Why the White House's 'Dropped Audio' Alibi Is Absurd

Craig Bannister | April 4, 2016
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The White House’s explanation of how the audio of French President Francois Hollande’s mention of “Islamist terrorism” disappeared from the official White House video is absurd on the face of it.

After MRCTV exposed the missing audio, the White House posted an excuse, claiming there was a problem with “the audio during the recording” and that this led to a “drop in audio”:

“A technical issue with the audio during the recording of President Hollande's remarks led to a brief drop in the audio recording of the English interpretation. As soon as this was brought to our attention, we posted an updated video online here with the complete audio, which is consistent with the written transcript we released yesterday.”

But, a review of the sequence of events renders this explanation unbelievable:

  1. Shortly after the event on Thursday, the White House posted video and an accurate transcript of Hollande’s comment, so they must’ve used a full-audio version of the video. Friday morning, the original video was pulled and replaced with the message that “This video has been removed by the user.”
  2. The video was then re-posted, with the audio of Hollande’s “Islamist terrorism” comment missing.
  3. After MRCTV exposed the missing audio, the White House posted its explanation – but, left the missing-audio video posted, telling readers they could click on a link to a sub-page where the “complete audio” version was buried.
  4. By Saturday, the tainted video was finally replaced on the White House Video Gallery page.

Thus, the White House had the “complete audio” video all along, because it used it to create the official White House transcript, so it appears there wasn’t the alleged “drop in audio” during recording.

And, even when it was brought to their attention, they left the lost-audio version up and forced readers to read some fine print and click through to another page if they wanted to see the accurate video before eventually – and, apparently, reluctantly – replacing the faulty video.

Thus, the White House’s audio-drop alibi is a sham and they, clearly, didn’t want people to see the “complete audio” version with Pres. Hollande daring to utter the words, “Islamist terrorism.”

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