Did CNN Modify Its Re-broadcast of Michael Moore’s Uppity Oscar Acceptance Speech?

Something to keep you busy over the weekend!
Check out the video and audio from the live ABC broadcast and compare it for yourself to the video and audio of the CNN re-broadcast:

Did CNN Turn Up The Boos During Michael Moore’s Speech?

Michael Moore At The Oscars: ABC’s Live Audio vs. CNN’s Re-broadcast
This is a quote from my introduction:

…I decided to help Ellison Horne out by digitizing and posting his video footage on the internet so the debate over this issue could begin, and so we could all look over the evidence together in order to determine whether or not the audio track was altered in the CNN rebroadcast…

This is a quote from Ellison’s introduction:

I’m urgently calling for an investigation of the broadcast by CNN and CNN Headline News’s reporting of Michael Moore’s acceptance speech last month at the Academy Awards.
CNN and CNN Headline News aired a significantly different audio response to Mr. Moore’s speech than was orginally broadcasted on ABC.
It seems that someone has manipulated the audio to give the impression there was constant loud “booing” throughout Moore’s speech, when in reality, there was only marginal booing often overridden with cheers and applause.
This needs to be fully investigated.

14 thoughts on “Did CNN Modify Its Re-broadcast of Michael Moore’s Uppity Oscar Acceptance Speech?

  1. Kevin Burton

    hm.. sounds interesting. I wouldn’t really put it past CNN.
    From my perspective all I hear is one person. Could it be a different audio feed? Did CNN republish ABCs video?
    If it is different it is only by about 5% or so…
    Kevin

  2. Mark Dilley

    I saw MSNBC show the clip right after the event. The boos were loud, but it seemed to be a few, real close to the mic.
    but when I heard your mp3 of it, I questioned my recollection of the first listening.
    Based on what I heard, it makes sense that the boos were elavated.
    *I remember the announcer, not sure about the network, will try to make sure.

  3. Elayne Riggs

    Oh good grief, investigation of reporting about an acceptance speech at a Hollywood awards show? Do we as a movement really care so damn much about this triviality? Pre-orders of the Bowling for Columbine DVD have outstripped pre-orders for the Chicago DVD since the Oscars, Michael’s not hurting and his messages are still getting out, and IMHO the left has already milked this “outrage” for far more than it’s worth. Can we please have a little perspective here?

  4. George

    The point is not the particular instance, but the spin and that corporate media denies it repeatedly when it is quite obvious.
    I find much more interesting how the Moore appearance was “spun” on CNN than the increased booing. Aaron Brown comments “Michael Moore was soundly booed” and follows with remarks that insinuate the inappropriateness of the speech.
    Fox News motto is “We inform. You decide”. It seems to me though that large news network spend a lot of energy “forming” opinion as in the Moore example by providing one type of value judgment or in the Meeks on Fox example posted here, where judgment is rendered against pacifist expression. Fox did not just inform that such expression exist but package it with one particular evaluation.
    Was it Hannah Arendt who said that propaganda is a sign of totalitarianism? I’ll have to go and check my sources… Regardless, that it is going on, just takes comparative newspaper reading between english-speaking newspapers around the globe.

  5. crumb

    You know, you folks, are getting a little far out on the conspiracy limb. Get a reality check. Since much of your info is all speculation and innuendo, now you have to really start making stuff up.
    Mr.Moore used his fame as a pulpit for his political opinion. I like his work. I don’t care about his politics. Yes he has the right to do it, no everyone does not have to approve.
    Some people clapped, some people booed. Deal with it. One mic was positioned in a different place then the other one. Ross Perot look out, black helicopters!
    The lack of objectivity here is getting incredulous. It reminds me of those when hearing that US soldiers were fighting Al Queda in northern Iraq, tried to claim that Saddam didn’t know they were there. The anti-war crowd wants there to be no connection with terrorism when it was clearly there, so if reality doesn’t line up with your political view, make something up?
    Or the fact that the statue was a US military photo-op, so what? Should the US stand by with their head in the sand, while the rest of the world makes political hamburger out of the US operation? Puh-lease! As if that photo op proves that Iraqi’s aren’t glad we deposed of Saddam? Come on people use some rationale.
    Fine, oppose the nearly over war, keep ranting and raving even though few have died, many are liberated and Saddam is ousted, but don’t deny reality. I admire those with great heart, but don’t get rid of your brain.

