Q13 Fox staffer fired after TV station airs altered Trump video

[Newman]

Another one caught, and credit due: at least the "investigation" wasn't a cover-up. It was over before lunch.

A staffer at local Fox affiliate Q13 has been fired after the station aired what appears to be a doctored video of President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night speech from the Oval Office.

The video was changed to make it look as if Trump was sticking his tongue out languidly between sentences. In addition, the colors in the video look more saturated, leading the president’s skin and hair to appear orange.

“This does not meet our editorial standards and we regret if it is seen as portraying the president in a negative light,” Q13 news director Erica Hill wrote in an emailed statement early Thursday.

Later Thursday morning, Hill released another statement saying, “We’ve completed our investigation into this incident and determined that the actions were the result of an individual editor whose employment has been terminated.”

This report links to MyNorthWest . com, apparently the revealer of record:

Q13 FOX editor fired over doctored Trump address video

...A listener to my program [Todd Herman] sent me a video that appears to show a deceptively edited video of President Trump’s speech from the Oval Office. We performed a side-by-side comparison of the video from our listener, apparently taken by a smart phone recording of Q13, to the raw video of Trump’s speech from CNN.

The Seattle Times piece here goes on at some length about the ease of producing altered images.

Altering and manipulating images has become all the more easy and tempting in today’s world of fractured politics and accessible technology. And this isn’t the first time a doctored video has made headlines.

These forgeries, known as “deepfakes,” can be hard to spot. BuzzFeed and Quartz have published guides to help you sort fact from fiction.

Researchers at the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering said in 2017 that they had developed algorithms that allow a user to turn audio clips into “lip-synced video.”

The UW’s technology is different from the tools that would have been used to doctor the Trump video that aired on Q13. But the announcement raised immediate concerns about the potential for malicious uses.

This extended annotation might be intended to support their suggested defense of the fired offender:

It is unclear whether the employee created the doctored video or just allowed it to go on air.

Most altered stuff, though, isn't subtle, and like the orange Trump here, pretty much glows in the dark.

One thing's clear, the old expression "A picture's worth a thousand words" is no longer true. It should be replaced by something like, "A picture's worth a skeptical look."

[Michele]

I'm surprised he was fired.

[Norm dePlume]

Of course he was fired. It's only the White House that condones using altered video.

[Michele]

Another one caught, and credit due: at least the "investigation" wasn't a cover-up. It was over before lunch.

This report links to MyNorthWest . com, apparently the revealer of record:

Q13 FOX editor fired over doctored Trump address video

The Seattle Times piece here goes on at some length about the ease of producing altered images.


This extended annotation might be intended to support their suggested defense of the fired offender:

Most altered stuff, though, isn't subtle, and like the orange Trump here, pretty much glows in the dark.

One thing's clear, the old expression "A picture's worth a thousand words" is no longer true. It should be replaced by something like, "A picture's worth a skeptical look."

I was asking my husband what local channel we watch when we're up in WA and it's either this one or KING5. Of course, we only watch them for local news.

While WA has certainly gone a long way sliding to the extreme Left, it's not quite the group think of CA or OR. I guess Q13 management took that into account.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

Most altered stuff, though, isn't subtle, and like the orange Trump here, pretty much glows in the dark.

I woould have assumed it was my TV. I had one that gave everyone a greenish tinge.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

I was asking my husband what local channel we watch when we're up in WA and it's either this one or KING5. Of course, we only watch them for local news.

While WA has certainly gone a long way sliding to the extreme Left, it's not quite the group think of CA or OR. I guess Q13 management took that into account.

Only on the coast, according to my friend in Spokane.

[Billy Jingo]

Only on the coast, according to my friend in Spokane.

The Cascade Range divides the productive class from the real Americans.

[Michele]

Exactly.

*I can never seem to quote you.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

The Cascade Range divides the productive class from the real Americans.

That's not how she sees it, nor do I. But you carry on with your assumptions. Perhaps they make a good substitute for friends.

[Billy Jingo]

That's not how she sees it ...

"[E]xtreme left"?

[Frostbit]

That's not how she sees it, nor do I. But you carry on with your assumptions. Perhaps they make a good substitute for friends.

Big OUCH!!

[Frostbit]

Only on the coast, according to my friend in Spokane.

Whidbey Island, where a good friend has retired, is a stellar example of this. The southern part of the island with ferry links to Seattle is extremely left leaning and have tried to have the naval air station removed from the Island because of "noise". The Northern part of the Island where the noise is most obvious is very right leaning and supports the air station.

Washington state is controlled politically by one city and that city is decaying rapidly.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

"[E]xtreme left"?

Well, Jody's pretty leftish, enough so to be generally not happy in Spokane, but I think even she might have issues with some of the attitudes and actions that have become ascendant in coastal CA, OR and WA in the past 15 years or so. For example, I'm not really sure how it became a "progressive" value to pour money into filthy homeless encampments instead of into services to get people off the streets, and at the expense of the formerly robust urban working class, who now all have to live out in Stockton and Tracy.

[Frostbit]

Well, Jody's pretty leftish, enough so to be generally not happy in Spokane, but I think even she might have issues with some of the attitudes and actions that have become ascendant in coastal CA, OR and WA in the past 15 years or so. For example, I'm not really sure how it became a "progressive" value to pour money into filthy homeless encampments instead of into services to get people off the streets, and at the expense of the formerly robust urban working class, who now all have to live out in Stockton and Tracy.

And tend to take their political ideas with them turning those areas into the same situation they left behind.

[Novaheart]

Kill Inappropriate Rising Terminal.

"The high rising terminal (HRT), also known as upspeak, uptalk, rising inflection, upward inflection, or high rising intonation (HRI)"