How The Palin Interview Was Edited By ABC

No big surprise,but the Sarah Palin interview with Chuckie over at ABC (now to be known as the Assist Barack Channel) heavily edited the interview to make Chuckie seema bit less hostile and make Governor Palin appear less knowledgeable, more uncertain, more of a war monger, and more of a fringe 'Christian fundamentalist.'

Overall, she did quite well but I think she was caught a bit off-guard by Gibson's rabid, aggressive approach. In the future, I think she'll be a lot more inclined to go on the offense against jackals like Chuckie and his friends.

I still don't understand quite why the McCain-Palin campaign chose to award her first interview to this lowlife hack when FOX was available, unless they felt it was best to subject her to what they knew we be a partisan hatchet job. As a matter of fact, they may have actually called it right. The interview was so openly biased, even UPI criticized ABC News for their blatant double standards, writing that ABC’s Gibson grilled Palin hard, but it may backfire.



Here's the actual transcript,courtesy of radio host Mark Levin's website via PJ Gladnik at Newsbusters, with the parts ABC edited out in boldface:

"The first edit shows Palin responding about meeting with foreign leaders
but this was actually in response to a question Gibson asked several questions
earlier:

GIBSON: Have you ever met a foreign head of state?

PALIN: There in the state of Alaska, our international trade
activities bring in many leaders of other countries.

GIBSON: And all governors deal with trade delegations.

PALIN: Right.

GIBSON: Who act at the behest of their governments.

PALIN: Right, right.

GIBSON: I’m talking about somebody who’s a head of state, who can
negotiate for that country. Ever met one?

PALIN: I have not and I think if you go back in history and if you ask that question of many vice presidents, they may have the same answer that I just gave you. But, Charlie, again, we’ve got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time. It is for no more politics as usual and somebody’s big, fat resume maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment, where, yes, they’ve had opportunities to meet heads of state … these last couple of weeks … it has been overwhelming to me that confirmation of the message that Americans are getting sick and tired of that self-dealing and kind of that closed door, good old boy network that has been the Washington elite.


Next we see that Palin was not nearly as hostile towards
Russia as was presented in the edited interview:

GIBSON: Let me ask you about some specific national security
situations.
PALIN: Sure.

GIBSON: Let’s start, because we are near Russia, let’s start with Russia and Georgia. The administration has said we’ve got to maintain the territorial integrity of Georgia. Do you believe the United States should try to restore Georgian sovereignty over South Ossetia and
Abkhazia?

PALIN: First off, we’re going to continue good relations with
Saakashvili there. I was able to speak with him the other day and giving him my commitment, as John McCain’s running mate, that we will be committed to Georgia. And we’ve got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable
and we have to keep…

GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.

PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on
Russia, under the leadership there. I think it was unfortunate. That
manifestation that we saw with that invasion of Georgia shows us some steps backwards that Russia has recently taken away from the race toward a more democratic nation with democratic ideals. That’s why we have to keep an eye on Russia.

And, Charlie, you’re in Alaska. We have that very narrow maritime
border between the United States, and the 49th state, Alaska, and Russia. They are our next door neighbors.We need to have a good relationship with them. They’re very, very important to us and they are our next door neighbor.

GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the
last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia
from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

GIBSON: What insight does that give you into what they’re doing
in Georgia?

PALIN: Well, I’m giving you that perspective of how small our
world is and how important it is that we work with our allies to keep good relation with all of these countries, especially Russia. We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.

We also see from Palin's following remark, which was also edited out,
that she is far from some sort of latter day Cold Warrior which the edited interview made her seem to be:

We cannot repeat the Cold War. We are thankful that, under
Reagan, we won the Cold War, without a shot fired, also. We’ve learned lessons from that in our relationship with Russia, previously the Soviet Union.

We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship
with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in
their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.

Palin's extended remarks about defending our NATO allies were
edited out to make it seem that she was ready to go to war with Russia.

GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn’t we then have to go to war
if Russia went into Georgia?

PALIN: Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO
ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be
called upon and help.

But NATO, I think, should include Ukraine, definitely, at this
point and I think that we need to — especially with new leadership coming in on January 20, being sworn on, on either ticket, we have got to make sure that we strengthen our allies, our ties with each one of those NATO members.