  6. kq

    it’s not a question of moving mics; they had the exact same video and so there was no reason not to use the audio that was recorded with that video. in other words, CNN swapped or modified the audio to give the impression it wanted to give.

  7. tatoe

    I agree with Crumb. This is pointless speculation, much like the “staged toppling of Iraq regime”. Again so what is the point? CNN is conspiring to support the successful war? CNN wants to make GWB look good? It simply appears that those who protested the successful military action in Iraq are all about sour grapes. They just don’t want to accept that there were more supporters of the war then not, which is a fact.
    I think if I was at the event in question I would have booed Mr.Moore, not as protest to his opinion, but because it was rude for him to use the event to espouse his political opinion. Celebrities like Moore, Sinead O’Connor, Sean Penn, Genine Gerofalo, need to understand the general public doesn’t care about there political opinions. We pay money because they act good, or sing good, or are funny.
    I think this whole blog is a joke, it should be called Lisa’s sour grapes, or antirealityonlisaReinsradar. Instead of saying “Hey I think it is great that the thing went so well, and so few were killed” lets get to the business of showing how democracies work for the people of Iraq in stark contrast to evil dictatorships”, it’s let me stroke my ego and act like I am letting the world know about the real truth. Lisa you don’t understand our country, our constitution, or the cost of freedom. Your just regurgitating ignorant political blather.
    This stuff is laughable, first it’s “look at the looting” and then when troops and police move in to MAKE THINGS BETTER for people, it’s “The looters already took all the good stuff”. It is all political fluff that is cowardly hidden behind care for humanity. Saddam is deposed, thinking people should be happy along with those who now rejoice in Iraq. This will stabilize the world for years to come. The turn of events is an amazing testament to the will of the American people, our sovereign rights to security, the success of an all volunteer citizen army. I for one am glad to see my tax dollars go to help someone.
    It reminds me of when Russia first became a democratic nation, the had many countries split off, and hard economic times for awhile, and fools actually said things like they were better off under communism. Today there are those who suggest that Iraq would be better off if left alone. They do not say it because they truly believe it. They say it because they do not understand why it is great to be American and free and opposition to George Bush has putrefied to hatred. Hatred doesn’t help people love does. Where is the love?
    But that is just me a conservative from Idaho, and that is what you would expect me to say.

  8. kq

    What’s with all this “rude to voice political opinion” nonsense? Support for the status quo is just as much a political opinion as any other.

  9. kq

    What’s with all this “rude to voice political opinion” nonsense? Support for the status quo is just as much a political opinion as any other.

  10. Charles Miller

    “Mr.Moore used his fame as a pulpit for his political opinion.”
    Isn’t that putting the cart before the horse? Moore’s work has always been political. This isn’t some celebrity using the fact they’ve been in a few movies to branch into political comment, this is a guy whose celebrity comes from his political commentary.
    As for the recording, there’s probably a simple answer: mixing.
    The live feed of the event would have put most of the emphasis on the mic at which Moore was standing, with very little emphasis on the audience reaction. Later, CNN says “Hey, we want another mix so we can hear the audience reaction, what happens if we turn up the audience-reaction microphones that were mixed down at the time?”
    Voila. Exactly the same event, different mix, different sound.
    What the _real_ sound was would depend entirely on where you were sitting. So when Moore said he only heard a few people boo, from his perspective (which would have matched that of the on-stage microphones) that could be true, whereas someone in the audience would have heard a completely different mix of boos and cheers.
    Truth is very much subjective, especially in a crowd.

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