MEMORY HOLE: Gov's office edited out Healey's reaction from YouTube when staffer "took a digger" but we got it
Can viewers no longer expect that a government livestream be an uncut C-SPANesque representation of the event?
Is it ever acceptable for an elected official or their staff to edit an official government livestream to delete a politically awkward or personally embarrassing moment?
When an aide to Governor Maura Healey took a rather loud self-described “digger” while tripping over TV cable during a late November press conference the event came to a brief pause as the Governor, noticeably concerned, inquired as to the well being of the staffer.
Leaning in and stepping away from the podium the Governor asked, in a now twice deleted scene, which we have since acquired: “Someone fainted?”
But today a viewer of the state’s livestream wouldn’t know anything about that - because the Governor’s office memory holed the incident out of two different YouTube videos of the event, raising questions of when, if ever, is it appropriate to delete a section of a government livestream?
Not to equate this with the missing 18 minute gap in the infamous Watergate tapes, but should viewers expect that a government livestream be an uncut C-SPANesque representation of the event?
The edit [posted below] can be seen in the stand alone video of the event at the 2min 59 second mark, while the first three minutes of livestream has been truncated to delete the “digger” incident altogether.
Consequently the livestream is approximately two and a half minutes shorter than the stand alone video.
According to the Herald, “The press conference went on, and a slightly shaken, and perhaps mildly embarrassed staffer was left unscathed.”
The Governor can be heard saying, “lets make sure we paused this, I’m sure we paused this” as the audio is cut first and then the video.
In the deleted scene Lt Governor Driscoll, Secretary Tepper and Secretary Augustus can all be seen to crane their necks looking to the back of the room.
The Governor and the Lt Governor then walk directly to and thru the camera line to investigate.
Edited stand alone video, edit at the 2min 59 second mark, total video length 25 min 42 seconds:
Truncated livestream is 23 minutes: