Duncan Sheik - World-of-Newave.info World-of-Newave.info http://www.world-of-newave.info/ 2008-08-28T20:40:39Z Latest news and articles about Duncan Sheik Copyright (c)2004-2008.§/Newave SARL. All rights reserved. {INTERNET > W} - The Whitburn Project: One-Hit Wonders and Pop Longevity How has the record industry changed in the last 50 years? Using the Whitburn Project spreadsheet I talked about yesterday, I've been trying to dig into some of the underlying trends. Today, I'll be tackling the longevity and diversity of pop songs, and a look at which decades had one-hit wonders. Longevity of a Pop Song One of the trickier questions I've been trying to visualize is how long pop songs are staying on the charts relative to the past. Are they staying on the charts longer than in the past? In the chart below, I plotted the total number of weeks charted for all 23,924 songs that appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 from 1957 to earlier this year. (In other words, a little dot on the "60" line means there was a song released that week that stayed on the Hot 100 chart for 60 weeks.) See the heavy dropoff on the 20th week starting in 1991? In an attempt to increase diversity and promote newer artists and songs, Billboard changed their methodology, removing tracks that had been on the Hot 100 for twenty consecutive weeks and slipped below the 50th position. These songs, called "recurrents," were then moved to their own chart in 1991, the Hot 100 Recurrent. Unfortunately, this shift makes it much harder to compare the last 15 years to the decades before it. In the chart below, I've isolated the effect by only showing songs that reached the top 50. A couple interesting observations... Looking at the very bottom of the chart, you can see that in the last couple years, it's become very common for a single to appear in the Top 50 and fall out of the Hot 100 within four weeks. Prior to the mid-1990s, this almost never happened. Also, songs are staying in the Top 50 for far longer than they used to. Unfortunately, I don't have any actual sales numbers to compare to, so it's hard to say if these 30-70 week singles are massive megahits eclipsing the #1 singles of the past, or if it's because the record industry is producing fewer hits than before. Diversity Did Billboard's methodology changes in 1991 make the charts more diverse, like they hoped? By looking at the total number of unique songs that have charted yearly, it's clear their changes did nothing to slow the decline. According to Billboard, the late 1960s were the peak of musical diversity in popular music, with 743 different songs appearing on the 1966 Billboard Top 100. It's fallen consistently since, hitting an all-time low in 2002 with only 295 songs. Since then, it's improved only slightly, with 351 unique songs appearing on last year's Top 100. One Hit Wonders I've always thought the 1970s were the decade of the one-hit wonder, but now I have the data to see for sure. In raw numbers, the 1960s had more one-hit wonders than any other decade, followed closely by the 1950s. But that's not entirely fair since, as we saw earlier, there were simply more unique songs on the 1960s charts. To find out the true numbers, we need to look at the number of one-hit wonders as a percentage of all songs in the Top 100. This tells a totally different story. The 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s all had about the same ratio of one-hit wonders to hits by more established artists. The big surprise for me is that 1950s, 1990s, and 2000s really seem to be the eras where one-hit wonders dominated the charts. Joshua Porter was wondering about the longest-charting one-hit wonders of all time. The longest-charting one-hit wonder to hit the #1 spot is Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" from 2006, which stayed on the charts for 32 weeks. The one-hit wonder that stayed at the #1 longest is Anton Karas' "The Third Man Theme" from 1950, which stayed in the #1 position for 11 weeks. Finally, the longest-charting one-hit wonder to appear anywhere in the Top 100 is Duncan Sheik's "Barely Breathing" from 1997, which peaked at #16 but stayed in the top 100 for 55 weeks. Have any other questions about the data, or done any analysis yourself? I'd love to hear about it. May 20: Don't miss Mike Frumin's chart of pop longevity,from 1998-2002. May 21: Using the Whitburn data, Tom Whitwell generated a tag cloud showing the top 100 commonly-used words in song names. Dianne Warren should write a #1 hit called "Love my Baby Blue Heart: A Girl's Night Song."  