers sure as hell won’t.

UPDATE V: Linked by Donald Douglas at American Power — thanks!

UPDATE VI: Mike at Cold Fury mentions the “fake but accurate” standard that CBS made infamous.


See? B.S.!

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Ed Morrissey does an excellent evisceration of a blatantly deceptive CBS News poll:

Have Democrats leaped to an eleven-point registration advantage in the last five weeks?  In early June, a CBS News poll showed a D/R/I sample of 30/30/40, which undersampled both parties slightly in favor of independents, even weighting it to slightly favor Republicans. In their latest poll today on the debt ceiling debate, CBS offers one of its most egregious poll samples in recent memory to pursue the “public blames the GOP” meme . . .

Read the whole thing. I will add only two points that I’ve made before about how polling data is often misinterpreted:

  1. “Random adults” don’t matter in politics. Any poll on a political topic that surveys mere “adults” — as opposed to registered voters or, preferably, well-screened likely voters — is utterly worthless. People who don’t vote, don’t matter. Any poll that doesn’t make some attempt to screen out non-voters tells you nothing useful about the political landscape. And also, non-voters are more liberal than average.
  2. Early polling is always deceptive. Public opinion of political issues in July of an off-year is a poor measure of where voter sentiment will be 16 months from now on Election Day 2012.

In the most recent election eight months ago, Republicans won a historic landslide and there is no reason to believe now, in mid-July, that Americans have suddenly shifted toward the Democrats. What CBS News did with that poll is as big a lie as RatherGate, and they should be ashamed of themselves for promoting dishonest propaganda while pretending to report the news.

#WeinerGate: It Gets WORSE
UPDATE: Press Conference 4 p.m. ET UPDATE: ABC News Interviews Woman

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LIVE-BLOGGING THE PRESS CONFERENCE

* * * * *

The congressman gets shirtless in his latest embarrassing photo obtained by Andrew Breitbart.

OK, you can start the resignation clock ticking  . . .

CBS News is now reporting on Andrew Breitbart’s exclusive: “A spokesman for Weiner did not immediately respond to a request to confirm that Weiner had, in fact, sent the photos.”

Maggie’s Notebook highlights something I’d overlooked: Kirsten Powers said Weiner was the “only guy who ever dumped me.”

UPDATE: Now Radar Online busts Weiner on sex-texting, so that even Ace of Spades becomes squeamish:

Yeah, I’m going to say this ends tomorrow, and I hope it does. This is just awful . . .
Actually I’m changing that. I previously said tomorrow. Now I say today, this afternoon.
This is just pretty bad right here.
I’m ready to see this stop now. This is brutal.

We have heard nothing today from the soon-to-be-former congressman. This scandal just became unsurvivable. The only question now is how soon he resigns.

UPDATE II: Anticipating the release of further photos, I announced I was taking a short nap, and awoke to find a Twitter message from Donald Douglas:

 Don’t nap!! You’re missing it: “Anthony Weiner Upper Body Nude Photos!” http://is.gd/JDOcPa

Yeah, I was late on this one. But now that we’re awaiting a resignation, I’m well-rested.

UPDATE III: Just look at that Memeorandum thread:

Now imagine the New York Post and New York Daily News front-page headlines on Tuesday.

Like I said: “unsurvivable.”

UPDATE IV: Fisherville Mike: “That’s all, folks.” Yeah, but the question is, does Weiner know that?

UPDATE V: I’m trying to confirm a report that Rep. Weiner will hold a press conference today at 4 p.m. at the Sheraton Hotel. Pants optional, I’m told.

UPDATE VI: Just confirmed — press conference at 4 p.m. ET. Will have full report.

UPDATE VII: Yeah, that’s gonna leave a mark:

An ABC News employee said that the network has conducted an interview with a woman, who says she received the photos from Mr. Weiner, evidently the same photos Mr. Breitbart obtained.
As of this afternoon, the network was determining when it would broadcast the interview.

The odds of him surviving a broadcast network interview with this woman? Infinitesimal.

