PBS Scandal: The Milli Vanilli of Fireworks

[OscarQ]

Should PBS Have Shown Old Fireworks Footage In Its July 4th Show?

www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/05/484769126/should-pbs-have-shown-old-fireworks-footage-in-its-july-4th-show?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160705

After being called out for editing its live broadcast of the fireworks in Washington, D.C., to show fireworks bursting in clear air — on a night in which the weather was dominated by fog, low clouds and misting rain — PBS called it "the patriotic thing to do."

Viewers in the Washington area — many of whom had likely been waiting out the rain and checking the weather all day — quickly noticed the discrepancy and took to Twitter to call PBS' annual A Capitol Fourth show a fake.

While scenes of performers and the audience on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol all seemed live, with a cloudy backdrop, much of the fireworks imagery we saw in a cursory review seems to have been pulled from archives.

The public broadcaster acknowledged intercutting old footage with its live broadcast shortly after the show ended, saying in a tweet, "We showed a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years. It was the patriotic thing to do."

That admission brought a flurry of criticism from people who were unhappy with either an air of media deception, a preference for perfection over authenticity, or some combination of both.

After PBS' tweet, Washington Post reporter Paul Schwartzman called it "the Milli Vanilli of fireworks"; another person stated, "current mood: disbelieving moon landing." Seemingly unimpressed with the kerfuffle, another commenter simply wrote, "Only in DC could a PBS show become a scandal."

Some folks called PBS' wider editorial ethos into question — and/or criticized the way the stock footage was handled. For instance, after the network owned up to the editing, Steve Hellem wrote, "Thanks for this, could have been announced at the time. Journalistic 'freedom' starts with small 'corrections.' "

Apparently feeling a need to elaborate — perhaps because critics were showing no sign of letting up — PBS issued another statement via Twitter in the early hours of Tuesday morning, saying that the network is "very proud of the 2016 A Capitol Fourth celebration."

According to the statement, the decision was made solely because of the weather, and a desire "for the best possible television viewing experience." PBS added, "We apologize for any confusion this may have caused."

But another viewer had a different gripe — about the music. A Twitter user called barkway told the network that they "prefer the traditional orchestral & band music to pop culture music. Just not the same anymore."

We'll also note that many people enjoyed the show — and have told PBS just that, in comments on YouTube and Twitter. If you watched the show, or have an opinion about the editing of a live broadcast, feel free to share your thoughts in our comment section below.



Bolding mine.

[Deleted]

[earlgreyhot]

This is just funny to me. Our usual spot was worthless this year so we walked back and watched it on TV and something definitely wasn't adding up. My DH caught their first tweet plus some other funny footage (some girls comparing what they were seeing on the feeds vs their actual view...).

Anyway, my friend has a client at the local PBS who basically told him they do this shit (throw in some stock footage) every year....it's just usual not so obvious.

[candreco]

This, and the hype the local DC news channels gave it, made me laugh this morning while I was getting ready. FWIW, I watched on TV last night, thought the sky seemed clearer for half a second, and then moved on and went back to resume editing. I agree that there's too much pop music, I just want Stars & Stripes Forever and the 1812 Overture with cannons. ::shakes cane::

[josieposy]

OMG. What's next? We're gonna find out the fireplace video doesn't use real logs!

[lilibet]

I had wondered when the show started if the clouds would impact the fireworks display and then a tiny moment of being like "huh, some of this is cloudier than others" but then just figured it was smoke and moved on.

It's funny that some people are so horrified by this.

[Wallflower]

I watched it and assumed that they were inserting stock footage. How disappointing would it be to watch from home and get no fireworks? (I'm guessing, perhaps incorrectly, that those watching in person could see a little more than the tv cameras.)

How funny that people are upset about this. Or how sad.

[ttt]

I noticed this too and I thought it was just me! I'm kind of LOLing at the whole thing. It's a fireworks show, you saw fireworks, what's the big deal?

The music was pretty crappy, though.

[sparrowsong]

Hahahaha! It was the patriotic thing to do....

[TBM]

We watched, we noticed the inconsistencies.....we didn't care. It isn't like fireworks on tv feel live anyway.

I was happy that I got to see a few nice fireworks, and would have been really disappointed if they were all obscured by clouds. I've seen that kind of display in person, and it once you got past the initial laugh, it was pretty boring.

I was disappointed in the show...it lacked the energy that we were expecting and kind of felt flat.

[lyssbobiss, Command, B613]

[andwhat]

 I was there. And had a good view. You could not see 90+% of the fireworks due to the clouds. What did people want them to do? Really they should have moved it to the Kennedy Center and just cancelled the fireworks. But they didn't so this is what they got.

[irishbride2]

It was so obvious when they switched, due to the lack of clouds and the lack of scaffolding on the capital. But I'm glad they did. My kids just wanted good fireworks. I don't care what year they are from.

[RoxMonster]

LOL at "It was the patriotic thing to do."

This is a silly thing to be up in arms about. We had this on a bit last night and I also know someone who was there and posting pics on FB in live time and they...were not matching up to everything being shown on TV. Oh well. Honestly this makes me kind of chuckle.

I do agree it's what they should have done. I mean, how many people would have complained if they only showed the live fireworks on TV and it was a bunch of clouds and you couldn't see the show? We saw a display like that on Sunday night. So much fog and clouds, we only saw 30-40% of the firecrackers.

[kkfeb04]

Jul 5, 2016 13:04:41 GMT -5 josieposy said:

OMG. What's next? We're gonna find out the fireplace video doesn't use real logs!

Whaaaaaattttt??  

Next you are going to tell me that it isn't a full 24 hour live broadcast....