Before I get to the meat of the diary to debunk/respond to some of those who are defending ESPN, let me take care of some housecleaning items. I never thought I would be writing a second diary on this subject when I posted the first one.
http://www.dailykos.com/... I figured I would get about 10-15 comments, 4-5 recommends, and move on to my next diary another day. Sometimes I write what I feel is a super article and very few people concur and other times I write something that I think is ordinary and people love it. That's how it goes.
But the exposure of this ESPN story is about the power of ordinary individuals and the internet. To begin, stay focused on the ONE ISSUE at hand. The issue here is whether or not ESPN played doctored audio on TV to the audience at home between the time Mike Tirico introduced former President Bush and the time the ref's field mike was turned on. That is the issue, period. All the other information may fit into a frame but this is the main issue at hand.
First, here is the response from ESPN at this point. www.rawstory.com
Bill Hofheimer, of ESPN Communications, gave Raw Story an "emphatic NO" when asked if ESPN had played fake cheers and whether this was part of the network and its shows' policy. He added "This did not happen Monday, nor does it happen with any ESPN telecasts. The claim is unsubstantiated and false. ESPN presented the game and the events surrounding the game as they happened."
At the raw story blog, a commentator says that Hofheimer was asked whether ESPN overdubbed and that Hofheimer replied "no comment." Take that with a grain of salt because I can not confirm the reliability of that remark.
Second, I am going to quote a few people's comments from DailyKos urging all readers to be respectful of their dissent. I respect the fact that some people are skeptical and that's fine. Until you hear an actual tape yourself, you should be skeptical. I am going to present comments supporting me and comments opposing me but in a respectful way. Some of my posts will be from other people from other sites and I will specify such. To the best of my knowledge I do not know any of the other commentators. The only quotes of mine are "dave from queens." Furthermore I will go on record with any news outlet or subject myself to questioning from any ESPN reporter live on the air. If anyone from ESPN wants to meet with me and view/listen to the tape together, I'll be more than happy to do that. I'm quite confident with what I heard and saw.
Third, I posted what I observed. My take on what happened Monday Night is not representative of the Dailykos community. There are some on the blog who disagree with me and that's fine. You can be liberal and disagree with my diary and conservative and agree with my assertions. If for whatever unknown reason I actually did turn out wrong then it's a pox on me, not Daily Kos or anyone else at Daily Kos. This isn't about "far left," "liberal" or "conservative." It's about what happened Monday night. The mere fact that I could be called a "Republican" because I support the death penalty in limited circumstances, share some of Justice O'Connor's views on affirmative action, and support civil unions instead of gay marriage should not be a factor.
Fourth, I don't see "conspiracy theories" everywhere. If you're looking for someone who believes in UFOs or 9/11 inside jobs, then you are looking in the wrong place.
Fifth, here is what I saw and heard. I saw an announcer introduce Bush Sr., I heard a tape that sounded doctored composed of all cheers that didn't seem consistent at all with a crowd like the Superdome, saw the head referee and former President Bush, and then when the mike was switched to the head referee, you could hear a "chorus of boos." A chorus is not everyone. I'm sure some booed, I'm sure some cheered. But the bottom line is not THAT crowd reaction, the ONLY focus is the tape that was played in the few seconds between Tirico announcing Bush Sr. and the referee's mike being turned on for the coin toss. And as I'll show later on, I'm not the only one who heard and saw the same thing.
Sixth, I'll say it again. Anyone who recorded that game SAVE IT. PLAY THE TAPE. I'll let your ears and eyes be the judge.
Seventh, to equate my observations as being against New Orleans is ridiculous as some have done. This has NOTHING to do with the people of NOLA. Lilorphant who posted complaints at Kos wrote at Raw Story
"and this guy, DAVE FROM QUEENS, and all you on the one hand not only accuse ESPN of covering up boos, but also accuse US of being rude, ungracious and lousy hosts, just when we are trying to get our tourism back. Thanks a LOT, DAVE. BTW, everyone I know was there that night, about fifteen people said it never happened that way, the boos were for the Falcons."
To Lilophant I understand your frustration but your anger is misplaced. If you can find where I said people from New Orleans were rude, ungracious and lousy hosts, then this is news to me. This is about ESPN/ABC/Disney. The people of New Orleans have my full support. I personally think it would help the city of New Orleans if they furiously booed the husband married to a woman that thinks people sleeping in the Astrodome is "working out quite well for them" but cheer or boo that's not the issue. (And to the guy who said Southerners don't boo, go play the tape when Bill Clinton visited Darlington Racetrack in South Carolina.)
