My observations on the NBC nightly news story:
Brian Williams: "the story of a young woman who attracted a lot of attention online until it was learned that her story wasn't on the level." A more accurate statement would be "the story of a young woman that got little attention online, until it was learned that her story wasn't on the level, at which point it received increasingly more and more attention until it was proven it was fake and then got more attention than ever and became national news."
reporter: "100,000s of fans have looked at her internet videos." The number 552,777 is splashed on the screen. If I didn't know better I would assume that they are saying that 552,777 people have watched her videos. The graphic is over a clip from the "House Arrest" video which YouTube now says has 645108 views. Maybe it had 552,777 before this story aired. I do give them credit for not saying she has "millions of devoted fans" like I've read elsewhere. Her vidoes have together gotten a total of over 2.8 million plays, but as we all know there are a lot of repeat views, or people who don't watch it all the way through, so who knows how many people actually have seen these.
Then they show generic footage of hands typing on a keyboard to dramatize what it was like for the anonymous web users (who weren't really anonymous because they were in the LA times article) to "trace the email" which was really a trace of an I.P. address to CAA.
They make it sound like the reason it was traced to CAA was because CAA represents the creators, when actually it was because the wife of one of the creators works at CAA and let her husband use a computer there. It was only later that CAA decided to represent them.
Then they show footage of the three guys standing around on the sidewalk talking to each other. Presumably the NBC reporter told them, "Okay, I need you to stand here on the sidewalk and act like you are talking about lonelygirl15." Then they cut to Mesh Flinders (never heard of anyone named "Mesh" before, but anyway) totally out of context saying "in the end we're doin' the right thing." (huh?)
Miles Beckett: "Our intent from the very beginning of this was to tell a very realistic fictional story" My plee to you, Mr. Beckett, is listen to your own advice, because the story's getting less realistic each video, and the realism at the beginning was what was good about it.
reporter: "And they did it on a shoestring"
Greg Goodfried: "this was done in a bedroom with a $130 webcam and two desk lamps--" edit cuts him off. Yeah, uh huh, but they had to pay the actors. $30,000 for ten months for Jessica was the speculation I heard based on some myspace comment she left, right? I don't think that's been confirmed, but whatever it was, she doesn't come free.
Mesh Flinders: "We basically went out and got things to make it look like a 16 year old girls apartment." (I think he means "room") Yeah, they outfitted the whole room with Target merchandise. It's not the most expensive, but it still adds up. Sure this is "shoestring" by Hollywood standards, but that term is still misleading. This is not something an amateur could have thrown together for cheap.
reporter talking about Jess Rose: "Fans discovered some of her old headshots online" *cut to a picture of a non-professional snapshot of her with one of her girl friends* "and even did a video expose" *cut to some idiot who is obviously neither a fan nor someone who did any actual research saying "I am going to expose lonelygirl15 for the liar she actually is!"
reporter: "The guys who created Bree are NOT intimidated." (Really? You mean they're not scared by a random moron threatening to expose lonelygirl15 as a liar, when they just got signed with CAA and are now on the NBC Nightly News?
) reporter: "They're now launching a lonelygirl website" *cut to picture of lonelygirl15.com, the website they launched months ago and which figured prominently in unravellling their identities*
reporter: "In the internet age everyone gets MORE than their 15 megabytes of fame." What the bleep does that even mean? I know it's an allusion to the expression "15 minutes of fame" (from an Andy Warhol quote) and a lame computer joke, but not everyone gets famous. Just certain people like lonelygirl15, not to mention there's no indication that this will get more than its proverbial 15 minutes. This story on the nightly news was literally less than 2 1/2.
This piece of crap news segment wasn't as well done as many You Tube videos. But do you know how many viewers watch the NBC Nightly News? I just googled it: about 9.5 million. And lastly, in renetto's version of the clip, he shrieks at the end of the video "Original content, baby, here we come!" which he may or may not have meant to be ironic since he just stole NBC's video.
) reporter: "They're now launching a lonelygirl website" *cut to picture of lonelygirl15.com, the website they launched months ago and which figured prominently in unravellling their identities*