The Lead

TV stations have been using viewer-generated video since the advent of the camcorder. In those instances, a physical handoff of video takes place. The video is screened and inserted into a story if it’s relevant.

Along comes YouTube and its ilk. It’s easy to download a video and pop it into a newscast. Now, producers can think of the Internet as a gigantic video library.

But what if that video was manipulated? In the tape-handoff scenario, there would be little or no time to edit a tape, much less have the talent to edit. In the YouTube example, there is ample opportunity to manipulate video before it’s posted on YouTube.

We trust that TV news producers are smart enough to know the viability of video clips. However, we question the merits of using such video with no way to confirm its legitimacy.