18:42 Did the commencement speech, I guess, is it commencement or graduation? I think it was the commencement speech. Yeah, at West Point, which of course is a very prestigious This is the Army Academy, is it not? Yeah, this is the Army Academy in West Point. And so my... By the way, by the way, Obama says this is the world's greatest university. What is he going to say to the people of Minneapolis? No, no, no, he said it's the best university, not the greatest. He said it is the best, like it was, like Consumer Reports wrote that down somewhere. Yeah. Yeah, I heard that too. I watched the whole speech, which is... I couldn't stand it. Well, there's a couple of reasons because one I'd already heard I was already interested in the speech That's the reason I didn't watch I already heard it. No, no, I Was interested because I picked up somewhere that he was proposing a new world order and we need new unsurpassed collaboration and you know, so there were some crackpot
19:38 stories about it. Then Micah sends us a note, he says, I'm a freelance videographer and today's gig was filming the West Point graduation ceremony. Now I'm sure both of you will have an interesting take on Obama's speech. Well, yeah, it was boring. But me being there has allowed me to share with you a very interesting example of very subtle media manipulation. And Micah doesn't know how unsubtle it really was. During the speech Obama made mention of the fact that he plans on ending the war in Iraq and bringing the troops home this summer immediately after he mentions plans on ramping up Afghanistan. That's another story. As soon as he said troops home this summer the crowd went nuts. I mean they went apeshit. They cheered for a good solid 20 seconds. Cut to me getting home doing a vanity search to see if I wound up in any pictures online, which is typical for videographers. I found this Fox News article
20:30 and see that the audio had been altered to remove the cheering. And I discovered something else actually, but first there's three versions of this clip. I had already pulled the clip from C-SPAN, and then I pulled it from WhiteHouse.gov, Then I pulled the clip that Mike is referring to in Fox News. So first, let's listen to the relevant piece on C-SPAN time If you will everyone who's listening live at no agenda chat at no agenda stream calm and in the chat room No agenda chat can time it with me
21:14 and listen to the audio because of course it's not just pictures that get uh... uh... well whether purposely manipulated or not uh... you can use different sounds to give different impressions remember micah says everyone went ape shit and he was there and i'm presuming he's telling the truth so here's a the c-span version of uh... the relevant piece of the speech lesser army might have seen its spirit broken but the american military is more resilient than that Our troops adapted, they persisted, they partnered with coalitions and Iraqi counterparts and through their competence and creativity and courage we are poised to end our combat mission in Iraq this summer. Even as we transition to a... Okay, so you can kind of hear way in the background, you can hear the crowd screaming but basically the crowd isn't... the crowd mics aren't really on if there were any mics.
22:18 and I counted about 12 seconds of a smattering of applause. Yeah, it sounds like a sound effect applause. You know, they're kind of like, okay, yeah, whatever. They're kind of that kind of applause. It's like, yeah, warm is the word. So now the version as posted on whitehouse.gov. This time of war began in Afghanistan, a place that may seem as far away from this peaceful bend in the Hudson River as anywhere on earth. The war began only because our own cities and civilians were attacked. And please time the applause again. And it continues only because that plotting persists to this day. For many years our focus was on Iraq. Year after year our troops faced a set of challenges there that were as daunting as they were complex. Now you already hear a different microphone. You hear he sounds a little bit nasal through this particular mic. A lesser army might have seen its spirit broken.
23:20 But the American military is more resilient than that. Our troops adapted, they persisted, they partnered with coalitions and Iraqi counterparts and through their competence and creativity and courage we are poised to end our combat mission in Iraq this summer. Sounds a little different, right? Little bit. Little bit. Little bit. Okay. Even as we transition... Okay, now Fox News. and uh... this is video and you can get the link in the show notes now also time the amount of time between uh... the president saying this summer and him starting at the next piece of the speech began only because our own cities and civilians were attacked by violent extremists who plotted from a district place and it continues only because that plotting persists to this day
24:20 And John, I want you to pay special attention to this, see if you pick up what I pick up on. This really blew me away when I heard this. The clip has not ended. It's just completely silent right now. Nothing. And the president is just looking around and then they... Our campaign to disrupt, dismantle and to defeat Al Qaeda is part of an international effort that is necessary. So, first of all...
