Howard Dean's "Scream"--the real story

patio34

on ABC a few minutes ago, Diane Sawyer explained what completely changes Dean's so-called scream. He was speaking into a hand-held mike that screens out the audience or crowd noise. Diane S. explained she, etc., uses them in a crowd too so they can be heard on TV, but that as the speaker she can barely hear her own voice.

They played the same so-called screaming WITH the background noise and you can barely hear Dean over the crowd's cheering. He was raising his voice so much in order to be heard.

I sing in a chorus (NOT religious!!) and had the same experience. There are a couple of really strong singers by me and I can't hear myself sing. But when I had to tape my voice once and sang into a tape recorder, I couldn't hear them much, but I sounded really loud.

Dean may have political flaws, but the so-called meltdown is not one of them, imo, and from a technical standpoint.

Pat

Yerusalyim

Had this been the only incident, it wouldn't have hurt Dean at all...this was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

xjw_b12

Patio34. I saw that piece last night on the ABC evening news as well.

Very interesting how the major networks, except for NBC admitted they would have handled it differently in retrospect.

It does go to show just what a powerful impact the media can have on public opinion.

patio34

Thanks for your replies, Yeru and XJW.

XJW, Diane S. said that it had been played 700 times in 2-3 days on the networks.

Yeru, i see what you mean. But that's you/your ilk's opinion, not mine. That's what's still good about the US--we can have our free opinions.

Pat

Yerusalyim

Pat,

Agreed, I'm glad we live in a country were we can have different opinions. Again, I think it was the democrats that decided that given all the things that had taken place in Iowa over the last two weeks of the Iowa campaign enough was enough. I grant that the media definitely had an effect, but that comes with being the front runner. It'll be interesting to see who/if they go after Kerry. Will his book with the upside down US flag, or his calling soldiers returning from Veitnam babykillers, or his marching with communist Angela Davis come to light.

SixofNine

While I think the scream has been overplayed by the media.... the question is, how much? And I don't think given the audio and visual presented, that THIS is the thing the media handled wrong.

The simple fact is that this is not really a revelation. He screamed exactly like we saw it and heard it on TV. The mike certainly doesn't screen the audience out of his ears. He did exactly what we saw him do, and he did it into a microphone like a few thousand other times he's approached an audience (even a very loud audience) with a microphone. This not some fancy new mic that "some guy from JFKAudio-and-SpySupply sold us for a bargain" we're talking about, and this is not a mitigating circumstance, it's just being spun that way. Oh the drama! Can they make him into a story again???? Tune in!!

This is actually far more "spin" than showing the clip over and over.

This changes nothing about that incident, and if it does for the media and Diane Sawyer, they're even more clueless than I thought. But I don't think it is cluelessness on her part, I think it is a chance for her to "make" the story, rather than just report it.

simplesally

I never saw the whole tape, but my dad did, he said that based on that Mr. Dean was saying things inappropriate to his audience. Remember the counsel point to know your audience? I would guess that snippets could be played out of context, we the tv audience could even watch the whole thing but we weren't there.

Sirius Dogma

Thanks for the post Pat. That makes sense. I still think dean lacks the poise I would like to see in a leader, but I personally haven't dismissed any of the top 4 dems from the running. It is clear that a lot of people in the media don't like dean, not sure why though.

Howard Dean's "Scream"--the real story

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