Did President Donald Trump share a video of Nancy Pelosi that was doctored to make it appear that she was drunk? That’s the charge Trump faced immediately after tweeting out said video.
The Washington Post used this as an opportunity to draw attention to the supposed epidemic of faked Pelosi videos being shared on social media nowadays. Vox posted a 1,100-word article on the allegedly doctored video that devoted zero words to the evidence of doctoring in that particular video. Meanwhile, “conservative” (the CNN kind) commentator S.E. Cupp blasted the GOP for not objecting to Trump sharing the “fake video.” Sore-loser-in-chief Hillary Clinton called the clip “sexist trash.”
“PELOSI STAMMERS THROUGH NEWS CONFERENCE” pic.twitter.com/1OyCyqRTuk
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019
Once again the media and company have mindlessly run with a narrative, and no one in their bubble will ever bother to check it. While we’re told the video was deceptively edited to make Pelosi appear drunk or otherwise incompetent, it was not. Rudy Giuliani did come under fire for sharing a different video of Pelosi he later deleted (also showing her stammering) before Trump shared his, and it was doctored, but that isn’t the video in question here. I guess they assumed that because Giuliani shared an entirely different video of Pelosi that was altered, therefore every video a member of the Trump administration shares of Pelosi is doctored? Who knows.
As PJ Media’s Matt Margolis noted:
Nancy’s speech is not altered in the video. The video is a series of clips made into a montage—a common method for saving time. The video Trump shared is a clip from Lou Dobbs Tonight on Fox Business from the same day. Greg Jarrett (filling in for Lou Dobbs) aired the montage from her press conference and discussed it with his guest, former Reagan White House political director and Fox Business political analyst Ed Rollins.
In fact, the video Trump shared is identical to what aired on Lou Dobbs. You can watch that segment below (the video should begin at 8:33), where the chyron reads “Pelosi Urges Trump ‘Intervention’; Stammers Through News Conference.”
The Dobbs video and the version Trump shared are identical. What will liberals try to argue now – that Lou Dobbs deceptively edited the clip himself? If that’s the case, then they can simply watch Pelosi’s press conference as uploaded by the far-left “NowThis,” which sounds identical.
Trump's video was not "Doctored" proof is right here.
Frame rate of both clips are just different, off by a half frame.
Audio levels match, check next tweet. pic.twitter.com/V09fP7gQzB— Saladino for Congress (@JoeySalads) May 25, 2019
So to recap, journalists told us that a doctored video of Pelosi was spread by the President. This narrative was then used to justify cracking down on misleading content on social media by many on the Left, which we are all aware is a Trojan Horse to crack down on right-wing content more generally (regardless of how factual it may be). The media ran with this narrative in unison, while the only “editing” done was splicing together different clips without changing the context. “Editing” is not “doctoring.”
In reality, Trump probably just watched Fox News and shared a video of what he saw.
And lastly – I’m not arguing that Pelosi actually was drunk in the video. She really just is this incompetent sober.