http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/internet/on-the-web/weblogs/personal/w/the-whitburn-project-one-hit-wonders-and-pop-longevity-2008056161.htm 2008-05-17T08:02:03Z 2008-05-17T08:02:03Z Waxy.Org http://waxy.org/2008/05/the_whitburn_project_onehit_wonders_and_pop_longevity/ The Whitburn Project: One-Hit Wonders and Pop Longevity {new window}   Waxy.Org - How has the record industry changed in the last 50 years? Using the Whitburn Project spreadsheet I talked about yesterday, I've been trying to dig into some of the underlying trends. Today, I'll be tackling the longevity and diversity of pop songs, and a look at which decades had one-hit wonders. Longevity of a Pop Song One of the trickier questions I've been trying to visualize is how long pop songs are staying on the charts relative to the past. Are they staying on the charts longer than in the past? In the chart below, I plotted the total number of weeks charted for all 23,924 songs that appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 from 1957 to earlier this year. (In other words, a little dot on the "60" line means there was a song released that week that stayed on the Hot 100 chart for 60 weeks.) See the heavy dropoff on the 20th week starting in 1991? In an attempt to increase diversity and promote newer artists and songs, Billboard changed their methodology, removing tracks that had been on the Hot 100 for twenty consecutive weeks and slipped below the 50th position. These songs, called "recurrents," were then moved to their own chart in 1991, the Hot 100 Recurrent. Unfortunately, this shift makes it much harder to compare the last 15 years to the decades before it. In the chart below, I've isolated the effect by only showing songs that reached the top 50. A couple interesting observations... Looking at the very bottom of the chart, you can see that in the last couple years, it's become very common for a single to appear in the Top 50 and fall out of the Hot 100 within four weeks. Prior to the mid-1990s, this almost never happened. Also, songs are staying in the Top 50 for far longer than they used to. Unfortunately, I don't have any actual sales numbers to compare to, so it's hard to say if these 30-70 week singles are massive megahits eclipsing the #1 singles of the past, or if it's because the record industry is producing fewer hits than before. Diversity Did Billboard's methodology changes in 1991 make the charts more diverse, like they hoped? By looking at the total number of unique songs that have charted yearly, it's clear their changes did nothing to slow the decline. According to Billboard, the late 1960s were the peak of musical diversity in popular music, with 743 different songs appearing on the 1966 Billboard Top 100. It's fallen consistently since, hitting an all-time low in 2002 with only 295 songs. Since then, it's improved only slightly, with 351 unique songs appearing on last year's Top 100. One Hit Wonders I've always thought the 1970s were the decade of the one-hit wonder, but now I have the data to see for sure. In raw numbers, the 1960s had more one-hit wonders than any other decade, followed closely by the 1950s. But that's not entirely fair since, as we saw earlier, there were simply more unique songs on the 1960s charts. To find out the true numbers, we need to look at the number of one-hit wonders as a percentage of all songs in the Top 100. This tells a totally different story. The 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s all had about the same ratio of one-hit wonders to hits by more established artists. The big surprise for me is that 1950s, 1990s, and 2000s really seem to be the eras where one-hit wonders dominated the charts. Joshua Porter was wondering about the longest-charting one-hit wonders of all time. The longest-charting one-hit wonder to hit the #1 spot is Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" from 2006, which stayed on the charts for 32 weeks. The one-hit wonder that stayed at the #1 longest is Anton Karas' "The Third Man Theme" from 1950, which stayed in the #1 position for 11 weeks. Finally, the longest-charting one-hit wonder to appear anywhere in the Top 100 is Duncan Sheik's "Barely Breathing" from 1997, which peaked at #16 but stayed in the top 100 for 55 weeks. Have any other questions about the data, or done any analysis yourself? I'd love to hear about it. May 20: Don't miss Mike Frumin's chart of pop longevity,from 1998-2002. May 21: Using the Whitburn data, Tom Whitwell generated a tag cloud showing the top 100 commonly-used words in song names. Dianne Warren should write a #1 hit called "Love my Baby Blue Heart: A Girl's Night Song." 
