Loading…
24
Stopped trusting b-roll after I spotted the same clip in two different news stories
Last Tuesday I was flipping channels and caught a gas leak report on one local station, then later the exact same burning building shot showed up in a story about a warehouse fire 40 miles away. I rewound and paused, same ladder truck, same angle, same smoke shape. That got me digging and now I keep a little checklist when I watch breaking news, I look for reused footage, mismatched weather, off timestamps. Has anyone else caught the same b-roll being recycled for totally different events?
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
the_brian1mo ago
That happened to me with a hurricane story down in Florida. Same flooded street corner showed up in two separate storms about three years apart. I know because the same blue mailbox was in both shots and the stop sign had the same dent in it. Once you start noticing it, you can't stop. It makes you wonder how much of what they show us is actually what happened at the scene.
2
fiona_kim971mo ago
Yeah I started doing the same thing after I caught a "live" shot of a protest that was actually footage from a different city's riot two years earlier. My rule now is I check the shadows, if the sun angle doesn't match the time of day they claim it's live, that's a dead giveaway. Also look for seasonal stuff like leaves on trees or people wearing jackets when the story says it's July. The timestamp trick works too, freeze frame and zoom in on any clock or store sign in the background, that's usually where they slip up.
-2