White House appears to use doctored video to defend banning CNN reporter

Altered footage of Jim Acosta interaction with intern may have originated with Infowars website run by right-wing conspiracy theorist

NEW YORK (AP) — A video distributed by the Trump administration to support its argument for banning CNN reporter Jim Acosta from the White House appears to have been doctored to make Acosta look more aggressive than he was during an exchange with a White House intern, an independent expert said Thursday.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted the video, which shows Acosta asking President Donald Trump a question on Wednesday as the intern tries to take his microphone away.

But a frame-by-frame comparison with an Associated Press video of the same incident shows that the one tweeted by Sanders appears to have been altered to speed up Acosta’s arm movement as he touches the intern’s arm, according to Abba Shapiro, an independent video producer who examined the footage at AP’s request.

Earlier, Shapiro noticed that frames in the tweeted video were frozen to slow down the action, allowing it to run the same length as the AP one.

The alteration is “too precise to be an accident,” said Shapiro, who trains instructors to use video editing software. The tweeted video also does not have any audio, which Shapiro said would make it easier to alter.

Side by side comparisons of the videos posted online appeared to support the claim the footage was doctored.

The video clip tweeted by Sanders appeared to match one posted by Paul Joseph Watson, editor-at-large for the far-right media outlet Infowars. Watson denied altering the video.

Sanders, who hasn’t said where the tweeted video came from, said it clearly shows Acosta made contact with the intern.

She insisted late Thursday that the White House was standing by its statement.

“The question is: Did the reporter make contact or not?” Sanders said. “The video is clear, he did.”

Undated screen capture of InfoWars host Alex Jones. (Screen capture: Vimeo)

Infowars, which was broadcast on social media platforms, is run and hosted by the right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones and Infowars have been suspended from Twitter, Apple, Facebook and other social media platforms.

Jones has promoted numerous conspiracy theories, including that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting attack in Connecticut never happened and that the US.government was involved in the 9/11 terror attacks. The parents of Jewish Sandy Hook victim Noah Pozner, 6, have sued Jones for denying that the attack took place.

Some of Jones’ conspiracy theories involve Jews, such as that “leftist Jews” may have impersonated Nazis to discredit white supremacist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, and that there is a “Jewish mafia” run by George Soros. In the past, Jones has denied that he is anti-Semitic, saying he reserves his attacks for Jewish liberals.

Journalists back Acosta

While the origin of the manipulated video is unclear, its distribution marked a new low for an administration that has been criticized for its willingness to mislead.

The White House News Photographers Association decried the sharing of the footage.

“As visual journalists, we know that manipulating images is manipulating truth,” said Whitney Shefte, the association’s president. “It’s deceptive, dangerous and unethical. Knowingly sharing manipulated images is equally problematic, particularly when the person sharing them is a representative of our country’s highest office with vast influence over public opinion.”

CNN has labeled Sanders’ characterization of Acosta’s exchange with the intern as a lie. Its position has been supported by witnesses including Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason, who was next to Acosta during the news conference and tweeted that he did not see Acosta place his hands on the White House employee. Rather, he said he saw him holding on to the microphone as she reached for it.

“The irony of this White House video involving Jim Acosta is that if it is found to be doctored, it will show the administration to be doing what it accuses the news media of doing — engaging in fake information,” said Aly Colon, a professor in journalism ethics at Washington & Lee University.

Several journalists and organizations — including the American Society of News Editors, the Associated Press Media Editors and the Online News Association — demanded Acosta’s press pass be reinstated.

President Donald Trump watches as a White House aide takes away a microphone from CNN journalist Jim Acosta during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, November 7, 2018, in Washington. (AP/Evan Vucci)

“It is the essential function of a free press in every democracy to independently gather and report information in the public interest, a right that is enshrined in the First Amendment,” said Julie Pace, AP’s Washington bureau chief. “We strongly reject the idea that any administration would block a journalist’s access to the White House.”

The New York Times editorialized in favor of restoring Acosta’s pass, saying it signaled Trump’s view that asking hard questions disqualifies reporters from attending briefings.

The newspaper said that if Sanders was so offended by physical contact, “what did she have to say when her boss praised as ‘my kind of guy’ Rep. Greg Gianforte of Montana, who was sentenced to anger management classes and community service for body-slamming a Guardian reporter last spring?”

CNN has been a frequent target of the president, who has characterized journalists as enemies of the people and who routinely accuses the mainstream media of spreading “fake news.” And Acosta has been one of the more visible thorns in the side of the White House. During their verbal altercation on Wednesday, Trump called Acosta a “terrible person.”

Still, it’s rare for the White House to pull the so-called hard passes from journalists.

During Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, the Secret Service denied clearance to Robert Sherrill, a reporter for The Nation who had gotten into physical fights with government officials. During the George W. Bush presidency, Trude Feldman, who worked for various news outlets, was suspended for 90 days after security cameras recorded her looking through a press aide’s desk late one night. In the 1970s, President Nixon tried to get Washington Post reporters banned from the White House.

Despite losing his White House pass, Acosta is expected to travel to Paris this weekend to cover Trump’s trip to meet with world leaders.

JTA contributed to this report.

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