Eighth, the issue is what ESPN did or did not do. I provided some background of some comments that have been aired on ESPN and we are all aware of what ESPN's parent company's (Disney) bias' is. And indeed I wish I had a copy of the Red Sox game in 2004 where Kerry appeared. But the mere fact that Disney is biased is not proof that ESPN did what I assert it did. That too is a red herring.
Ninth, I'm not expecting ESPN to come out and admit it. The fact that they are denying my assertion so "emphatically" makes me even more confident of the veracity.
Tenth, much has been made about the "click." This is one area where I need to amend my remarks. Call it a click, a strange noise, etc... but it was a fishy sound. Plus, as you'll see later on, the pre game was apparently on tape delay, giving ESPN plenty of seconds to overdub the track with cheers.
Eleventh, this is not the first time ESPN has pulled stunts like this. As Alkibiadesdog writes,
"you can email their ombudsman at the link. I emailed him earlier this year when they edited out the boos for Cheney at the Nationals home opener, despite the fact that they considered his appearance newsworthy enough to cover."
I remember this game too as well as the Kerry game. I've seen ESPN subtly inject politics into its shows as documented in the original diary. So I was NOT surprised by Monday night.
Twelfth, let's consider some history outside of the fake sounds.. Is wikipedia a good enough source for those interested in learning that ESPN would have as sportscenter announcer call a home run as "It's the Rush Limbaugh shot, to the right and fair." http://en.wikiquote.org/... or as Dave Zirin reports, you can very easily get a Just Shut Up Award on the Mike and Mike show for opposing the war in Iraq or opposing racism. http://www.counterpunch.org/...
"MariaSquared" says
"I heard the cheers too, but I didn't put it together that they might be fake. I did think it was strange that they booed during the coin toss and cheered when he was announced. I even went so far as to think they were pre-booing in case Atlanta won the toss, which they did. This diary makes more sense."
Bingo!!!! It's impossible to go from all cheers to a mix of boos in a split second.
"Dissentinator" points out that
"I was surprised when I didn't hear the boos."
Ironically some of the defenders of ESPN claim that they heard a mix of boos and cheers. So where did half the boos go on that tape between Tirico's announcement and the ref's mike being put on?
"VoicelessinDC" points out that
"During the pre-game and concert, all the crowd shots looked to be exclusively white. It was so obvious that the cameras were working so hard to impose diversity where there was none." So who are we kidding that politics wasn't being played?
I didn't keep track of the up close camera shots but would be curious. I've definitely seen this done (2000 RNC) before but I can't verify that it was done Monday night.
"Shaking The Tree" points out
"It was planned propaganda to simply have Bush Sr. there at all."
A fair point and the executives of the NFL are well known Republican contributors. Why bring such a controversial figure if the night was about the people of New Orleans? I think Oprah Winfrey or someone of that stature would have sufficed.
Kredwyn astutely points out
"It sounded as though the sportcasters were trying to talk over something. Have to admit something seemed off...had no idea what it was. What's interesting is the reaction from a couple of the people watching. They could not believe that he'd be out there...swearing was involved."
And I would strongly suggest that the reaction of the crowd included many of the same people with the same feelings.
MFL states
"The place absolutely erupted with "BOOS" when they interviewed Bush beforehand and even louder when he went on the field."
So even assuming that we had a mixture of cheers and boos, no one can explain those few seconds of all cheers after Tirico announced Bush Sr. Chigh writes
"According to someone who was at the game, there were boos and cheers, more boos."
Same thing.
"Potownman" observes
"To put two and two together. Cheers during the introduction, loud boos during the coin toss. Experience as a sound engineer."
This is the most solid piece of evidence absent the actual tape itself which I've begged for online.
At Raw Story www.rawstory.com commentator "ledev" wrote
" I would believe it. Right before the 2004 elections I was at an AZ cardinals NFL game in which Pat Tillman was honored, the minute the current President Bush came on the jumbo screen everyone started to boo, then out of nowhere you could hear cheering that the stadium pumped in. I remember everyone sitting next to me with a puzzled look on their face."
So here is some additional evidence (called eye witness testimony) for the skeptics.
"Ihux" at Rawstory commented
"I can actually say, for a fact, that I have personal knowledge of ESPN pumping in positive crowd noise. I went to Midnight Madness ('96 maybe) at the University of Virginia (where I was attending). The whole lead up to midnight was incredibly lame, so a lot of people left. I stayed. When it came time for them to show screaming students, they gathered some of the remnants, punched them into a tight group on the basketball court at U-Hall and, no bullshit, cheering crowd noise started blaring through the speakers. I know we were naive, but we were dumbfounded. It was so phony it was ridiculous. Don't believe their denial."
