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02/06/2004 Archived Entry: "What is that thing?"
What is that thing?
Just saw this pic on DU:
And I just read this on Atrios' comments:
The technology certainly exists. Both the Letterman and "Man Show" stunts made use of a device that has since become commonplace in Hollywood productions, when actors may not have time to memorize lengthy scenes of dialog. You can pick one up yourself for two or three grand from any number of online spy gear outlets. Billed as the "new generation of covert communication," the device is a tiny wireless receiver "worn comfortably and invisibly in the ear canal." The casual observer can neither see nor hear the device, which boasts a sophisticated squelch circuit and an automatic gain control.Is it possible that George W. Bush has become the electronic-age equivalent of tongue-tied Christian from "Cyrano De Bergerac," wooing not Roxanne but the American electorate with sweet, grammatical poetry fed to him remotely by Ari Fleisher, Dick Cheney or Karl Rove? I'm not the only one to so speculate. Documentary filmmaker Jay Weidner has used wireless earpieces in his work, and thinks Bush is doing the same. "As I watched Bush give his recent speech," he recently stated in an article posted at www.rense.com, "his eyes wandered from right to left and from left to right. It was obvious that he was not reading from a TelePrompTer. Also I noticed that there were long pauses between his sentences. ... As a Film Director I recognized immediately what was happening" -- namely, a concealed earpiece. "Is this what Bush is doing? My answer is a definite 'yes'. During this same speech I watched as he immediately corrected a word that he had just mis-spoken. I have encountered this before during film shoots using the earpiece prompt. This is done because the speaker has gone slightly ahead of the earpiece prompt. He makes the mistake and then hears the correct word in his ear. He then corrects himself and goes on like nothing happened."
The earpiece theory has come up on a number of Blogs lately, and I even saw a reference to it in the "Story Minute" online cartoon. According to at least one blogger, left-leaning media critic Mark Crispin Miller has raised the issue (although I haven't been able to confirm this yet).
The first part is here, continued here.
Just think what a mischievous sort with a jamming device could do....
Replies: 15 people speak up
Ha!
That's one speech I'd love to hear!
Posted by Allison @ 02/06/2004 03:43 AM NY
Hmmm... If we could just get the frequency before one of his speeches...
Posted by Old Fashioned Patriot @ 02/06/2004 05:53 AM NY
Am I the only person here who clicks through on links? ;-)
Dear editor: The Atrios link given above should be "http://atrios.blogspot.com/" . My fingers are dyslexic, too.
Kate P
Posted by Kate P @ 02/06/2004 09:27 AM NY
Kate,
The Atrios link was done freehand. And most of the time, no, I don't click through. :)
Thanks again for the correction.
Posted by editor @ 02/06/2004 09:51 AM NY
Sorry... It's the copyeditor in me. I apologize and will quit nitpicking. I did see that you linked directly to the comments later in the article.
You do a fabulous job.
Kate
Posted by Kate P @ 02/06/2004 10:00 AM NY
Sorry... It's the copyeditor in me. I apologize and will quit nitpicking. I did see that you linked directly to the comments later in the article.
You do a fabulous job.
Kate
Posted by Kate P @ 02/06/2004 10:02 AM NY
i would give anything to see the strings cut. little pinnochio out there at his podium stuttering and stammering, his nose growing rapidly, and no one feeding him his lines. beautifull. on the other hand, its probobly on a pretty secure channel.
one other possibility (besides him being fed lines) is that it is a recording, "breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out...." wouldnt want the poor dumb bastard to forget.
Posted by justin @ 02/06/2004 11:25 AM NY
Dear Tim Russert
Please have your technicians examine President Bush's ear for transmitters. Thank you, that is all.
Love,
The Damfacrats
Posted by Damfa @ 02/06/2004 12:44 PM NY
maybe its not an ear piece, maybe its one of those bugs from "star trek 2; the wrath of kahn" the ones that crawl in your ear and controll your mind.... an alien insect in his brain would explain a lot....
Posted by justin @ 02/06/2004 01:19 PM NY
Damn, Gee Dubya needs to trim his ear hair, gross! It's like a little grey flag hanging from his ear.
Posted by Stentor @ 02/06/2004 02:09 PM NY
Dear Tim Russert,
1) Ask bush if he is wearing an earpiece transmitter to help him respond to the forthcoming questions
THEN
2) Have your technicians examine Bush's ears
THEN
3) Ask bush if he is brave enough to answer questions without the earpiece (if he says then he won't be able to hear the questions, offer to write the questions out for him)
THEN if he says yes...
4) Enjoy a new batch of Bushisms
Posted by LML @ 02/06/2004 02:34 PM NY
I know that some movie theaters use cell phone supression devices. Is there anyway we could smuggle something like that into a major event in which Bush will be required to think on his feet? Oh, I don't know.....something like a debate perhaps?
>:>
Posted by Nazgul35 @ 02/06/2004 03:15 PM NY
You know, I thought it was just the usual political/male dominance staging that led to the decision to have this Russert "interview" done in the Oval Office and recorded in advance (Saturday).
Putting that news together with this story now leads me to suspect that the range of this little gizmo is such that W's "handler" needs to be fairly close by, so much so that studio technicians would note what was going on. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain..." the Wizard said to Dorothy. :)
Posted by Xan @ 02/06/2004 08:40 PM NY
Better than jamming: Record the audio feeds and distribute them. Mix them together, earpiece feed on the left channel, Bush's regurgitation on the right.
Posted by Daryl @ 02/07/2004 02:57 PM NY
Is anyone still reading this thread? Anyway, I had avoided listening to bush talk for at least a year but decided to listen to the Russert interview just to see if I could see/hear what the Film Director in the rense.com article (on the ear device thing) was talking about. WOW. I was amazed at how bush's performance seemed to exemplify those problems mentioned related to having an ear feed. I hope someone will do more investigating on this issue.
Posted by LML @ 02/11/2004 11:48 AM NY
