Reality Show

Over at Fox News, where they are known for creating their own reality, they did the most amazing thing. They... get this... they edited out the applause for Rev. Lowery's speech at Coretta Scott King's funeral. Now, having worked in TV for a while, I completely understand WHY they would do this. The applause lasted for 18 seconds, and they pulled it up for timing purposes. Karl Rove's speech when he said "If al Qaeda is calling someone in the United States, we want to know about it, and some Democrats don't agree" was interrupted by applause, and news networks routinely pulled that up. I'm sure executive producers consider applause while a man is standing at a podium smiling to be "dead air."

But here's the thing. Morton Kondracke, after watching the edited tape, said this:

KONDRACKE: What was interesting to me was, when I saw it -- and on this tape, the crowd did not go as wild as you -- as it sounded as though it did at the time and as various people have represented. I mean, I thought that the crowd basically treated President Bush very respectfully, and it wasn't exactly uproarious in its response to either Lowery or to President Carter. So, I thought it -- on the whole -- it was a -- it was quite a dramatic and sensitive tribute to Mrs. King.

So, to recap, Fox News edited out the applause, then their pundit is surprised that there's no applause. I think this is more an indictment of Morton Kondracke, who apparently doesn't know a cut when he sees one, and who must have had his head in the sand the 35,000 other times Rev. Lowery's speech was shown unedited on Fox and elsewhere.

But still, the point is made. Kondracke gets to say that nobody appreciated Lowery's remarks, that "various people" were misrepresenting the facts, that the crowd didn't agree with the "partisanship" on display. And everyone watching Fox gets to agree with him. And then get to create their own bubble of reality, impenetrable and ignorant.