A news station in Seattle appeared to confirm that a video editor intentionally doctored a video of President Donald Trump speaking to the nation.
A side-by-side comparison of Trump’s speech and the footage broadcast by Q13 that night appears to show that the station manipulated the footage.
In addition to showing Trump licking his lips multiple times, the skin color of the president also appears distorted.
“We are investigating this to determine what happened,” said Q13’s news director in the statement. “This does not meet our editorial standards and we regret if it is seen as portraying the President in a negative light. The editor responsible for editing the footage is being placed on leave while we investigate further.”
People commenting on the YouTube video showing the side-by-side comparison of the doctored footage and the actual speech said they think the video editor should be fired.
“If it’s true that the video was intentionally doctored to make the president look bad, as appears to be the case, there should be severe repercussions for all involved. This shows a clear media bias and erodes the trust between Q13 News and its viewers,” wrote one user.
“Do you think freedom of the press grants them the permission to intentionally edit video in an attempt to intentionally mislead viewers?” wrote another.
“I bet most people who hate Trump believed this doctored news feed,” added another. “There will come a time, and I think we are already there, that nothing will be believed, because the manipulation will become indiscernible from actual facts and actual data or video and audio feed. Truth will become lies and lies will become truth.”
CBS Deletes ‘Fact Check’
The doctored video came on the same night that CBS, running a live “fact check” of Trump’s speech, made a blunder that it later deleted.Trump’s speech detailed the widespread effects of the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens pouring across the southern border every year, including how men, women, and children are prey to sexual predators and human smugglers while traveling through and Mexico and other Central American countries.
At one point, Trump said, “One in three women are sexually assaulted on their dangerous treck up through Mexico. Women and children are the biggest victims, by far, of our broken system.”
CBS then posted a “fact check” on Twitter and on its website stating that the president was wrong.
“Fact check: Between 60 and 80 percent of female migrants traveling through Mexico are raped along the way, Amnesty International estimates,” the network stated.
