Recently there has been a huge increase in coverage by liberal news outlets about so-called “cheap fakes,” a term being used by both the media and the White House to describe viral clips. President Biden Critics say it shows signs of his cognitive decline.
Biden’s age has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent days, with Republicans accusing the president of stuttering and squirming at various events shown online.
A prime example of this is footage that showed Biden stepping away from other world leaders at the G-7 summit and giving a thumbs-up to parachutists behind the camera, after which Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called him back to the group for a photo op.
“Selective editing of videos and twisting the interpretation of events has been a long-standing practice in American politics,” said Jeffrey McCall, a journalism professor at DePauw University. “What is surprising, however, is how eager the establishment media has been to repeat the White House’s spin, trying to dismiss concerns about Biden’s abilities as mere cheap fake editing and glossing over.”
The Biden team argues all of their derogatory videos are fake, but that’s not true
Italian Prime Minister Giordano Meloni surrounded President Biden for a photo opportunity with the G-7 as they watched the parachutists. (Fox News/Pool)
NBC News accused Republicans of spreading a “false” narrative about Biden by claiming he was walking around aimlessly.
“Experts warn that while advanced technologies such as generative artificial intelligence can spread misinformation, so-called cheap counterfeits, which often use only minor or selective editing, may be more effective at spreading false narratives.” NBC News wrote in response to the viral moment.
“It’s quite possible to consider different interpretations of the G-7 parachute situation, but even a sympathetic assessment would have to acknowledge that none of the other leaders followed Biden’s wanderings, and that the Italian prime minister felt compelled to back him up,” McCaul said. Fox News Digital,
Biden clips are most prominently distributed by RNC Research on X, which often provides an unflattering caption to raise concerns about the president’s cognitive state.
However, regardless of whether or not the portrayal of Biden is fair, the White House and the media have falsely alleged that the clip was manipulated by the RNC and other critics. Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also falsely said Biden’s statements were misrepresented. The video was called a “deepfake”.
“While ‘deepfakes’ are deceptive audio, video or images created or edited with artificial intelligence technology, according to researchers Britt Paris and Joan Donovan, a ‘cheap fake’ is a ‘manipulation created with cheaper, more accessible software (or, no software at all). Cheap fakes can be produced through Photoshop, lookalikes, re-contextualizing, speeding up or slowing down footage,'” NBC News A separate report wrote,
President Biden looked stunned at the June 11 event held at the White House
Washington Post elevated in the same way Using the term “cheap fake,” readers were told that such “deceptively edited videos…misrepresent events by simply manipulating the video or audio or omitting context” and that they “have become a mainstay of Republican attacks against Biden.”
The Post, in a separate fact-check, declared the G-7 event a “fake story” and also tackled one of the chilling allegations with a clip in which Biden stands motionless while others around him dance and sway at a concert held on the White House lawn in celebration of Juneteenth.
President Biden goes viral for having “chills” as everyone around him dances and sings at the Juneteenth concert on the South Lawn of the White House on June 10, 2024 in Washington, DC.
The Post attempted to refute Biden’s claim that he was stunted by citing a 2009 interview in which he mentioned that he “doesn’t dance.”
“The use of these clips are particularly insidious examples of manipulated video — which we call ‘disinformation’ under our guide to manipulated video — because the purpose is to create a false narrative that does not reflect the event as it occurred. The RNC and its ardent followers in conservative media earned four Pinocchios,” The post concluded,
Fox News contributor Joe Concha says Biden’s decline is “unexplainable” and that most voters are noticing it.
“It’s not a matter of age, it’s a matter of mental acuity, and most Americans believe they don’t have that ability anymore. All the hype and cheerleading around the world isn’t going to change that,” Concha told Fox News Digital.
The Associated Press did its own fact-check on a video that showed Biden standing still His star-studded LA fundraiser Until former President Obama is seen grabbing Biden’s wrist and escorting him off the stage with his hands behind Biden’s back.
“Claim: Biden stumbled onstage during his fundraiser in Los Angeles on Saturday night and Obama had to escort him off.” The AP wrote on Tuesday“FACT: Biden paused amid cheers and applause while exiting the stage with his predecessor after an interview conducted by late-night host Kimmel.”
Former President Obama was spotted grabbing President Biden by the wrist and leading him off the stage at a star-studded Los Angeles fundraiser. (Christopher Gardner, via Storyful)
Cornell Law School professor and media critic William A. Jacobson says the media and fact-checkers are “working to cover up the Biden campaign.”
“Very much like a cover-up Hunter Biden The laptop story, in 2020, is a herd effect, proving that legacy media can still influence elections by the sheer number of outlets repeating the same narrative,” Jacobson told Fox News Digital. “This media swarm to deny the evidence of Biden’s cognitive decline shows that the real campaign season has begun.”
Partisans in the media were also quick to dismiss the interpretation of the Biden-Obama conversation. CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy described Freezing’s claim as “fabricated” in his “Reliable Sources” newsletter, not even providing a link to the video for readers to decide for themselves.
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace denounced the “highly misleading and selectively edited video” while also refusing to show the raw footage of the L.A. fundraiser, instead airing a highly edited livestream that omitted the awkward encounter.
CBS News released a report warning about “cheap fakes” and their impact on the upcoming election, reiterating the White House’s claim that Biden is “the victim of a simple version of a deepfake.”
“These videos are effective because they’re cheap fakes,” said Rona Tarrant, executive editor of CBS News Confirmed. “They’re quick to make, easy to publish, and often have a huge impact on people who are just scrolling through their phones.”
CBS News was forced to remove its original report after labelling the raw footage of the G7 event as “digitally altered video”, and instead aired a slightly cropped version, which also circulated online, and was labelled an “edited video”.
NBC News went a step further on Wednesday, attacking Big Tech for exaggerating a “soon-to-be-debunked” G-7 summit clip.
“Google suggested false versions of the story as ‘top stories,’ and the misleading videos were viewed millions of times on X. Copies of the videos were replayed on TikTok and YouTube with little context and no indication that they were part of an organized disinformation campaign. Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta applied fact-check labels to some posts, but not all.” NBC News wrote“The incident’s long echo reflects how Big Tech and partisan media are playing off each other in the 2024 election cycle and keeping viral stories in the news, even after they have been proven to be false or misleading.”
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“The Biden campaign has no vision or message for the future, so they have resorted to attempting to mislead the American public and convince them that what they experience and see in their daily lives is not real,” a Trump campaign adviser told Fox News Digital. “Using the mainstream press to do Biden’s dirty work and issuing veiled government threats on social media platforms is just the latest desperate tactic from the failed president’s failed campaign.”
Fox News’ David Rutz contributed to this report.