Again, another eyewitness this time with ESPN at the event.
A sports writing blogger wrote
"We've all suspected for years that ESPN has faked cheers and boos for their live broadcasts. I'll forgive them for pumping fake clapping when Mickelson makes a putt (stunned silence doesn't make good TV). But why would they ever need to fake crowds from a football stadium? http://blog.nbx.com/...
Again, further testimonial that ESPN has done this before. Apparently ESPN admitted this one.
"Atu" at the blog above wrote
"I found this after searching Google for "faked Cheers" I thought it was strange, both the audio clicks and the fact they were actually "cheering". Frankly I forgot about it. But the reason I did the search was a friend called and mentioned that the 5.1 Surround Sound indicator blinked off when Bush Sr. came on the field, came back on for the toss, than off briefly again. He asked if I had heard anything about it."
Now here is some expert evidence that verifies my assertion.
One possible skeptic "nota bene" wrote
"you'd be able to hear the two sounds overlap....if they were recorded at different times with different microphones they will sound significantly different...."
And it's that sound that I heard. I called it a "click" but having done TV (although limited) I know that sound. The sound from the few seconds after Tirico's announcement to the sound when the ref's mike were put on were EXTREMELY different.
Another possible skeptic "naltikriti" writes
"it was a mixture of cheers and boos."
To that I reply, "How do you explain those few seconds of ALL cheers between Tirico's announcement the field ref's mike being turned on?"
There were many people who disagreed with the assertions. Most critical was "Ti Jean" who told me to "F-ck off with your diary" Ti Jean also wrote a diary the next day at daily kos in response to my diary. Certainly, people should feel free to read the dissent.
"Deer13" disagrees with me and wrote
"I am not familiar with DKos but this entire diary should be taken down before it does more damage to the people of New Orleans. The vast majority in attendance clapped politely while some cheered and yes some booed. That was a very small number though. Unfortunately now it is presumed they booed."
First you admit the boos. Second, I am not damaging the people of New Orleans.
Deer 13 also wrote
"I have talked with 2 people who were at the game. They said though there were some boos the vast majority of the crowd applauded (lightly compared to other cheers that night) and some cheered. This story is false and damaging as the people of NOLA are far far from recovery and need continued support from the nation which will be difficult if they are seen as ungrateful which is how this story inevitably makes them look."
Again I feel insulted because I don't see the connection between me pointing out what ESPN did and the people of NOLA.
One diarist "Katymine" called my diary crock and wrote in the comments section that "see my diary here from someone who WORKED the game and was in NOLA LIVE in person." http://www.dailykos.com/... Yet when you open the link and read the diarist, here its part of what you read.
Yesterday when I saw this diary on the recommended list with over 550 comments at that time, I was shocked and dismayed at the level of accusations assuming a subsidiary of the parent company Disney would do such a thing. Why...... Because a very close friend was there in NOLA working the game, a friend that I have known for 11 years and through him have learned about the sports television industry.
The comment in the preceding paragraph implies Katymine was the source. Now it's a friend.
Or was it Katymine?
ESPN did not manipulate the crowd audio for HW. I was working elsewhere in the compound at the time, and didn't hear the telecast audio, but the noise inside the Superdome was non-stop and tremendous for virtually the entire game.
First I am talking pre-game. Second, you were working elsewhere. You wouldn't know one way or the other. I know, I heard it and saw it.
Katymine also states;
"The gist of the diary was that ESPN is a conservative mouthpiece (after all they are part of the media empire owned by right wing giant Disney) and that ESPN manipulates their shows to achieve a right wing spin."
No the gist of the diary is that ESPN played fake noise whether they did so through a stadium pump, overdubbing, or fake cheers.
But perhaps Katymine made one the most astute observation.
"But thanks to the new $500,000 per incident fines being levied by the FCC, ESPN has had to build a delay system. While the game was strictly real time, the pre-game festivities had to be delayed."
And those seven seconds where the tape is delayed is ALL the time ESPN needs to substitute a sound track of "fake cheers" or "overdubbing." If in fact ESPN was on tape delay, then there's the 7 seconds needed to override the live time with overdubbing of fake cheers.
I have to go to work so I will not get to responses til the late afternoon. Took me several hours to put this altogether. However, I repeat: STICK TO THE ONE ISSUE AND PLEASE LISTEN TO THE TAPE