The Whitburn Project: One-Hit Wonders and Pop Longevity - Waxy.org {...}
Published: May 17, 2008, 8:02 am - Indexed: May 24, 2008, 10:35 am - Page Size: 41KB
Category: Computers > Internet > On the Web > Weblogs > Personal > W

]]> {AUTOS > MAGAZINES AND E-ZINES} - Helicopter Pilots Break Round-the-World Speed Record Two pilots have flown a helicopter around the world in a record 13 days, breaking the previous record by four days during a trip that took them through 15 countries, 24 time zones and 30 states. Scott Kasprowicz and Steve Sheik landed at LaGuardia airport at 10:15 a.m. today, ending a whirlwind global journey that started with a record-setting jaunt across the Atlantic but nearly fell apart in Russia when lousy airports and an engine problem threatened to sideline them. But they kept at it, pushing themselves and their aircraft to the limits in pursuit of a dream. "Both Steve and I love a challenge," Kasprowicz told us. "We figured flying around the world was pretty big." Kasprowicz is an aircraft junkie with 30 year's experience who knows his way around a chopper. Earlier this year, he and Sheik flew from New York to Los Angeles in 15 hours, 9 minutes and 10 seconds to set a new transcontinental helicopter speed record. He got the idea for a round-the-world helicopter run two years ago when he first saw the AgustaWestland Grand and its two Pratt & Whitney  PW207C Turboshaft engines. With a range of 575 miles and a maximum cruising speed of 175 mph, it is, Kasporwicz says, unparalleled in sophistication and performance. "I knew that if there was a rotorcraft that could help me break some records, it would be the Grand," he told us. But he and Sheik didn't want to just break the record, they wanted to obliterate it and do it in a bone-stock chopper. The record they were gunning for - 17 days, 6 hours, 14 minutes and 25 seconds - was set 12 years ago in a Bell 430 outfitted with an extra fuel tank, a bunk and other mods. The Grand Adventure 2008 started Aug. 7 in New York and followed a carefully plotted course that took them 20,000 nautical miles - roughly the circumference of the earth at the Tropic of Cancer - around the world to the east. They steered clear of the polar regions and avoided commercial airports to avoid landing and refueling delays. The first week went off without a hitch. Kasprowicz and Sheik made it from New York to London in a stunning 40 hours and 41 minutes, shattering the previous record by a whopping 35 hours. Europe was a piece of cake, but Russia - as they expected - was a bear. They arrived on the 13th, but construction at one airport and a fuel shortage at another cost them almost one full day. Things went from bad to worse after taking off from the Siberian city of Magadan - the oil temperature in one of the copter's two engines rose so high Kasprowicz had to shut it down to avert crippling damage. They finally sorted things out with some help from local mechanics, but they lost still more precious time. "Russia was probably the most stressful part of the trip," Kasprowicz says. "If I had to pick the biggest challenge, that would probably be it." They made up for it after crossing the Bering Sea and reaching North America, pulling out all the stops on a mad dash across North America and handily beating the record Ron Bower and John Williams set in 1996. We still don't have an official time - the folks organizing the Grand Adventure say it's got to be confirmed and won't be available until tonight. As for Kasprowicz, he says he's never been so exhausted and ready for some serious sack time. Then he'll figure out what's next. "Round the world is pretty big," he says. "I've got some ideas, but for now I just want to go home." Photo by Grand Adventure 2008. http://articles.world-of-newave.info/recreation/autos/magazines-and-e_zines/helicopter-pilots-break-round-the-world-speed-record-20080894428.htm 2008-08-18T21:33:58Z 2008-08-18T21:33:58Z Blog.Wired.Com http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/08/helicopter.html Helicopter Pilots Break Round-the-World Speed Record {new window}   Blog.Wired.Com - Two pilots have flown a helicopter around the world in a record 13 days, breaking the previous record by four days during a trip that took them through 15 countries, 24 time zones and 30 