25:09 They removed the applause entirely after he says this summer. They didn't just remove the applause, they cut it, they cut the sound and the president's just looking around. I looked at this video probably 50 times and I was like why is, because I was timing it, why is that only 10 seconds? They actually edited the video And he comes, I can't even see the edit John, it could be a whole different speech for all I know. He immediately launches into this whole thing about Afghanistan. They actually change the speech and it's undetectable in the video. Listen to what he comes back with in the original. Here's the original from the whitehouse.gov.
25:55 Even as we transition to an Iraqi lead and bring it back. So he's like, ah, transition to an Iraqi lead, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now listen to the Fox News version. A combat mission in Iraq this summer. So we, they go silent and you cannot see an edit at all. But is he going to talk about Iraq when he comes back? No. Here it comes. Our campaign to disrupt, dismantle and to defeat Al Qaeda is part of an international effort that is necessary and just. So they basically... This is a different kind of war. So they rewrote the speech essentially and made it look like it was a continuation, made it look like he bombed.
26:32 You got no applause whatsoever. But the thing, you know, he has a certain wooden quality that we've seen before that makes it probably easy to do this sort of edit. John, I looked at this video 50 times. You cannot see the edit. There is no edit. I don't understand. It's like a whole different speech. You can look, you can go to the show notes, you can look at this, look at it as many times as you want, you will not see an edit. Yet he, there's a whole different, a whole different piece to the speech. I don't get it. He just, apparently you got an editor over at Fox who's really good. Yeah, but I mean that is, that is, and he goes into this, straight into the Afghanistan rap and about the insurgents and we gotta go kick their ass, America fuck yeah, brr. And I'm just, I'm like what?
27:25 It is undetectable. And I mean, I saw the fake planes in the World Trade Tower. I mean, I saw that video immediately and pegged it. But but this this is good so either it's it's a whole different speech because it's cropped So you can't see an audience. You can't see anyone standing to the left or the right of them or or I don't know I mean you can't it is undetectable if and people in in the audience Producers go look at this and you tell me if you can if you can see the edit I cannot find it hmm it really really really blew me away and
28:05 Well, obviously somebody's got some good gear. They have to do an overlay to get his face in exactly the right spot. I'm going to paste it in the chat room here. The edit could come, probably, could be, you know, he could be, I don't know, they could be editing while he's talking. It might be like he looks like he's starting the second, the first part. Well, I will say on the C-SPAN version, they cut to the cadets kind of clapping, not going apeshit by the way, there's a small cutaway of the cadets. during the original 12 seconds. And this is just him, he's on stage and he's moving his head, he's turning from left to right and you know there's supposed to be applause. It looks very similar to the original one that C-SPAN has. Or that the White House, it's the same as the White House, I'm sorry, C-SPAN is the one that cuts away. But I'm pretty good at this stuff. I mean, I can see edits, I see crappy edits all the time. I don't see this one.
28:58 And he goes into a completely different part of the- I couldn't even find that piece in the original speech. It was either before or further along. It might have been- well, it's only 30 minutes, so... Anyway, uh, I just- I was just blown away, and I think my- I want to thank Micah for pointing that out. Maybe that was the speech given by the other Obama. You caught me off guard. I don't know. I don't know, but it warrants investigation and the fact that there's only 10 seconds. So that means that either there's an edit or it was a different speech because there's 12 seconds on the original and 10 seconds on this Fox version. And it's just like, what? How did they do that? Anyway, if that guy is listening, you're hired. You are so working for us. That was awesome. It is one of the most awesome edits.
29:55 Yeah, the guy will never be, you know, you'd have to be working at Fox and nose around to find out who it was. Well, somebody may come up with it, but regardless, I mean, I know after the show you'll look at it, John, and you'll look at it just as many times as I did, you'd be like, I can't see an edit, so I'm dumbfounded. First of all by the fact that they just cut off the audio, like oh make him look like he sucked. And then let's go straight into Afghanistan and we're gonna go kick their ass. You know the way you're supposed to do it if you don't like it and you don't like the audience applauding