April 25, 2018

NESN's City Shots - Which They Want You To Think Are Live - Are Not Usually Live

When NESN returned from commercial for the bottom of the third inning during last night's game in Toronto, viewers were shown a dark night sky with the CN Tower and Skydome clearly visible.


NESN's nighttime shot is looking northwest. I live about 16 miles southwest of downtown Toronto. This is what the outdoors looked like from my balcony in the fourth inning, approximately 10-15 minutes after NESN aired the above shot:


Ah, the lovely Mississauga suburbs!


NESN continues to use one of its oldest tricks: passing off old footage from another night (maybe another year?) as a live shot. And it's not only road games during which this deception is practiced. NESN also does it for games at Fenway Park.

Jere, a fellow member in good standing of the NESN Non-Appreciation Society, exposed this chicanery twice, almost six years ago:

June 9, 2012:
NESN was trying to pull a fast one with those overhead shots. Beautiful indeed, but not from today. Early in the game, when the shadows hadn't even entered the field, they showed a shot where you could see the shadows of the light towers/stands almost completely covering the field, which wouldn't happen for a few more hours. Judging by yesterday's weather, I'd say the shots were at least 2 days old. ... No, they didn't have the word "live" on the screen, but A. they showed it while the announcers were talking and talking about what a beautiful day they were currently experiencing, and B. they don't say "live" during the game anyway, it's implied. ... [It] made me wonder about all their not-obviously-today shots.
July 6, 2012:
Why does NESN continue to show FAKE, NON-LIVE scenes of Boston during the game, trying to pass them off as live shots?? ... I've noticed they do it all the time. ... [W]hen they come back from break showing the city at night from the blimp (when there isn't even a blimp at the game--there's another dead giveaway), and Don [Orsillo] says "beautiful night in Boston as we go to the 6th," that's an obvious deception of the audience. ... Going to the bottom of the 7th, the overhead shot showed home fielders running out of the dugout to their positions--but the road team is in the field in that situation. ... Oh, and one time they stuck with the fake live shot so long, it caused us to miss the first pitch of the inning. Double pet peeve!
Jere's blog is resting in peace. Now he can be found here.

3 comments:

Dr. Jeff said...

Does the modern era include 1900, or does it start in 1901? and what was the specific difference, was it rules changes?

allan said...

I have seen both cited by what should be authoritative sources. But the American League began as a second major league in 1901. And from that point, teams in both major leagues remained constant for many decades. And the basic rules that we know - size of plate, distance from mound to plate, being able to keep batting after fouling off two-strike pitches, etc. - were in place.

Jere said...

Thanks for the plug! NESNNAS 4ever!