The campaign ad includes a sound bite taken from Obama’s meeting with Antonis Samaras in the Oval Office in August 2013. In the video the US President is heard saying “The Greek people see light at the end of the tunnel.” This statement was presented as proof that Antonis Samaras’s government has succeeded in bringing about a Greek recovery.
But a closer look at the full transcript of the statement reveals that what Obama really said was, “And I think Prime Minister Samaras is committed to taking the tough actions that are required, but also, understandably, wants to make sure that the Greek people see a light at the end of the tunnel.” Rather different, in other words.
After reporting on the story ThePressProject submitted an official complaint to the National Council for Radio and Television (ESR). We also communicated with the US Embassy in Greece to get their reaction.
The embassy issued a short statement that leaves the government exposed: “In answer to your question submitted on May 9th and your follow up request on the 13th of May, we refer you to President Obama’s statements during his meeting with Prime Minister Samaras on the 8th of August 2013 (available in mp3 and mp4 format).
In other words the representative of the US government, while not commenting directly on the specific edit, highlighted the real meaning intended by Barack Obama when he made his statements.
Meanwhile the ESR on the other hand rejected our complaint (5 days later and after New Democracy first withdrew the advert)after examining only whether the advert adhered to basic requirements for political ads – i.e. that it is prefaced with the statement ‘the following is a political ad’, that the ad makes clear which political party is behind it and that it doesn’t defame specific political figures. We disagree with the final conclusion.
The reaction of the ESR is thoroughly disappointing and shameful for the members of its board. What would the same council rule for an advert which, for example, edited a statement of the Minister of Health saying, “A quack doctor visited me claiming that aspirin cures cancer,” down to, “Aspirin cures cancer,”?
It is also worth reporting that our communication with the ESR bordered on farcical. Because the number provided online for the operator at the organization doesn’t work (it doesn’t even ring) we began calling numbers changing the final digit until we managed to reach the office of someone working at the organization. He informed us that the system to register a complaint via email was ‘underperforming’ and asked us to speak loudly because the offices didn’t have any windows (! ) which were blown out by the explosion of the car-bomb outside the Bank of Greece. It should be noted that the bombing took place well over a month ago on the 10th of April. Someone possibly should tell the ESR that they should probably give up waiting for the window repairman. It looks like he may have simply run off with their down payment.
Finally we would like to note the following: firstly that the story about New Democracy’s crafty use of editing was systematically ignored by all of the major TV stations and the ’new media’ outlets controlled by ‘old editors’ (something we suspect may not have been the case had another party done the same.) Secondly, the case of ‘creative editing’ is important because those who would manipulate with such ease the words of the most powerful leader on the planet, would likely be just as happy to manipulate the will of the people as expressed through their votes.