Finally, Weiner Calls the Police!

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No, he didn’t ask the cops to start an investigation of the insidious hackers who stole his crotch-photo and Tweeted it to a 21-year-old. But when a reporter for WCBS-TV in New York started asking questions . . .

Weiner’s Office Calls The Police
After CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer
Asks For An Interview

As you can imagine, Ace of Spades has loads of fun with this news. Meanwhile, CNN’s Jack Cafferty is asking another question: Can Weiner survive this scandal?

Dan Collins at Piece of Work in Progress has an excellent round-up of today’s WeinerGate news and commentary. And by “excellent,” of course, I mean: He linked me.

UPDATE: Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg see — what else? — a vast conspiracy!

Scott Whitlock has the transcript at NewsBusters.

UPDATE II: Linked by If You Seek Peace — thanks!

UPDATE III: Linked by Nice Deb — thanks! — and this story is now the top thread on Memeorandum.

Obama Lies About Unemployment

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Just flat-out makes up “facts” during a town-hall meeting on the economy in D.C. hosted by CBS News:

“The reason the unemployment rate is still as high as it is, in part, is because there have been huge layoffs of government workers at the federal level, at the state level, at the local level . . . Teachers, police officers, firefighters, social workers– they have really taken it in the chin over the last several months. And so, what we’re trying to do is to see if we can stabilize the budget.”

Jim Geragthy fisks this absurd claim:

All figures come from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Recent peak of private-sector employment, June 2007: 116,603,000.
Total private-sector employment in the month Obama became president, January 2009: 109,084,000.
Recent low of private-sector employment, January 2010: 104,933,000.
Total private-sector employment, April 2011: 108,494,000

Private-sector employment is 8.1 million jobs below its 2007 peak, and 590,000 below where it was when Obama took office. Meanwhile, Geraghty provides BLS numbers on government employment:

June 2007: 22,176,000.
January 2009: 22,471,000.
January 2010: 22,376,000.
April 2011: 22,594,000

No “huge layoffs.” Obama just made that up. And it’s a lie.

Via Memeorandum, with further commentary by The Lonely Conservative, Sister Toldjah, Gateway Pundit and Bryan Preston at PJ Tatler.

Fear and Loathing in Cairo

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“In this case, rightwingers who have an interest in stoking fear and loathing of Muslims worldwide pounced at the opportunity to smear all Egyptians with this crime. Popular rightwing bloggers Debbie Schlussel, Robert Stacy McCain, and Sister Toldjah were among those who immediately used the attack to reinforce their anti-Muslim, anti-revolution arguments. But the real cause of sex crime is power, and its abuse, and that is a problem in all the nations on this planet.”
— Amanda Marcotte, “Adding insult to Lara Logan’s injury,” Guardian (U.K.)

Others may, and certainly will, speak for themselves. On Tuesday, when CBS News went public with the story of Lara Logan being sexually assaulted by the Cairo mob, I wasn’t online, but in Washington on a shoe-leather reporting trip to Capitol Hill. Nearly everyone else in the blogosphere had already weighed in by the time I became aware of the story and had time to write about it Wednesday morning:

Maybe Egyptians could use one of [Jill] Filipovic’s pious lectures about “no means no” and “stop means stop.” I’d probably be accused of some sort of thought-crime if I were to suggest that the spontaneous outburst of savagery against Lara Logan of CBS News says anything about the future course of democracy in Egypt. . . .
There are profound and fundamental flaws in feminist ideology, flaws which this outrageous crime in Cairo might help us to understand, but we will never achieve such an understanding if we permit feminists to control the conversation. And one way they exercise that control is by threatening to cast into outer darkness anyone who, in seeking the truth, incautiously says the wrong thing out loud.
What we ought to be saying out loud, as Michelle Malkin reminds us, is prayers for Lara Logan. . . .