states. Scott Kasprowicz and Steve Sheik landed at LaGuardia airport at 10:15 a.m. today, ending a whirlwind global journey that started with a record-setting jaunt across the Atlantic but nearly fell apart in Russia when lousy airports and an engine problem threatened to sideline them. But they kept at it, pushing themselves and their aircraft to the limits in pursuit of a dream. "Both Steve and I love a challenge," Kasprowicz told us. "We figured flying around the world was pretty big." Kasprowicz is an aircraft junkie with 30 year's experience who knows his way around a chopper. Earlier this year, he and Sheik flew from New York to Los Angeles in 15 hours, 9 minutes and 10 seconds to set a new transcontinental helicopter speed record. He got the idea for a round-the-world helicopter run two years ago when he first saw the AgustaWestland Grand and its two Pratt & Whitney  PW207C Turboshaft engines. With a range of 575 miles and a maximum cruising speed of 175 mph, it is, Kasporwicz says, unparalleled in sophistication and performance. "I knew that if there was a rotorcraft that could help me break some records, it would be the Grand," he told us. But he and Sheik didn't want to just break the record, they wanted to obliterate it and do it in a bone-stock chopper. The record they were gunning for - 17 days, 6 hours, 14 minutes and 25 seconds - was set 12 years ago in a Bell 430 outfitted with an extra fuel tank, a bunk and other mods. The Grand Adventure 2008 started Aug. 7 in New York and followed a carefully plotted course that took them 20,000 nautical miles - roughly the circumference of the earth at the Tropic of Cancer - around the world to the east. They steered clear of the polar regions and avoided commercial airports to avoid landing and refueling delays. The first week went off without a hitch. Kasprowicz and Sheik made it from New York to London in a stunning 40 hours and 41 minutes, shattering the previous record by a whopping 35 hours. Europe was a piece of cake, but Russia - as they expected - was a bear. They arrived on the 13th, but construction at one airport and a fuel shortage at another cost them almost one full day. Things went from bad to worse after taking off from the Siberian city of Magadan - the oil temperature in one of the copter's two engines rose so high Kasprowicz had to shut it down to avert crippling damage. They finally sorted things out with some help from local mechanics, but they lost still more precious time. "Russia was probably the most stressful part of the trip," Kasprowicz says. "If I had to pick the biggest challenge, that would probably be it." They made up for it after crossing the Bering Sea and reaching North America, pulling out all the stops on a mad dash across North America and handily beating the record Ron Bower and John Williams set in 1996. We still don't have an official time - the folks organizing the Grand Adventure say it's got to be confirmed and won't be available until tonight. As for Kasprowicz, he says he's never been so exhausted and ready for some serious sack time. Then he'll figure out what's next. "Round the world is pretty big," he says. "I've got some ideas, but for now I just want to go home." Photo by Grand Adventure 2008.
Helicopter Pilots Break Round-the-World Speed Record | Autopia from Wired.com {...} Two pilots have flown a helicopter around the world in a record 13 days, breaking the previous record by four days during a trip that took them through 15 countries, {...}
Indexed: August 18, 2008, 9:33 pm - Page Size: 57KB
Category: Recreation > Autos > Magazines and E-zines

]]> {AUTOS > MAGAZINES AND E-ZINES} - The $46,616.47 Oil Change and Size-22 Carbon Footprint Of all the absurdly wealthy men in the Middle East, at least one has far more money than sense and proved it when he had his Lamborghini flown from Qatar to Britain for an oil change. According the The Sun, the owner -- which the paper surmises is a sheik -- had Qatar Airways ship the Murcielago LP640 about 6,500 miles round trip at a cost of about 39 grand and God-knows-how-much greenhouse gas just to service the car (cost: $7,030.47). "This car doesn't have a carbon footprint," an unnamed airport worker told The Sun. "More like a crater." Environmentalists are all but demanding the unidentified owner's