Yesterday the social media and news worlds were afire when Donald Trump gave a rare solo press conference, something every president before him did on a regular basis. Trump entered the room looking and sounding tired. The bags under his eyes were heavier than the ones I toted on the plane home yesterday. Nevertheless, when it came time to actually take questions from reporters, he immediately took a combative stance.
As CNN’s Jim Acosta tried to get in a couple of questions, Trump became increasingly angry at having to answer to the public, eventually exclaiming “That’s enough!” An intern from the White House press operation sprang into action to take the microphone away from Acosta. She repeatedly tried to take it from him, but Acosta held firm to the mic and said, “Excuse me, ma’am,” as she repeatedly put her arm across his body to grab the microphone. You can see the original footage below, but this morning Sarah Sanders sent out a doctored version of the video, telling the public that they were suspending Acosta’s White House pass because, they claim, he had essentially assaulted the young woman.
Follow these short video clips to get the whole story. Here is the original video:
Here is the video that Sarah Sanders tweeted last night. Take a look at how different they are—it’s subtle, but there is suddenly more to the “chop.” This is straight-up propaganda coming from the White House.
Below are explanations from professional video editors of precisely how this was edited to make it seem as if Acosta’s “chop” was more aggressive.
[Note: In another Tweet, Rafael Shimunov clarified that the video appears to have originated on a right-wing conspiracy site.]
The Washington Post reached out to experts, who also affirmed the video had been doctored.
Side-by-side comparisons support claims from fact-checkers and experts such as Jonathan Albright, research director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, who argued that crucial parts of the video appear to have been altered so as to distort the action.
A frame-by-frame breakdown by Storyful, a social-media intelligence firm that verifies media content, found that the edited video included repeated frames that did not appear in the original footage. The repeated frames were shown only at the moment of contact and made Acosta’s arm movement look more exaggerated, said Shane Raymond, a journalist at Storyful.
Twitter users reached out to forensic video consultant Dan Voshart to take a look, and he said he needed to review the original videos, but his conclusion based on the Twitter videos is that there is a difference between the two.
Another editor, one who specializes in recutting political footage, also chimed in on the ethics, or lack thereof, noting that these types of edits can be done.
One last note on the video: It is clear that Acosta is putting his arm down as he is talking, a motion that is meant to emphasize his point, and it is at that moment that the intern reaches across his chest to grab the microphone. Any contact appears at most incidental and minimal. However, the damage from the White House peddling yet another lie, one aimed at curtailing our free press and our Constitutional rights, is yet to be seen. And if you think this doctored video was bad, buckle up for 2020, when dark-money organizations and political and foreign operatives begin releasing more and more of these types of videos to stir up even more hatred and division, in order to accomplish their own nefarious goals. I’m predicting this is just a taste of things to come.