Don’t Believe What You See: More Staged ’News’

August 2, 2011

When is a golf tournament not really a golf tournament?

Take a good look at those two photos of golfer Samantha Morrell, both of which were apparently taken immediately after winning a championship. Problem is, the one on the right is as fake as “Transformers 3.” Minus the giant robots, of course.

Here’s the story. Morrell won the finals of the Ocean State Women’s Golf Association championship in Rhode Island. But apparently the WPRI reporter assigned to cover the event was late to the course and asked the two final players to re-enact the last shots of the tournament. The evening sports editor, as you can see in the video here, reported the re-enactment as if it was real.

So the media, which already have enough problems with people thinking we’re manipulating perception for an agenda, have another case of, yep, someone manipulating perception for an agenda. Thanks, WPRI!

Anyway, the station issued a statement seeking to clarify: “The video that [the reporter] was taking of the players was for a story that she is working on about the players that has not yet aired. It is not our policy to recreate or reenact ’highlights.’ It is, however, our policy to specifically and accurately describe and identify the video that we present. It appears in this case that although the video was not described as highlights, it should not have aired in this context.”

Morrell conceded to feeling a bit queasy about creating what the reporter at the time apparently called “some television magic”: “It felt kind of weird. We didn’t know what do to,” Morrell told RI Central.com, which took the photo of the actual last shot at left.

“We tried to make it like the real thing, but I think we did a good job with our acting. I think we deserve some credit for it; that was really realistic.”

Is there an Emmy for best acting in a local-news recreation of a sporting event? Because she’d definitely win in a walk.

Meantime, anybody who goes and recreates a great golf moment from the past — Nicklaus’ putt at Augusta in 1986, Tiger’s putt at Torrey Pines in 2008, whatever — we’ll run your video here, guaranteed. Have at it!

Source: Jay Busbee |
Image Credit:

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