head, the UK Lambo club can't see what all the fuss is about and Lamborghini has found itself in a bit of a sticky wicket. "With rising fuel costs and concern about climate change, most people are likely to find this type of wasteful and damaging activity outrageous," Tony Bosworth of Friends of the Earth told the BBC. "The pollution from driving a Lamborghini is bad enough, but flying one thousands of miles for a service is taking climate-wrecking behavior to new heights." For the record, the LP640 has a 6.5-liter V-12 that produces 640 horsepower. It gets about a dozen mpg and emits 495 grams/kilometer of carbon dioxide. That's about four times greater than the 130 g/km limit the European Union wants to place on autos. David Price of Lamborghini Club UK essentially told the environmentalists to bugger off. He told the BBC that Bosworth's argument isn't "relevant to anything" and The Sun quoted him saying, ?If an owner wants to service his car in that way, it is his choice. I'm not surprised. Thankfully an age of excess in some areas continues." As for Lamborghini, it appears to be dancing like Fred Astaire. Lamborghini UK spokeswoman Juliet Jarvis told the BBC that the car was not serviced by any of Lamborghini's authorized dealers in the UK. But she told The Sun there could be ?kudos? for the guy having his car serviced in London. She noted that most cars are serviced in the same country they're purchased -- imagine that! -- but, ?This sort of thing is not unheard of.? Yes, because we all know how hard it is to find oil in the Middle East. Photo by Lamborghini. To see a pic of the car in question at Heathrow, check out The Sun's story. http://articles.world-of-newave.info/recreation/autos/magazines-and-e_zines/the-46-616-47-oil-change-and-size-22-carbon-footprint-2008088683.htm 2008-08-06T22:24:03Z 2008-08-06T22:24:03Z Blog.Wired.Com http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/07/the-46644-oil-c.html The $46,616.47 Oil Change and Size-22 Carbon Footprint {new window}   Blog.Wired.Com - Of all the absurdly wealthy men in the Middle East, at least one has far more money than sense and proved it when he had his Lamborghini flown from Qatar to Britain for an oil change. According the The Sun, the owner -- which the paper surmises is a sheik -- had Qatar Airways ship the Murcielago LP640 about 6,500 miles round trip at a cost of about 39 grand and God-knows-how-much greenhouse gas just to service the car (cost: $7,030.47). "This car doesn't have a carbon footprint," an unnamed airport worker told The Sun. "More like a crater." Environmentalists are all but demanding the unidentified owner's head, the UK Lambo club can't see what all the fuss is about and Lamborghini has found itself in a bit of a sticky wicket. "With rising fuel costs and concern about climate change, most people are likely to find this type of wasteful and damaging activity outrageous," Tony Bosworth of Friends of the Earth told the BBC. "The pollution from driving a Lamborghini is bad enough, but flying one thousands of miles for a service is taking climate-wrecking behavior to new heights." For the record, the LP640 has a 6.5-liter V-12 that produces 640 horsepower. It gets about a dozen mpg and emits 495 grams/kilometer of carbon dioxide. That's about four times greater than the 130 g/km limit the European Union wants to place on autos. David Price of Lamborghini Club UK essentially told the environmentalists to bugger off. He told the BBC that Bosworth's argument isn't "relevant to anything" and The Sun quoted him saying, ?If an owner wants to service his car in that way, it is his choice. I'm not surprised. Thankfully an age of excess in some areas continues." As for Lamborghini, it appears to be dancing like Fred Astaire. Lamborghini UK spokeswoman Juliet Jarvis told the BBC that the car was not serviced by any of Lamborghini's authorized dealers in the UK. But she told The Sun there could be ?kudos? for the guy having his car serviced in London. She noted that most cars are serviced in the same country they're purchased -- imagine that! -- but, ?This sort of thing is not unheard of.? Yes, because we all know how hard it is to find oil in the Middle East. Photo by Lamborghini. To see a pic of the car in question at Heathrow, check out The Sun's story.
