ABC's Editing Distorted Sarah Palin's Answers

Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. ABC's Editing Distorted Sarah Palin's Answers
2. Hollywood Shows Palin the Hate
3. Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews Earn 'Groupies' Nickname
4. Kanye West's Cool Uncool Defense
5. Hollywood Goes for the 'American Taliban' Get
 

1. ABC's Editing Distorted Sarah Palin's Answers

ABC scored huge ratings with the exclusive interview that Charles Gibson of "ABC World News Tonight" conducted with GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Other shows on the ABC network, including "Good Morning America," "20/20" and "Nightline," also made use of the Palin interview.

While numerous experts analyzed, scrutinized and dissected Palin's performance, ABC and Gibson did not allow the public to view a significant portion of Gibson's questions and the Alaska governor's answers.

Posing difficult questions to candidates who are seeking elected office is appropriate. However, editing footage in a way that alters the substance of responses, and/or cuts, deletes and otherwise tampers with media content, which may give a false impression of an interview subject has the potential to stretch, rend and even demolish the boundaries of ethics.

When the Palin interview that aired is compared to the entire interview transcript, there is evidence that ideas and explanations from Palin's answers were cut, causing the candidate to be misrepresented and the public to be mislead.

2. Hollywood Shows Palin the Hate

The hate for Sarah Palin continues to flow from celebrities' mouths.

Lindsay Lohan must have been feeling the heat for previously having the most measured Hollywood response to the GOP vice presidential nomination.

"I really cannot bite my tongue anymore when it comes to Sarah Palin," she blogged. "Is our country so divided that the Republicans best hope is a narrow minded, media obsessed homophobe?"

Pop singer Pink told PopEater.com, "This woman hates women…She's not of this time. The woman terrifies me."

In her e.e. cummings style, Rosie O'Donnell blogged on, comparing Palin to her former "View" co-host, Elisabeth Hasselbeck. "sarah p - elisabeth h / identical cousins," O'Donnell wrote. "women who hunt in high heels / gives one pause."

Pamela Anderson said, "I can't stand her." And despite the fact that Anderson asked to be quoted, the profanity she uttered is best not repeated.

While at the Toronto Film Festival, Matt Damon launched into a double diss, hitting Disney and Palin with the following: "It's like a really bad Disney movie, 'The Hockey Mom.'" He added that it was "a really terrifying possibility."

Damon apparently fell for a phony blog posting that quoted the Alaska governor as supposedly saying, "Dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago." He worried aloud that he needed to "know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago, that's an important… I wanna know that, I really do."

Gina Gershon dressed up as Palin for a video, which was posted on the Web.

"Like so many of you, I went to five colleges," the actress said while in Palin character. "Barach Obama only went to one."

And what college did Gershon graduate from? Oh, that's right, she didn't.

3. Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews Earn 'Groupies' Nickname

When MSNBC named David Gregory the chief political evening anchor and relegated Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann to analysts, it caused a lot of speculation among media mavens.

On CNN's Reliable Sources, Howard Kurtz directed a line of inquiry to commentator and author S.E. Cupp.

"Let me mention that I've talked to MSNBC president Phil Griffin about this," Kurtz said. "He told me this was a mutual decision reached after conversations principally with Keith Olbermann."

Kurtz added that "for months" he would ask Griffin about the coverage by Matthews and Olbermann and "he [Griffin] would say that it was OK to have Matthews and Olbermann doing the anchor thing, because they were opinionated on their own shows, but they wore different hats when they were anchors."

"What did you make of that argument?" Kurtz asked.

Cupp hit the nail on the head in describing the two MSNBC hosts. "I don't think that they wear different hats," she said. "I think the hat that they wear is the hat of a fan: a fan of the Democratic Party and a fan of Obama."

Cupp added, "You know, they were practically groupies at the DNC."

4. Kanye West's Cool Uncool Defense

Police officers investigating Kanye West's recent paparazzo scuffle are at a loss as to what sparked the incident.

Kanye, who at a Katrina fundraiser a while back suggested that "George Bush doesn't care about black people," was recently arrested on felony vandalism charges.

The hip-hop artist was at Los Angeles International Airport and allegedly attacked a photographer and smashed his camera and equipment.

Although West spent several hours in police custody and is now out on bail, L.A. officers can't seem to find a rational cause for West's behavior.

"I have no idea. I didn't know who he [West] was until the day this happened. You saw the tape. I have no idea what set him off. I've got nothing left. There's nothing more to add until they go to court," Sergeant Jim Holcomb told E!

West's defense thus far was posted on his Web site. "I'm cool with the paparazzi," he wrote. "This guy wasn't cool."

Getting a lawyer might be a cool idea.

5. Hollywood Goes for the 'American Taliban' Get

Hollywood just can't seem to churn out docudramas about the most despicable characters in society fast enough.

And the town seems more and more willing to pay out the big bucks to get the rotten get.

John Phillip Walker Lindh, who prefers the name Hamza Walker Lindh, is the American who during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan was found to be a member of the Taliban army. Lindh was captured and eventually sentenced to twenty years in prison.

With Lindh in the slammer, his family has retained lawyers and are seeking to get the "American Taliban"'s conviction overturned on appeal.

Legal fees can be quite expensive, and Hollywood appears to be coming to the rescue. A flurry of book, TV and movie offers are apparently being made to Lindh's family.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a film in which CIA agents interrogate Walker Lindh sold to ABC and CBS for $80,000 (the two networks split the bill). CBS also paid $20,000 for footage of Lindh being interviewed by Turkish reporters.

Sources indicate that much bigger dollar amounts are in the offing as networks and studios try to outbid each other so they can spin the poor misunderstood traitor yarn.