You can read that whole thing and decide for yourself what to think about my first reaction to this criminal atrocity. When you’re through reading that, you can go read the entirety of what Amanda Marcotte writes at the Guardian. This is one of the wonders of the modern world, that everyone with an Internet connection has access to so much information and so many opinions, and that each of us can consider the facts, survey the opinions, and make up our own minds.

What happened to Lara Logan a week ago in Cairo has become one of those symbolic battlegrounds where intellectuals make war over ideological abstractions like “democracy” and “equality” and “freedom.” These are, of course, only words describing mere ideas, and should not be mistaken for the actual facts of events in Egypt.

Such are the characteristic errors of intellectualism: Those whose speciality is the use of the written word to express ideas are prone to confusing the words they write with actual facts.

An immense gulf separates (a) what happened to Lara Logan in Cairo and (b) what I or Amanda Marcotte or anyone else writes about that event.

Actions are one thing, and words are something else.

Knowing few facts about the crime, whose perpetrators have not yet been identified, we are left to write about the circumstances that led to the crime: A famously attractive female reporter for an American TV news network, assigned to the scene of a revolutionary uprising in a distant country most of us have never visited, savagely assaulted by a mob of men. From whatever handful of factual dots we can assemble — including everything we know about Egypt and its culture, which for most of us is precious little — we then assemble a mental picture in gestalt fashion, commenting on what we think happened and describing what we believe to have been the contributing factors in this crime.

What we must resist, however, is the intellectual arrogance that would lead us to imagine that our thoughts and beliefs are coterminous with the facts of the event. Because the facts — what really happened last Friday in Cairo — have a concrete reality that our thoughts and beliefs do not have.

Here is the danger of intellectualism, the arrogance of the articulate classes who suppose that their superior facility with the written word and their access to the pages of influential publications enables them to alter reality merely by the act of writing about events, including distant events they did not witness.

Amanda Marcotte re-frames the crime against Lara Logan to fit her own political commitment to feminism, while accusing others of interpreting the crime in terms of “anti-Muslim, anti-revolution” prejudice.

If Marcotte or any other American feminist wishes to fly to Cairo and lecture Egyptians about rape, I certainly wish them bon voyage. Yet I doubt they’ll be taking that trip any time soon, because their ideology isn’t likely long to survive direct contact with the reality of life in Egypt.

As for the accusation of prejudice against Muslims or against the Egyptian revolution, I suppose that’s like saying that Edmund Burke was prejudiced against the French when he famously cautioned in 1790: “The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please; we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations which may be soon turned into complaints.” And at the same time, Burke freely confessed his actual prejudices:

You see, that in this enlightened age I am bold enough to confess, that [the English] are generally men of untaught feelings; that instead of casting away all our old prejudices, we cherish them to a very considerable degree, and to take more shame to ourselves, we cherish them because they are prejudices; and the longer they have lasted, and the more generally they have prevailed, the more we cherish them. . . . Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, skeptical, puzzled and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man’s virtue his habit; and not a series of unconnected acts. Through just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature.
– Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

Such is the prejudice that has caused many intelligent and well-informed people to warn that recent events in Egypt may be harbingers of peril for America and her allies.

If things go badly in Cairo, we shall not be the first to suffer, nor shall our suffering be worse than that of the Egyptians themselves, just as it was for the French to whom Burke addressed his epistle. We wait to see whether what was true in Burke’s day, and what has so often been true in the centuries since, is also true now, namely that this revolution will eventually make victims of those who were among its first and foremost advocates.

As for Amanda Marcotte, who presumes to lecture us about our “fear and loathing” after having led the online lynch-mob against the Duke lacross team, we have good reason to suspect that she is mistaken, as she has been so badly mistaken so often before. 

However, we might yet be persuaded to credit Ms. Marcotte’s Valentines to the Egyptian revolution — just as soon as she starts writing them under a Cairo dateline.

UPDATE: Among the several absurdities piling up around this incident, I’ll note only (a) Anderson Cooper turning the rape of Lara Logan into a story about Nirs Rosen being mean to Anderson Cooper; and (b) an attack on “some Kapo token Spectator Jew, Aaron Goldstein.”