Bush image on TV larger than Kerry -- How desperate is the Media?

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

Really, last night was sickening in its absolute transparent desperation -- the TV junta has dropped any pretense at being objective.

They enlarged Bush's image so that the podium wouldnt have to show when they equalized the heights -- forget the politics, but just the visual image was so grotesque that if they were at all accountable to the public that pays their bills, there would be huge repercussions.

And yet, they will get away with this too...

[flowomo]

1. this seems like pretty small potatoes (if it's true)....

Kerry won the debate. All else pales.

[searchingforlight]

2. I noticed this too. Thought about posting about it last night but there

were the polls to do.

I was almost seasick from the moving in and out AND it was so obvious. Bush's head was so much bigger than Kerry's. How could there be that much empty unused space on a stage!! Bush's face reminded me of a sick Wal-Mart happy face.

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

8. Should we write to the cable channel folks?

and say that this was blatant image manipulation in the service of a boy king who lines their pockets?

Unless a whole lot of us complain they are going to just ignore it, since they were so brazen to begin with...

[KurtNYC]

3. Yes - I was screaming at the TV over that

I'm in media and it was blatant. By having a tighter shot of Bush than Kerry (in split screen) they create the feeling that the viewer is closer to Bush than Kerry. It seeks to reinforce the myth that Kerry is aloof or whatever.

Obvious bias and they know it. C-SPAN did it too.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

4. it was laughable. He looked like a waterhead

.

[Dem Agog]

5. Actually

Just made him look bubble headed, like a South Park character. It didn't help. It didn't hurt as much as the goofy podium tricks they pulled on him in the first debate, but he was still a drooling bigheaded moron.

To quote Chandler from Friends: BIG HEAD BIG HEAD BIG HEAD!!

[Texas_Dem]

6. It only made that spit goober in the corner of Shrubs' mouth bigger.

[hadrons]

7. but Chimpy looked so awful last night ....

the blinking and more than usual vacant eyes ... and what the hell was with that upper lip??? He would have looked better if the cameraperson was in Cleveland

[Insomnicole]

9. That made me LOL!

It looked so silly -- Kerry's normal-sized head on the left and Bush's giant "Oz the Great and Terrible" head on the right. Hee!

Honestly, has the political climate gotten so bad that C-SPAN would have been accused of bias if they hadn't tried to disguise the height differential between Bush and Kerry? Good lord. It didn't fool anyone and I think it just underlined how ridiculous things are getting.

[K8-EEE]

18. Bush: The "Oz Great And Terrible" Head!

OMG --that's hilarious.

[DrFunkenstein]

10. C-Span Showed the Podium In The Frame

Reinforcing Bush's dimunition, especially given that Kerry's suit was cut athletically. I don't think Kerry looked aloof, I think he looked more manly (normally his shoulders seem too narrow - which is why Bush wrongly seems more athletic).

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

12. C-SPAN too showed the magnified nonsense, as I remember... n/t

[Lovecrafty]

11. Magnified shit looks even worse!

[CHICKEN CAPITOL USA]

13. yeah I mentioned this last night on a thread too

Shrub's tie was twice as wide as Kerry's--
not only was he bigger, they used the split screen to distract every time Kerry presented key points--Had to prop my foot up to block Smirk's face so I could concentrate on what Kerry was saying.
Kinda like the opponent yelling during a "putt" in an important golf competition.
LOW END SHIT !!

Dirty tricks never end with the multi billion dollar media corporate fools who want to ensure they enjoy another 4 year season of "SWEET TAX CUTS" !!!
They need their boy in or they lose their little cash payoff gifts.
This is not a free press!!!
It's bought and paid for --
We need to take back the MEDIA.
We deserve balanced presentation in a free society.

[Rob H.]

14. I noticed that, too...

...along with the spit goober TexasDem mentioned. I started laughing at one point because Bush's head was so much larger he looked like an ogre or something. It wouldn't have been so noticeable if the cameraman hadn't been zooming in and out for what seemed like the entire debate.

And with all the talk of Bush being wired (electronically and otherwise), I couldn't help but think of the song title, "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head" by They Might Be Giants.

[Neecy]

15. yes, but

It was so blatant with that huge Charlie Brown head everyone watching it KNEW what they were doing. It was a silly attempt to give a zero of a man 'stature'.

Who ran the pool cameras last night? Fox did the pool for the first debate, I didn't catch who did yesterday.

[KansDem]

16. I saw that too, but I figured it wasn't so much Media skullduggery...

as it was trying to get the two men to fit the screen. If you noticed, both the podiums were of equal height on the split screen. Since he is shorter, Bush's image was magnified so that the top of his head was even with Kerry's. I kept noticing that as Bush looked over to Kerry while Kerry was talking, he appeared to be actually looking somewhere above Kerry's head. This made him look more foolish, in my opinion, like a child who is daydreaming why an adult is talking to him.

I don't think the Media did Bush any favors with this tatic...

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

17. That they would even just try this...

is the affront -- it is beside the point that they landed up looking foolish :)

If they just shifted the image up (as they did the last two times) that was one thing and we could give them the benefit of the doubt (as we all did -- we just collectively tittered on DU the last two times ;-)).

But zooming in or out has only one motive, irrespective of the law of unintended consequences...

[fishwax]

19. A couple of commentators mentioned this

I noticed it too, and it got on my nerves at first, but then I figured it made Kerry look proportioned, but it just made *'s head look big.

But I did hear a couple of commentators mention it ... in fact, it was one of the first things mentioned on the hardball round table, and the pundit (can't remember her name) was a journalist but spoke out quite forcefully against it. But then, as the discussion went on and the realization set in that jk kicked ass anyway, the issue seemed to slide.