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View Full Version : Holy Damage Control Batman. Romney and NBC spinning




bingo23
01-26-2008, 12:42 AM
Wow. I heard at least 3 whispers AFFECT his answers.

Could it be that people who streamed it got a much clearer audible than the folks in the NBC brass replaying their Tivo over and over to see how far to push this load of elephant dung?


Who was that whispering bandit?
Don’t blame Romney’s people; it was just someone in the crowd, NBC says
Video


Say what?
Jan. 24: Listen as a mysterious whisper is heard after NBC’s Tim Russert asks Mitt Romney a question. First, hear the exchange as it went out over the air. The, listen to msnbc.com’s enhanced audio.
MSNBC


Video

Commander-in-chief? I'll call him 'Dad'
Jan. 25: Mitt Romney's sons and John Edwards' daughter discuss their experiences both on and off the campaign trail. NBC's Maria Menounos reports.
Nightly News


INTERACTIVE

Elections '08 results -- national overview
Primary and caucus results from each state
NBC News


INTERACTIVE

Explaining the election system
Msnbc.com's political reporter Tom Curry answers questions about the road to the presidency
MSNBC


msnbc.com political calendar

A day-by-day guide to American politics
JANUARY 2008
26 South Carolina Democratic primary
29 Florida primary
30 Republican debate, Reagan Library, Simi Valley, California
31 Democratic debate, Los Angeles, CA
FEBRUARY 2008
1-3 Maine GOP caucus
5 SUPER TUESDAY
Primaries: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CT, DE, GA, ID (Dem), IL, KS (Dem), MO, MA, NJ, NY, OK, TN, UT,
Caucuses: AK, CO, MN, MT (GOP), NM (Dem), ND, WV (GOP 2/3 selected)
9 Louisiana primary
Kansas Republican primary
Nebraska Democratic caucuses
Washington caucuses
10 Maine Democratic caucus
12 Maryland, Virginia and D.C. primaries
19 Hawaii Democratic caucus
Washington primary
Wisconsin primary
MARCH 2008
4 Ohio primary
Rhode Island primary
Texas primary
Vermont primary
8 Wyoming Democratic caucuses
11 Mississippi primary
APRIL 2008
22 Pennsylvania primary
MAY 2008
6 Indiana and North Carolina primaries
13 Nebraska primary
West Virginia Democratic primary
West Virginia Republican primary (1/3 selected)
20 Kentucky and Oregon primaries
27 Idaho Republican caucus
JUNE 2008
3 Montana Democratic primary
New Mexico Republican caucus
South Dakota primary
AUGUST 2008
25-28 Democratic National Convention in Denver
SEPTEMBER 2008
1-4 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul
26 Presidential debate in Oxford, Miss.
OCTOBER 2008
2 Vice Presidential debate in St. Louis, Mo.
7 Presidential debate in Nashville, Tenn.
15 Presidential debate in Hempstead, N.Y.
NOVEMBER 2008
4 Election Day


• Print this
By Alex Johnson
Reporter
MSNBC
updated 8:03 p.m. CT, Fri., Jan. 25, 2008
Calling for tax cuts? Noted. Bashing the Democrats? Recorded. Sounding tough on security? Check.

The coverage of the MSNBC Republican presidential debate Thursday hit all the requisite notes.

Except one.

“So, what on earth was that whisper all about?” queried the Carpetbagger Report.

It — and much of the rest of the political blogosphere — was chewing over a mysterious whispered voice that could be heard during MSNBC’s live coverage of the debate in Boca Raton, Fla. It popped up as Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and moderator of “Meet the Press,” was asking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney a question about Social Security:

RUSSERT: Governor Romney, you are a big fan of Ronald Reagan. Will you do for Social Security what Ronald Reagan did in 1983?

MYSTERY WHISPERER: Raise taxes.

ROMNEY: I’m not going to raise taxes.

Now, if you’re of a certain mind, that’s the sort of thing that might lead you to start throwing around conspiracy theories. To wit, was Romney getting some unauthorized help from off-stage?

“Forget Dennis Kucinich’s claims about seeing UFOs. The new unsolved mystery of the campaign trail is the ‘whisper,’ ” wrote foxnews.com.

“Recalls ‘the bulge’ from the Bush/Kerry debates doesn’t it?” asked Rolling Stone.

Just a random voice
While the buzz over the incident was loud enough that Brian Williams, Russert’s co-moderator and anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” felt the need to weigh in, the grassy-knoll types will be disappointed. Romney’s innocent, the network said.

Domenico Montanaro, an NBC News political researcher, wrote on the network’s political blog, First Read: “After reviewing the tapes, NBC determined that an open mic[rophone] picked up a whisper from the audience.

“It is unclear who it is that says it, but it was not said by any of the candidates, was not heard in the hall and, more importantly, not heard by the candidates.”

But because bad information chases after new, it is likely that the speculation will continue for some time. NBC didn’t help matters when a First Read post airing the matter abruptly disappeared from msnbc.com for a while. Altogether, it was more than enough to prompt political junkies to ask whether anything nefarious was up.

Turns out that posting was the casualty of an internal misunderstanding between NBC News producers, one of whom removed it because he thought it was a question, not a blog post.

“It’s probably made out to be a bigger deal by the blogs than it actually is,” Montanaro said from Columbia, S.C., where he was preparing for the Democratic primary Saturday. “I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist. I go on facts as much as I can.”

The post has since been republished. You can read it here.

Trust us.

© 2008 MSNBC Interactive
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22848324/

austinchick
01-26-2008, 12:55 AM
i only saw videos of 2 whispers....(taxes, support). What other ones did you see?

