Video Insight, Distortion, Heat

The Real TV show open was: “Video cameras are everywhere… you never know where you will find Real TV.”

And we found some great stuff.

But we also might have gotten a few things wrong.

One video we aired was from a cop camera. It shows a traffic stop where the trooper is issuing a speeding ticket to a high-strung old guy in a pick-up truck. The old man goes berserk. He yells in a high-pitched tone at the trooper. He rips up the ticket and throws it in the trooper’s face. Then he speeds off.

Meanwhile, the trooper was calm and collected. The only thing he said as the apoplectic motorist sped away was, in a monotone delivery, “Have a good day.”

It was funny stuff. But what we didn’t show all the video. In the missing video, the state trooper was clearly harassing and baiting the man – but it was never shown.

To be honest, I can’t remember if we didn’t get the full video and we saw it later or if we chose not to air it so we wouldn’t piss off police forces which supplied us with tons of cop video.

Either way, it’s a good lesson – especially after some volatile videos over the past few weeks – that could change things for many Americans.

First, let’s look at the fallout of the casino surveillance video showing Ray Rice clocking his wife Janay. Like the cop-cam video I just mentioned, portions of the video — that were conveniently missing – now give us a totally different story.

That new video may have ended Rice’s career while damaging or altering the National Football League, an icon of American life and an economic driver in many major cities.

Ask yourself this in the wake of the most recent video release by TMZ. Would Rice be facing the new severe punishment from the team or the public if that video wasn’t shown? Definitely not.

And has that video tarnished the image of the National Football League? The answer to that is a resounding yes when you consider the past player abuses.

Furthermore, it raises questions about public officials and prosecutors. Too often, they think about the public this way: “What they don’t see, they don’t know.”

Now that we have seen the video, we ask ourselves: what did they think happened in that elevator when we saw Janay Rice unconscious and being dragged from the elevator? And why weren’t our public safety officials working harder to find any corroborating evidence to back Rice’s so-called self-defense claim?

We will never know if the NFL had a “What You Don’t See” Policy to protect one of their own.

But now because of what we have seen, the NFL has lost more luster. The tarnish was showing anyway as steroids, head injuries, and other arrests on violent crimes have surfaced over the past decade, let alone the last few months.

This hits home literally. Remember, the NFL fan base has a large amount of women.

Second, let’s look at other videos that have hit home figuratively. Those videos showing the beheading of two journalists are going to change US foreign policy. We are going to war. National sentiment has turned drastically against ISIS because national sentiment is no longer isolationist but hawkish.

Ask yourself: would public opinion have changed that quickly without those horrific videos? I don’t know, but I think the answer is no. Feel free to give me the counter argument.

But we should also think about what is not on those videos – and why these videos were released. Does ISIS have a death wish? Some would say yes. If they truly believe their twisted version of Islam, then ending their own lives here isn’t a bad thing.

However, let’s go a bit deeper into a more earthly reason from ISIS. These thugs could be using the rope-a-dope plan. They want to goad us into draining our youth and national assets as we try to round them up. They’re hoping we will be bringing guns to round up wild hornets.

Sadly, we fell for this plan of attack by a non-state actor as we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan – after we saw the video and live broadcasts of the 9/11 attacks. Those attacks and the subsequent two wars helped lead to the worst recession since The Depression.

Are we moving into another economic trap again in 2014?

And what does it say about our media? It was the tabloid TV online paparazzi TMZ that broke the news – not any of the major media outlets.

Then the subsequent coverage was interesting too. Networks like Fox News – whose parent company has a major deal with the NFL — had many commentators downplaying the Rice video while CNN – with no NFL contract – seemed to dedicate hours of inflammatory coverage toward the NFL.

Your thoughts?