We have got to make sure that that is the group that can be
counted upon to defend one another in a very dangerous world today.

GIBSON: And you think it would be worth it to the United
States, Georgia is worth it to the United States to go to war if Russia were to invade.

PALIN: What I think is that smaller democratic countries that
are invaded by a larger power is something for us to be vigilant against. We have got to be cognizant of what the consequences are if a larger power is able to take over smaller democratic countries.

And we have got to be vigilant. We have got to show the
support, in this case, for Georgia. The support that we can show is economic sanctions perhaps against Russia, if this is what it leads to.
It doesn’t have to lead to war and it doesn’t have to lead, as I said, to a Cold War, but economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, again, counting on our allies to help us do that in this mission of keeping our eye on Russia and Putin and some of his desire to control and to control much more than smaller democratic countries.

His mission, if it is to control energy supplies, also, coming
from and through Russia, that’s a dangerous position for our world to be in, if we were to allow that to happen.

That answer presented Palin as a bit too knowledgeable for the purposes
of ABC News and was, of course, edited out. Palin's answers about a nuclear Iran
were carefully edited to the point where she was even edited out in mid-sentence
to make it seem that Palin favored unilateral action against that country:

GIBSON: Let me turn to Iran. Do you consider a nuclear Iran to be an
existential threat to Israel?

PALIN: I believe that under the leadership of Ahmadinejad, nuclear
weapons in the hands of his government are extremely dangerous to everyone on
this globe, yes.

GIBSON: So what should we do about a nuclear Iran? John McCain
said the only thing worse than a war with Iran would be a nuclear Iran. John Abizaid said we may have to live with a nuclear Iran. Who’s right?

PALIN: No, no. I agree with John McCain that nuclear weapons in
the hands of those who would seek to destroy our allies, in this case, we’re talking about Israel, we’re talking about Ahmadinejad’s comment about Israel being the “stinking corpse, should be wiped off the face of the earth,” that’s atrocious. That’s unacceptable.

GIBSON: So what do you do about a nuclear Iran?

PALIN: We have got to make sure that these weapons of mass destruction,
that nuclear weapons are not given to those hands of Ahmadinejad, not that he
would use them, but that he would allow terrorists to be able to use them. So we have got to put the pressure on Iran and we have got to count on
our allies to help us, diplomatic pressure.

GIBSON: But, Governor, we’ve threatened greater sanctions
against Iran for a long time. It hasn’t done any good. It hasn’t stemmed their nuclear program.

PALIN: We need to pursue those and we need to implement those.
We cannot back off. We cannot just concede that, oh, gee, maybe they’re going to have nuclear weapons, what can we do about it. No way, not Americans. We do not have to stand for that.

Laughably, a remark by Gibson that indicated he agreed with Palin was
edited out:

PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words
when he said — first, he suggested never presume to know what God’s will is, and
I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words.

But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments,
was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let
us pray that we are on God’s side. That’s what that comment was all about,
Charlie. And I do believe, though, that this war against extreme Islamic
terrorists is the right thing. It’s an unfortunate thing, because war is hell and I hate war, and, Charlie, today is the day that I send my first
born, my son, my teenage son overseas with his Stryker brigade, 4,000 other
wonderful American men and women, to fight for our country, for democracy, for
our freedoms.

Charlie, those are freedoms that too many of us just take for
granted. I hate war and I want to see war ended. We end war when we see victory, and we do see victory in sight in Iraq.

GIBSON: I take your point about Lincoln’s words, but
you went on and said, “There is a plan and it is God’s plan.”

Gibson took her point about Lincoln's words but we wouldn't know that
by watching the interview since it was left on the cutting room floor. I urge
everybody to see just how the unedited version of the first interview compared
to what we saw on television by checking out the full transcript.
It is a fascinating look into media manipulation via skillful
editing."

Note to the McCain-Palin: The next time there's an interview scheduled with one of these rabid jackals, have your own cameraman in the room at the same time so they can't get away with this kind o' crap in the future.The technology is cheap and easy to use these days, and the embarrassment of being exposed like this might just keep them a little more honest if they know they're being filmed.