Just Come Home
01-26-2008, 12:59 AM
I love how anyone who questions this mystery is painted as a "grassy knoll type."

Propaganda is alive and well in America.

bingo23
01-26-2008, 01:15 AM
I love how anyone who questions this mystery is painted as a "grassy knoll type."

Propaganda is alive and well in America.

Right and F all that. We are entering a new era of transparency. The days of the newspaper telling our grandparents what to think are over. They are trying to hang on with the pay-no-attention-to-the-man-behind-the-curtain stuff but there is some evolution happening.

I also heard canned responses all night but to the non-opininion part of this thread...

I heard raise taxes 2x (live) and support on replay. Stuttering Romney was listening to SOMEone.

sands
01-26-2008, 04:10 AM
"trust us"....LOL

wildflower
01-26-2008, 04:27 AM
If we have 2 or 3 examples of a whisper and then Romney saying the same words seconds after the whisper.... then we shouldn't let them get away with this. We need to hold their feet to the fire. And it's not just us, the supporters of the other candidates I'm sure also would like to know if Romney had any "help".

Someone should put together a video with all of the whispers. Romney is not honest at all, and if it's true that he was being 'fed' then let's expose the hell out of this guy!!

silence is betrayal
01-26-2008, 04:37 AM
"trust us"....LOL


I love how anyone who questions this mystery is painted as a "grassy knoll type."


LMFAO, they're so fucking pathetic it makes me sick.

ronpaulblogsdotcom
01-26-2008, 05:02 AM
What kind of freak would sit in an audience and practice saying a few words to answer the question. In quick rushed tones and sounding like you were trying to help the answerer?

Why only Romney?

Face it. someone was helping Romney and they were too close to a mic. Probably Russerts.

wildflower
01-26-2008, 05:20 AM
Can someone clarify the 3 times this happened?

The first one was "Raise taxes." The second one was "support" ... and what was the third one?

I only heard 2, but bingo23- you said you heard 3, right? What was the third one?

MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2
01-26-2008, 05:23 AM
Who was that whispering bandit?
Don’t blame Romney’s people; it was just someone in the crowd, NBC says

At least on the Regan question, which it the only one I've heard, I would have believed it was another moderator prompting Russert to finish the question. (and Romney definitely heard it.)

There's no way in hell I'll believe it was an audience member whispering into a microphone somewhere. And it was definitely a whisper.

jillian
01-26-2008, 08:03 AM
I don't buy this bullshit for one second. I literally laughed out loud when I read their "excuse"

Trust us? no thanks.

braumstr
01-26-2008, 08:12 AM
http://portland.indymedia.org/media/images/2004/10/299283.jpg


Kind of like that scene on that old movie where the chinese fireworks factory is blowing up and the cops are saying "move along, nothing to see here."

Lucid American
01-26-2008, 08:14 AM
The first one was a little creepy and odd but potentially describable, but you're saying there were THREE?

Where are the other two?

Time for Change
01-26-2008, 09:44 AM
Pardon the way this comes across...
What's the big deal about the "Whisper"?
So somebody was whispering. Who Cares?
Were they giving the soap opera mom's favorite candidate an answer? Who knows / cares?
Is it the end of the world? NO!
Even if they ARE giving him answers, what does it matter? What can be done about it?
Posting, ranting and belly-aching about it cannot change it.
Bringing it to light in an obsessive manor cannot change it; only, make us look like we are looking for some conspiracy....AGAIN.
Enough...this is INSANE.
Lets say that they were in fact giving the poster boy answers...What does it change? NOT ONE THING.
Should we stop trying to spread the word while we investigate the whispers?
I'll leave that to you all, but I am not letting it affect my efforts in any little way.
Let it go, and go talk to people...NOW!

Think about it....Do you think they are going to prop these guys up in the news just to let them stumble for answers? No, they will give the answers on teleprompter, queue cards, or whatever means necessary.
That's just the way it is. Now if the whispering is related consider my last statement...

That said, I am working too hard to be distracted by whispers, and rumors of whispers. There is a LOT of work to be done.
What have you done for the cause today?
What CAN you do for the cause today?

jyakulis
01-26-2008, 10:30 AM
I love how anyone who questions this mystery is painted as a "grassy knoll type."

Propaganda is alive and well in America.

speaking of the "grassy knoll"

http://www.saintjohnhunt.com/#

lol some guy from the CIA confessed CIA involvement on his death bed. this is one of the guys that went to prison over watergate.

braumstr
01-26-2008, 10:32 AM
Calm down dude. We just talking about it because IT SUCKS.

RonRules
01-26-2008, 10:58 AM
Can someone clarify the 3 times this happened?

The first one was "Raise taxes." The second one was "support" ... and what was the third one?

I only heard 2, but bingo23- you said you heard 3, right? What was the third one?


The third one was: "magic underwear, magic underwear, magic underwear"

acptulsa
01-26-2008, 12:22 PM
I enjoy the fact that they expect anyone with half a brain to believe that there was any microphone in that auditorium anywhere near close enough to the audience to pick up a whisper from one of them. I don't think this is a bad thing to be up on when canvassing or phone banking. It's the sort of accessible concept anyone can understand--and people who don't understand the issues rely heavily on their perceptions of the candidates' integrity and ability to grasp things.

bingo23
01-26-2008, 05:13 PM
3 Times...

"Raised taxes" twice in the same answer and support in another. The reason it matters is because debates are supposed to show true colors as the next president shoots from the hip.

It's like someone coming to a business interview and you find out that it was someone else answering your questions. Except in that case...you don't have to wait 4 years to fire his ass.