Updated: CBS decision to augment event with impossible shots raises hackles
Maybe you watched the CBS telecast of Boston’s Fourth of July fireworks and enjoyed the shots that showed pyrotechnics exploding behind Fenway Park, Quincy Market and the State House.
Well, those shots were not real; CBS created them through digital sleight of hand.
One commenter on the everything-Boston Web site Universal Hub put it this way: “Reality? What’s that? According to CBS, you can see the fireworks from the right side of Quincy Market even though Beacon Hill is in the way. You can also see the fireworks over the river by looking from the field at Fenway Park over the press box (PS – CBS, that’s not even the right way to look). Also, they come up behind the State House when you’re standing across the road … which means the barge must have been parked on the Zakim (Bridge) this year.”
The broadcast’s executive producer, David Mugar, justifies the deception by contending that the broadcast of this live event was an entertainment program and not news. He tells the Boston Globe (which grabbed the screen captures at right from YouTube):
“Absolutely, we’re proud to show scenes from our city. It’s often only shown in film or in sporting matches. We were able to highlight great places in Boston, historical places with direct ties to the Fourth. So we think it was a good thing.”
Baloney. It’s wrong to intentionally deceive viewers or readers, unless it’s April 1 or you’re dabbling in satire. Mugar’s contention that the broadcast was entertainment and not news holds no water because it doesn’t change the fact that viewers – except for those intimately familiar with the Boston landscape – would have no reason to assume anything other than that those shots were real.
This wasn’t an episode of Boston Legal; it was coverage of a live event.
The broadcast manipulation by CBS has sparked something of a debate locally. Some argue that it’s no big deal. And they’re right.
But fake is still fake. And viewers deserve to know whether what they’re watching is real or a Hollywood production.
(Update: Boston Magazine gets into the CBS spirit of fireworks coverage … with the help of Photoshop.)
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