The next time you see someone on TV in a "newsroom"

[Tim May]

On Monday, February 24, 2003, at 04:00  PM, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 24, 2003 at 02:43:37PM -0800, Tim May wrote:
>> And I notice that hanging on the wall to the right in the photo is the
>> "New York Times -- Baghdad Bureau" photo. "All the news that's fit to
>> simulate."
>
> Heh. I went on CNN Headline News last week around 7:20 am ET. They put
> me in a studio I hadn't been in before, with a remote-controlled
> camera and a photo of the monuments in the background. After my brief
> segment was over, a camera operator came in and rolled down the
> background a few inches -- apparently it hadn't been adjusted correctly
> and all you could see was the sky. They have another background (a
> continuous loop, on rollers) for daytime, night, etc. Will try to
> remember to take a photo the next time I'm there.

Those kinds of backgrounds are, I think, quite reasonable. They're very 
obviously just backdrops, as the lights don't change, lights at night 
don't flicker, clouds don't move, etc.

CNBC uses them for San Francisco backdrops...usually the Golden Gate 
Bridge, or the Transamerica Pyramid, or the Bay Bridge. And they're 
even clever enough to usually have an "overcast" shot when the day is 
overcast, a "clear and sunny" shot as appropriate, and (less often for 
programming reasons) night shots.

I think 99% of the viewers understand that it's just a visual cue to 
remind those not hearing or reading the intro about where the 
interviewee is located.

Putting up fake newsrooms is quite another matter, though. I don't 
recall seeing this static shot of the "New York Times-Washington 
Bureau" newsroom. It seems like a silly thing to do, to have a photo of 
a newsroom with nobody in it.

On the backdrops themselves, I'm surprised they're not using blue 
screen technology. The weather reporters have it, though with a 
sometimes visible "edge" (which is distracting).

Since the War on (Some) Terrorists is the Wag the Dog War, we may soon 
be seeing actual faked war footage.

(The best news has been that 100 or so American reporters have "signed 
on" to wear actual uniforms, to be assigned to combat units, and to 
participate in battles if need be. This I count as "good news" because 
it may mean that captured reporters are not held-and-released the way 
Bob Simon, for example, was in Iraq. This time they may face the same 
fate other captured enemy face. And it erases any misconceptions that 
the unquestioning press is actually independent of the 
military-industrial-media complex. "Fox News -- Fair AND Balanced!")

--Tim May
"Ben Franklin warned us that those who would trade liberty for a little 
bit of temporary security deserve neither. This is the path we are now 
racing down, with American flags fluttering."-- Tim May, on events 
following 9/11/2001