Dean's scream an artifact of the PA system

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 09:28:05 -0800
From: Paul Saffo <pls () well com>
Subject: Dean's scream an artifact of the PA system
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>

D-
This just came across another list. Interesting spin on how technology 
trips us up.
-p
---------------------------------

The Dean Scream: The version of reality that we didn't see on TV
The scream that may not have been

By ABC News/WABC/abc12
New York —  It was the scream Howard Dean says became famous after the
media played it nearly 700 times in a few days. Not only that, his camp
adds, what we heard on the air was not a reflection of the way it
sounded in the room.

After my interview with Dean and his wife in which I played the tape
again -- in fact played it to them -- I noticed that on that tape he's
holding a hand-held microphone. One designed to filter out the
background noise. It isolates your voice, just like it does to Charlie
Gibson and me when we have big crowds in the morning. The crowds are
deafening to us standing there

But the viewer at home hears only our voice.

So, we collected some other tapes from Dean's speech including one from
a documentary filmmaker, tapes that do carry the sound of the crowd, not
just the microphone he held on stage. We also asked the reporters who
were there to help us replicate what they experienced in the room.

Reena Singh, ABC News Dean campaign reporter: "What the cameras didn't
capture was the crowd."

Garance Franke-Ruta, Senior Editor, American Prospect: "As he spoke, the
audience got louder and louder and I found it somewhat difficult to hear
him."

Dean's boisterous countdown of the upcoming primaries as we all heard it
on TV was isolated, when in fact he was shouting over the roaring crowd.

And what about the scream as we all heard it? In the room, the so-called
scream couldn't really be heard at all. Again, he was yelling along with
the crowd.

Neal Gabler, Senior Fellow, Lear Center USA: "When you're talking about
visuals, context is everything. So, you've got a situation in which you
have what I'd call the televised version of reality, which is not the
same as the actual reality in room. You know in a situation like this,
no one takes responsibility."

How do the networks see it? Here are comments from network executives to
ABC News:

CBS News: "Individually we may feel okay about our network, but the
cumulative effect for viewers with 24-hour cable coverage is -- it may
have been overplayed and, in fact, a disservice to Dean and the
viewers." -- Andrew Heyward, President - CBS News

ABC News: "It's always a danger that we'll use good video too much." --
David Westin, President - ABC News

CNN: "We've all been wrestling with this. If we had it to do over again,
we'd probably pull ourselves back." -- Princell Hair, General Manager -
CNN

Fox News: "It got overplayed a bit, and the public clearly thought that,
too, and kept him alive for another round." -- Roger Ailes, Chairman and
CEO - Fox News


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