Scripted Authenticity

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“A considerable number of events are staged to attract television cameras. When a political candidate goes to a closed factory or stands outside the slums so that a camera can capture the scene, the candidate is manipulating television coverage. Some people get so good at figuring out how to do this that they get paid for it. Of course, they are not called manipulators. They are called political consultants . . . Andrea Mitchell . . . quotes Larry Speakes, Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, as saying to the news media, ‘Don’t tell us how to stage the news, and we won’t tell you how to cover it.’” (Neil Postman, How To Watch TV News, pp. 81-82).

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