MSNBC’s habit of selectively editing video clips has gotten them into trouble yet again, forcing the network to apologize to its viewers for taking quotes from Vice President Joe Biden out of context.
Biden was giving a speech dedicated to the Americans who died in the Benghazi consulate attack last year, but the network used a clip of the speech to frame a discussion about gun control in the United States.
“No child should predecease their parents and no one should have to suffer the loss of their spouse, it’s not easy,” Biden said in the edited clip.
During his speech at the State Department, Biden actually said this : “No child should predecease their parents. I wish I could tell you we aren’t going to add any more names with this wall. I wish I could say that with certainty, but the truth of the matter is, there will be more. There will be more.”
After the edited clip played, MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts said that Biden was referring to “children as the victims of gun violence” in the speech.
National Review , a conservative publication, pointed out that the clip was edited to give an ambiguous impression of Biden’s speech, and that the gun control discussion that followed was misleading to viewers.
Later on Friday, Touré got stuck with the apology during The Cycle .
“Quick note, earlier today on MSNBC, we played a soundbite from the Vice President in which we stated he was speaking about gun control. The Vice President was actually speaking about Benghazi. It was a producer error. MSNBC regrets the error,” he said.
This isn’t the first time MSNBC has selectively edited footage. In fact, the Biden speech error is at least the third time the network has been called out for selective editing just this year, and always on the issue of gun control.
Earlier this year, a video clip of Neil Heslin, the father of Sandy Hook shooting victim Jesse Lewis, was edited and aired on Martin Bashir’s program to make it appear as though he was being heckled by pro-gun activists listening to his testimony. In the unedited clip, Heslin had courted the room for a response, paused, and then several activists spoke out.
In February, Rachel Maddow played a clip of Arizona Senator John McCain speaking about gun control at a town hall meeting, in which he coldly dismisses a mother of an Aurora theater shooting victim with “straight talk,” saying that an assault weapons ban will never pass in Congress.
In the actual clip , McCain offered a much more measured response. After the edited clip was played, Maddow even admitted that the clip was selectively edited. “So maybe that edit was cut in a way that’s not fair to John McCain,” Several publications called her out for her flippant attitude over the manipulative report.
You can check out the video MSNBC’s Biden edit here:
[Image via: Jason and Bonnie Grower ]