The $46,616.47 Oil Change and Size-22 Carbon Footprint | Autopia from Wired.com {...} Of all the absurdly wealthy men in the Middle East, at least one has far more money than sense and proved it when he had his Lamborghini flown from Qatar {...}
Indexed: August 6, 2008, 10:24 pm - Page Size: 135KB
Category: Recreation > Autos > Magazines and E-zines

]]> {ISSUES > BIAS AND BALANCE} - NY Times article reported on McCain surge falsehood but not CBS' role in disappearing it In a July 24 New York Times article, Michael Cooper reported that in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, Sen. John McCain falsely asserted that the 2007 U.S. troop surge "began the Anbar Awakening." But while noting McCain's falsehood and that it occurred during the interview, Cooper did not point out that CBS News did not actually air the falsehood; indeed, in the clip aired during the July 22 broadcast of the CBS Evening News, the falsehood had been expunged, and in its place were three separate statements made by McCain spliced together, one of which responded to a different question from the one Couric asked that resulted in the Anbar falsehood. Cooper wrote that "Mr. McCain bristled in an interview with the 'CBS Evening News' on Tuesday when asked about Mr. Obama's contention that while the added troops had helped reduce violence in Iraq, other factors had helped, including the Sunni Awakening movement, in which thousands of Sunnis were enlisted to patrol neighborhoods and fight the insurgency, and the Iraqi government's crackdown on Shiite militias. 'I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened,' Mr. McCain told Katie Couric, noting that the Awakening movement began in Anbar Province when a Sunni sheik teamed up with Sean MacFarland, a colonel who commanded an Army brigade there. 'Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others,' Mr. McCain said. 'And it began the Anbar Awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history.' " At no point did Cooper report that the CBS Evening News did not actually air McCain's false assertion that the surge "began the Anbar Awakening" or that it had spliced the video. As Media Matters noted, Couric had asked McCain, "Senator [Barack] Obama says while the increased number of U.S. troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shia government going after militias, and says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that?" But rather than airing McCain's direct reply, including the false claim that the surge "began the Anbar awakening," Couric aired comments by McCain spliced together from three separate statements he gave during the interview, one of which responded to a different question. Couric gave no indication that these comments had been edited in any manner, nor did she otherwise note McCain's falsehood. From Cooper's July 24 Times article: Senator John McCain was chiding Senator Barack Obama for "a false depiction of what actually happened" in Iraq in a television interview this week. But in giving his chronology of events in Iraq, Mr. McCain gave what critics said was his own false depiction. Mr. McCain has been using Mr. Obama's trip overseas this week to argue that the improved security situation in Iraq shows the success of the troop escalation that just ended, of which he was an early, fervent supporter, but which Mr. Obama opposed. Mr. McCain bristled in an interview with the "CBS Evening News" on Tuesday when asked about Mr. Obama's contention that while the added troops had helped reduce violence in Iraq, other factors had helped, including the Sunni Awakening movement, in which thousands of Sunnis were enlisted to patrol neighborhoods and fight the insurgency, and the Iraqi government's crackdown on Shiite militias. "I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened," Mr. McCain told Katie Couric, noting that the Awakening movement began in Anbar Province when a Sunni sheik teamed up with Sean MacFarland, a colonel who commanded an Army brigade there. "Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others," Mr. McCain said. "And it began the Anbar Awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history." The Obama campaign was quick to note that the Anbar Awakening began in the fall of 2006, several months before President Bush even announced the troop escalation strategy, which became known as the surge. (No less an authority than Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, testified before Congress this spring that the Awakening "started before the surge, but then was very much enabled by the surge.") In a statement reported by The Washington Post on July 24, CBS News now acknowledges that it erred in splicing the video of the McCain interview. But in the reported statement, as Media Matters noted, CBS News senior vice president Paul Friedman maintained, falsely, that the error "did not in any way distort what Senator McCain was saying." http://articles.world-of-newave.info/society/issues/business/media/bias-and-balance/ny-times-article-reported-on-mccain-surge-falsehood-20080766431.htm 2008-07-25T20:22:10Z 2008-07-25T20:22:10Z Mediamatters.Org http://mediamatters.org/items/200807250002 NY Times article reported on McCain surge falsehood but not CBS' role in disappearing it {new window}   