What in blue blazes is going...

[Yonivore]

...on with the MSM?


The image as it appeared in USA Today today.


The original image.

The Media Research Center had this gem yesterday...

NBC Nightly News Puts "ILIE" in Graphic
Next to Bush's Face

"NBC's 'RATS'? Four years ago, the NBC Nightly News took seriously the appearance of the letters 'RATS,' in a single frame of an enlargement of part of the word 'BUREAUCRATS,' in an anti-Gore ad from the Bush campaign. The September 12, 2000 NBC Nightly News carried two full stories on the controversy. Jump ahead four years, and on Monday night the NBC Nightly News displayed the letters 'ILIE' for 16 seconds next to President George W. Bush's face in a 'Decision 2004' graphic beside anchor Tom Brokaw as he introduced a story by David Gregory."

"The letters came from the word 'FAMILIES' in a sign on the far side of Bush, which read:

"TAX RELIEF
FOR
WORKING FAMILIES"

"At the Iowa event, Bush signed bills to extend some provisions of his tax cuts which otherwise would have expired next year."

"The right half of NBC's screen was consumed by a waist-up shot of Brokaw. On the left, at the bottom, the NBC News 'Decision 2004' graphic. Above that, a side shot of Bush's head turned slightly toward the TV viewing audience. The letters 'ILIE,' the MRC's Tom Johnson astutely noticed, ran from screen edge to his Bush's chin. The rest of the background was blank. The letter 'I' could be seen, but since it was partially cut off on the lower left side of it, viewers may have assumed they were only seeing part of another letter and so saw 'LIE.' If they identified it as an 'I,' then they saw: 'ILIE.' Brokaw's intro took 20 seconds, but for four seconds Bush's movements obscured the last two letters, 'IE.'"

"To view a picture of what NBC displayed, go to the posted version of this CyberAlert where the MRC's Mez Djouadi will place it: www.mediaresearch.org"

"Inadvertent, I'm sure. Just as was 'RATS,' for much less time, in the 2000 anti-Gore ad from the Bush campaign. But NBC took it quite seriously, covering it for two straight mornings on Today and devoting campaign stories to it at night."

"[Web Update, October 6: The DrudgeReport picked up this catch and on Tuesday Rush Limbaugh discussed NBC's lettering display. Plus, NBC News responded: 'To see a hidden message in this is just plain silly.' But a September 12, 2000 NBC Nightly News story on the 'RATS' lettering for a single frame in the Bush campaign's anti-Gore ad warned: 'A marketing expert on the effects of so-called subliminal advertising says in his experience this sort of word flash is not accidental and it can be effective.' See the October 6 CyberAlert.]"

"From the September 13, 2000 CyberAlert, about the Tuesday, September 12, 2000 NBC Nightly News:"

"Claire Shipman showed the ad and allowed Gore to maintain: 'I find it a very disappointing development. I've never seen anything quite like it.'"

"Shipman then took the Gore campaign complaint gimmick quite seriously, trying to nail down who knew what, when: 'The Bush campaign says it's a meaningless flash, silly even. But explanations for how it got there are confused. Last night, Alex Castellanos the veteran Republican ad man who made the commercial, says the reference is unintentional but today he suggests he put it there on purpose to emphasize the tail end of the word 'bureaucrats,' but he says he wasn't trying to call Al Gore a rat.'"

"Castellanos: 'It doesn't matter, all it was was a drumbeat to get you to pay attention to the real thing, bureaucrats.'

"Shipman ominously warned: 'A marketing expert on the effects of so-called subliminal advertising says in his experience, this sort of word flash is not accidental and it can be effective.'"

"Professor Robert Goodstein, Georgetown University: 'I think it was a curious selection of letters to take the last four letters in bureaucrats, in saying Gore's health plan is being developed by rats. I think it's a word that contains a lot of emotions when you're talking about people's health.'"

"Shipman concluded by admitting the stunt she was gullible enough to buy: 'In public the Gore campaign is trying to stay away from this story, but behind the scenes aides are pushing it relentlessly, expressing shock, passing out background materials on subliminal advertising. As for the ad itself, Republicans say it was due to be pulled off the air today anyway.'"

"Next, David Gregory noted how the Bush campaign was 'knocked off message' as Bush was 'forced to answer' questions about the 'rats' ad.

"Gregory argued: 'Similar missteps last week and the debate over the debates consumed most of Bush's efforts to get his message out.'"

"Gregory surreally concluded: 'Today Bush says all of this is just another example of Democrats making quote 'everything out of anything.' Maybe so, but some believe the problem for Bush is that it doesn't take much to throw him off his message or his game.'"

[NeoConIV]

Just 'more of the same'...

[exstatic]

[/black helicopters]

[exstatic]

You guys crack me up. The Powerpoint slides are obviously Bush's. How would the network know their composition in advance?

[Samurai Jane]

Except that these aren't impromptu or live images. These are very obviously edited.

[Duff McCartney]

Well that tears it people..."Safe Eric" we can all stop worrying...Eric Estrada is safe.

[exstatic]

OMG. TRON GE... Get out of the way, George, I can't see what TRON is GETTING!

None of you has ever cropped a photo before. Bush is obviously WAY too far right in the big photo. You want they should crop George, and leave the text? Fine with me.

[whottt]

That's the original image you colossal dumbass, the un ed with image...the edited one says rage. Get it now?

They are editing them so that words form behind him, negative words that fit a lot of the BS accusations the democrats are levying at him...I mean it's obvious that's what they are doing. You are probably going to try and claim that no one has accused him of raging...but he has been accused of being a war monger, and rage definitely fits under that label...Rage being a word of anger and violence.

The man is trying to combat a very real enemy of America and it's people(insert sensible crat "we blew ourselves up and allowed this to happen" claim here).

And the left has gone so far overboard in trying to demonize him that they have lost all credibility in the eyes of many former left leaning voters like myself.

It'll be a very long time before I ever trust another Democrat thanks to Kerry politicizing this war in an attempt to get elected. IT's awful, I've never seen another legitimate presidential candidate do anything like this.

As MB said...the lame ed up unreal criticisms that are being leveled at this administration are far more damaging to this country and the democratic party, than anything Bush could do.

[Yonivore]

You guys crack me up. The Powerpoint slides are obviously Bush's. How would the network know their composition in advance?

It just must be your day to miss the point, ex.

I never said they "created" the images, just that they were opportunistic. Also, after the crap NBC raised over the "RATS" issue in 2000 -- a less-than-1-second blip during an ad -- you would have thought doing the same for 16 seconds on national T.V. would have caused some embarrassment.

And, I do believe USA Today deliberately cropped the image for effect.

[JoeChalupa]

What I want to know is...what the are blue blazes?

[bigzak25]

funny, disgraceful, pathetic, but funny.....

[Marcus Bryant]

I agree this is rather insignificant, given that one of NBC's long time compe ors tried to smear the sitting president in an election year with a one-sided report featuring an interview of a major supporter of his opponent and based on fake do ents which were obtained from a rabid partisan source whose credibility had flatlined some years ago.

Also, NBC was the "news organization" which launched an investigative report into the fact that the word "rats" appeared in some frames of a campaign commercial in 2000.

[Yonivore]

What I want to know is...what the are blue blazes?

You've never had a gas stove in your house?

[JoeChalupa]

No, but I do have plenty of gas.

[Yonivore]

No, but I do have plenty of gas.

Well, light a fart then...you'll see blue blazes.