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You Don’t (Hear)Say!

Tucson’s school board bans the Mexican-American studies program based on “solid evidence”.

The school board member interviewed in the video claims he did not know that the Daily Show “is a satirical news show and thus does not always represent the true remarks their guest make. I went on this show to talk about the Mexican American Studies (MAS) classes. What I believed to be would be a true interview ended up being nothing of the sort. It is unfortunate that the Daily show opted to amuse rather then inform” (the typos are his).

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10 Comments

  1. Arthanyel wrote:

    The Arizona school board, and this guy, have IQ’s below room temperature and should not be allowed out in public without a nurse, let alone making serious decisions that impact thousands of children.

    Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 11:04 am | Permalink
  2. Scott Schindler wrote:

    If you do not know The Daily Show is a satirical news show, should you be involved in decision making outside of the restroom?

    Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 1:14 pm | Permalink
  3. Sammy wrote:

    You mean hearsay isn’t solid evidence? Since when?

    Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 1:23 pm | Permalink
  4. TJ wrote:

    What he said in the interview was pretty damning. I know the Daily Show can do their cuts in such a way to make it funny and/or make the target look bad, but I don’t believe that they would go so far as to make it seem like he said things he didn’t say.

    I guess my point is… who cares if The Daily Show is a satirical show or not; why would you say what he said to a regular reporter?

    Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 1:57 pm | Permalink
  5. Iron Knee wrote:

    He does claim that he never said that he didn’t visit a classroom. Apparently he did visit a classroom for one of the classes.

    My personal experience with the media in the past is that they get things wrong all the time. You don’t have to be satirical to make sloppy mistakes.

    Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 4:01 pm | Permalink
  6. ThatGuy wrote:

    This guy does say (in the Daily Show clip) that he chose not to go to any of their classes. So either he’s lying when he says he did in fact go or the “correspondent” asked about different classes to set up the sound bite. But then why does Hicks go on about basing his decision on hearsay? I know the Daily Show alters clips and makes clever cuts but it seems like this gentleman was doing a pretty good job of digging himself a hole without the show editors expending much effort.

    Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 10:55 pm | Permalink
  7. melior wrote:

    I laughed, but this guy is going us one better. He’s actually putting books back in the hands of the kids they took them from.

    http://www.librotraficante.com/index.html

    Thursday, April 5, 2012 at 10:26 pm | Permalink
  8. It seems clear to me, without knowing the details of the real story behind this, that the guy everyone is harping on probably made at least one mistake: trying to answer questions he was not prepared to answer. It’s those loaded “curveball” type questions that Daily Show reporters rely on in order to produce a response they can wring the comedy out of later on. Sort of like, “Do you still cheat on your wife?” Try to honestly address that question without being prepared for it and I can guarantee you that it will provide me with at least a few words I can snip out of the answer and use against you.

    I think it’s amusing that people put any faith at all in a Daily Show interview, knowing full well that they’ll edit whatever they can in favor of a laugh vs. accuracy in reporting. You really have no way of knowing for sure what questions this guy was answering and which answers were spliced together. As a professional video and sound editor, I can usually tell where audio edits are made but even I wouldn’t be able to expect someone who does what I do for a living to be able to pick out every single one. The general public is less likely still to notice even obvious cuts; thus, questions about “Well then, why would he say ____ ” are almost pointless to ask.

    Just imagine the power that real news sources have. Powerful documentaries are regularly produced which take full advantage of the power of clever editing, only they’re actually working hard to cover tracks that DS editors probably gloss over. Always keep in mind that we live in a country where it’s normally not illegal to lie.

    Friday, April 6, 2012 at 1:01 am | Permalink
  9. There are a lot of stylistic redundancies in that last post. I really should avoid writing things at 3:00 in the morning.

    Friday, April 6, 2012 at 1:06 am | Permalink
  10. Iron Knee wrote:

    Ironically, it was Fox News that established the right of news organizations to deliberately lie.

    Friday, April 6, 2012 at 4:56 am | Permalink