Did Fox run the cameras? Bush's shot made him look bigger than Kerry

[BurtWorm]

on the side-by-side set-up on C-SPAN. I know this is a freeperesque concern over minutiae, but my wife noticed this as well. Interestingly, they were able to get the podiums at exactly the same height in the frame--and their heads at the same height as well. This of course meant that Bush's head looked bigger. The camera on Kerry was longer range, making his head look smaller. Little things like these can have a subconscious effect, possibly. :shrug:

[Richard D]

1. Someone on MSNBC mentioned this.

[blackcat77]

2. They were talking about that on MSNBC

right after the debate ended. The lady said it was a pretty transparent ploy.

[BurtWorm]

4. So DID Fox run the cameras?

If it was a ploy, it's disgusting. I'd love to see something like that written into the rules and have someone fearless like Howard Dean make hay over what a wuss Bush is for needing to make himself look bigger because he doesn't have the stuff or candle power to BE bigger.

[EnfantTerrible]

3. This was brought up on MSNBC

directly following the debate. You weren't alone in noticing that... who can say what effect it will have. I tend to think it just showed the lies and the crazy coming out of his mouth in close-up.

[Castilleja]

5. Saw that, also it looked as though * was changing colors

from time to time. My son says maybe he is a chameleon, he's right I guess, something in the reptile family anyway... Did you notice the large difference in microphone sizes?

[BurtWorm]

12. I noticed that difference in mike heights in the first debate.

The angles on them in that debate were virtually the same. There was a one-to-one correspondence in scale between the images, so to see what their height difference actually was, all you had to do was match up the podiums, and then it becomes clear (as during their handshakes) that Bush is much shorter than Kerry. Of course this only matters because we're Americans who are superstitious about the tall man always winning. But it also matters in terms of image. If Bush were taller than Kerry, would it matter? Kerry would probably still come across as a bigger intellect, a more substantial person. But because Bush doesn't have the equipment to match Kerry on any real level, he needs the help of illusion, which this set up achieves for him. It's as though the image makers behind the debate were consciously giving him a handicap to compensate for his lack of substance. It probably doesn't make a difference to anyone with a brain. It's the undecideds without brains--meaning most of them apparently--you have to worry about.

[Gyre]

6. We watched CBS

And I never saw any shots that were setup like that.

Gyre

[JohnnyRingo]

7. I thought they did it to equlize the height difference....

The last time they made it look like Bush had a taller podium to achieve the same effect.

[TrustingDog]

9. bush pressed the wrong button on his elevator shoes again...

basement.

[high density]

8. I don't know who ran the pool this time, but it was bad.

The cameras were constantly moving all around and zooming in and out. I often noticed that they'd zoom in closer during the start of the response and then back out a little once they thought the green light was ready to come on.

Whoever it was, they sucked quite a bit more than Fox did during the first debate. The cameras were moving around like it was some sort of sporting event as Bush and Kerry stood relatively still.

[MADem]

10. His head looked HUGE

It didn't help him, even though that probably was the goal. Weewee looked like a BALLOON. You could see every twitch and grimace. They were trying to compensate for his slumping over the podium, but all it did was make everything he did more obvious.

[fob]

11. Yeah we noticed, it made bush* look like he was ginormous and

way out of proportion.

[BurtWorm]

13. You mean like Baby Huey?

[fob]

14. More like the Sta-puft Marshmallow Man