Mediamatters.Org - In a July 24 New York Times article, Michael Cooper reported that in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, Sen. John McCain falsely asserted that the 2007 U.S. troop surge "began the Anbar Awakening." But while noting McCain's falsehood and that it occurred during the interview, Cooper did not point out that CBS News did not actually air the falsehood; indeed, in the clip aired during the July 22 broadcast of the CBS Evening News, the falsehood had been expunged, and in its place were three separate statements made by McCain spliced together, one of which responded to a different question from the one Couric asked that resulted in the Anbar falsehood. Cooper wrote that "Mr. McCain bristled in an interview with the 'CBS Evening News' on Tuesday when asked about Mr. Obama's contention that while the added troops had helped reduce violence in Iraq, other factors had helped, including the Sunni Awakening movement, in which thousands of Sunnis were enlisted to patrol neighborhoods and fight the insurgency, and the Iraqi government's crackdown on Shiite militias. 'I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened,' Mr. McCain told Katie Couric, noting that the Awakening movement began in Anbar Province when a Sunni sheik teamed up with Sean MacFarland, a colonel who commanded an Army brigade there. 'Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others,' Mr. McCain said. 'And it began the Anbar Awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history.' " At no point did Cooper report that the CBS Evening News did not actually air McCain's false assertion that the surge "began the Anbar Awakening" or that it had spliced the video. As Media Matters noted, Couric had asked McCain, "Senator [Barack] Obama says while the increased number of U.S. troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shia government going after militias, and says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that?" But rather than airing McCain's direct reply, including the false claim that the surge "began the Anbar awakening," Couric aired comments by McCain spliced together from three separate statements he gave during the interview, one of which responded to a different question. Couric gave no indication that these comments had been edited in any manner, nor did she otherwise note McCain's falsehood. From Cooper's July 24 Times article: Senator John McCain was chiding Senator Barack Obama for "a false depiction of what actually happened" in Iraq in a television interview this week. But in giving his chronology of events in Iraq, Mr. McCain gave what critics said was his own false depiction. Mr. McCain has been using Mr. Obama's trip overseas this week to argue that the improved security situation in Iraq shows the success of the troop escalation that just ended, of which he was an early, fervent supporter, but which Mr. Obama opposed. Mr. McCain bristled in an interview with the "CBS Evening News" on Tuesday when asked about Mr. Obama's contention that while the added troops had helped reduce violence in Iraq, other factors had helped, including the Sunni Awakening movement, in which thousands of Sunnis were enlisted to patrol neighborhoods and fight the insurgency, and the Iraqi government's crackdown on Shiite militias. "I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened," Mr. McCain told Katie Couric, noting that the Awakening movement began in Anbar Province when a Sunni sheik teamed up with Sean MacFarland, a colonel who commanded an Army brigade there. "Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others," Mr. McCain said. "And it began the Anbar Awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history." The Obama campaign was quick to note that the Anbar Awakening began in the fall of 2006, several months before President Bush even announced the troop escalation strategy, which became known as the surge. (No less an authority than Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, testified before Congress this spring that the Awakening "started before the surge, but then was very much enabled by the surge.") In a statement reported by The Washington Post on July 24, CBS News now acknowledges that it erred in splicing the video of the McCain interview. But in the reported statement, as Media Matters noted, CBS News senior vice president Paul Friedman maintained, falsely, that the error "did not in any way distort what Senator McCain was saying."
Media Matters - NY Times article reported on McCain surge falsehood but not CBS' role in disappearing it {...} Reporting on a false assertion by Sen. John McCain during an interview with CBS News, The New York Times ' Michael Cooper falsely suggested that CBS News actually aired McCain's false statement. In fact, the falsehood was expunged from the version of the interview aired on the July 22 broadcast of the CBS Evening News and, in its place, CBS spliced together three separate statements made by McCain, one of which responded to a different question from the one resulting in the falsehood. {...}
Published: July 25, 2008, 8:22 pm - Indexed: July 25, 2008, 11:01 pm - Page Size: 20KB
Category: Society > Issues > Business > Media > Bias and Balance

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