Internet Archive's Director of Collections, Stewart
Cheifet, responsible for all video and audio files at the
archive, has
authenticated the BBC video:
"I am Director of Collections at the Internet Archive, responsible
for all video and audio files.
This video clip is part of a collection from the TV Archive
of global television coverage of the events that occurred on
and shortly after September 11, 2001.
This clip, among others, has drawn quite a bit of attention
because it appears to show a BBC reporter in New York reporting
that World Trade Center Building 7, also referred to as WTC7
or the Salomon Brothers Building, has collapsed before it actually
did collapse.
Despite some confusion on the issue of time code stamping and
UTC conversions to EDT, the timing on the clip appears to be
correct. This particular clip was recorded between 4:54 and
5:36 PM EDT. The anchor references to the WTC7 collapsing occur
at 4:58 PM and 5:01 PM and then a live reporter says the building
has collapsed at 5:08 PM in what appears to be a live shot with
the building still in tact behind her. The feed from the live
reporter is lost at 5:15 PM and then the building does actually
collapse at 5:20 PM.
A subsequent clip from the BBC then shows coverage of the actual
collapse in an archived account recorded from 5:36 – 6:16PM.
This clip is available at http://www.archive.org/details/bbc200109111736-1818
.
An annotated version of the key sequence from this clip can
be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzxEoEfE_8A
.
Further support for the correct timing on the clip comes from
another archived clip, this one from the BBC 24 channel which
includes a time stamp on the TV screen indicating that the reference
to the collapses of WTC7 does occur before the actual collapse.
There is some discussion as to whether or not that time stamp
was later edited in by someone tampering with the clip. It is
unclear whether that happened or not but the reporting and the
time of the reporting as shown does seem to coincide with the
other BBC World report. This clip can be seen at various web
sites including http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2007/280207timestamp.htm.
Also there has been some discussion about whether the shot
of the WTC7 still standing was a live shot or a so-called “green
screen” shot in which the live reporter was photographed in
front of an electronic screen with a superimposed image of videotape
of earlier coverage. That could explain the time disparity;
however other clips seem to support the view that the video
behind the BBC reporter in this clip is indeed live.
This clip is being widely circulated on the web along with
other 9/11 news coverage clips that have surfaced. The earliest
apparent reports of WTC7 collapsing come from CNN which reports
before 5PM that WTC7 is either burning, is collapsing or has
collapsed. You can see this clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD0UWq_ORR4
. That story then gets repeated later on BBC 24 and BBC World.
Similar coverage on ABC can be found posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qyiov_c6Fg
.
Assuming all the time references are correct, there are two
possible explanations offered for the confusion. One is that
the building was intentionally brought down by its owner and
that a press release indicating that was prematurely issued
and prematurely reported on by the media.
Another explanation is that there was simply confusion at the
time and some journalistic “whispering down the lane” in which
early stories that there was something happening at WTC7 led
to rumors of its collapsing which then led to on-air reporting
of its collapse. The fact that the WTC7 is still standing and
visible in the background of the live shot appears to confirm
that the reporting of the collapse did take place before the
actual collapse.
One possible explanation for the apparent clairvoyance of the
reporter, or the alleged deception by those in charge, is that
there was a fire at WTC7 when it was first reported on CNN at
approximately 4:10 PM and that the BBC then picked up that story
from CNN and reported that the WTC7 might be collapsing and
in the confusion of live news coverage that story then was communicated
to the anchor and the reporter that the building had collapsed.
Additional information may be available from other television
network coverage of that same period of time which has also
been archived by the TV Archive. This includes coverage from
ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and CNN. Efforts are underway to gather
that additional archive footage so that a more comprehensive
picture can be presented of what really happened that day.
Other references and discussions related to this clip can be
found at various other web sites including http://www.livelead.com
, http://www.911truth.org
, http://www.prisonplanet.com
, http://www.informationliberation.com
, http://www.911blogger.com
, and http://www.digg.com
.
The official BBC statement regarding its explanation for the
mistaken reporting can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/02/27/index.html"
Mr. Cheifet and the other principals of the Internet Archive
are very competent, intelligent, accomplished people. For example,
Mr. Cheifet's bio states:
"Stewart Cheifet has been an attorney, a media executive,
and a technology journalist. He has worked in various capacities
for ABC, CBS, NPR, and PBS in the United States, Europe, Asia
and the South Pacific. He has managed broadcast radio and television
stations and was CEO of several media production and distribution
companies.
He was former Executive Producer and host of the PBS series
Computer Chronicles and Net Caf�. He has served as President
of PCTV, a company focused on broadcast and new media production
in the field of personal technology.
He holds a B.S. in mathematics and psychology from the University
of Southern California, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and
he was a post-graduate fellow in technology journalism at the
University of Chicago."
And Brewster Kahle's bio (he's the gentleman who authenticated
the video yesterday),
says:
"Brewster Kahle Digital Librarian, Director and Co-Founder
Brewster has built technologies, companies, and institutions
to advance the goal of universal access to all knowledge. He
currently oversees the non-profit Internet Archive as founder
and Digital Librarian, which is now one of the largest digital
archives in the world.
As a digital archivist, Brewster has been active in technology,
business, and law.
Keywords: MIT'82, helped start Thinking Machines, founder WAIS
Wide Area Information Servers, Internet strategist AOL, co-founded
Alexa Internet, sold to Amazon.com, directs Internet Archive.
Details:
After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) in 1982, he helped start a supercomputer company, Thinking
Machines, that built systems for searching large text collections.
In 1989, he invented the Internet�s first publishing and distributed
search system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server). WAIS Inc.
created the online presence for many of the world's largest
publishers, and was purchased by America Online in 1995. In
1996, Brewster co-founded Alexa Internet, which provides search
and discovery services included in more than 90 percent of web
browsers, and was purchased by Amazon in 1999.
Brewster has also worked to revise law and policy in light
technical advances. He is a board member of the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, and a plaintiff in Kahle v. Gonzales (formerly Kahle
v. Ashcroft), which challenges recent copyright term extensions.
Brewster is profiled in Digerati: Encounters with the Cyber
Elite (HardWired, 1996). He was selected as a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005, the AlwaysOn/Technorati
Open Media 100 in 2005, the Upside 100 in 1997, the Micro Times
100 in 1996 and 1997, and the Computer Week 100 in 1995.
APPOINTMENTS:
* Univeristy of North Carolina, School of Library and Information
Science, Visiting Scholar 2006-Present
*
* Internet Archive, Digital Librarian, Director, Co-Founder
1996-present
* American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected as a member
in 2005
* Electronic Frontier Foundation, Board Member
* Alexa Internet, President, CEO, Co-Founder (sold to Amazon.com)
1996-2002 The Library of Congress, National Digital Strategy
Advisory Board April 2001
* America Online, Internet Strategist 1995-1996
* Wide Area Information Servers, Inc (WAIS), Founder, President
(sold to AOL) 1992-1995
* Thinking Machines with Apple, Dow Jones, KPMG, WAIS Inventor
and Project Leader 1989-1992
* Thinking Machines, Scientist 1983-1992. Helped start company,
chips, boards, architected CPU of CM2"
If these credible people at the Internet Archive say the video
is real, then I accept their verification.
