Why *Did* CNN Color Shift Biden’s Backdrop From Rage Red To Pretty Pink in Real Time During MAGA Speech?
Before and after CNN color shift during President Biden’s September 1st remarks.
Why did the angry red backdrop for President Joe Biden‘s very political, very anti-MAGA speech on Thursday shift to a more pleasing pink in CNN’s live coverage? That’s the question a lot of people on the right are asking on Friday. They’re answering the question, too, saying it was obviously done for Biden’s benefit by partisan CNN.
Is that what really happened? Before we get to the answer, check out this clip putting CNN’S broadcast alongside other networks. The color on CNN slides down the spectrum while C-SPAN, MSNBC, and the White House’s feeds did not.
It’s actually a pretty dramatic shift.
In tweets and blog posts from the side of the aisle targeted in the speech the color change was spotted, pointed out to others, discussed, and basically became a whole thing. The general consensus was that CNN was “softening” the background color so it wouldn’t seem so “fascist,” as several right leaning websites put it.
Watch the moment CNN slowly adjusts the camera settings when the blood-red lighting behind Dark Brandon is looking a little too authoritarian.
By the end, the stripes on the American flag are pinkish-purple. https://t.co/IuYGZRbpGZ pic.twitter.com/RgzKrVEEcB
— Mia Cathell (@MiaCathell) September 2, 2022
The red background was already the topic of quite a bit of discussion and outrage Thursday night and into Friday, from Tucker Carlson‘s meltdown on Fox News to a pretty insane Marjorie Taylor Greene Hitler tweet.
So what did happen? Did the audio/visual department not get briefed on the network’s new tone? Was it a tribute to the flashy hot pink backdrops of 1980s television? Did a flamingo do it? We asked CNN about the coloration, and it turns out that everyone had trouble with the pool feed, which was carried by CBS and was set up before the sun went down and the colored lights of Independence Hall came up.
In the above comparison video, you can see how the CBSN image remains steady and sorta terrible throughout the period of CNN’s empinkening.
MSNBC, on the other hand, looks radically different and it was that way from the get, although they obviously used the pool (CBS) feed just like CNN did.
It looks to us like they brought the colors in range early in the livestream, probably detecting the poor coloration well before CNN. CBS never adjusted their feed online. And CNN? Well clearly they ended up going pink somehow.
Still, none of the video we checked changed the backdrop’s angry red coloration except for CNN. Not the pool feed, not MSNBC or C-SPAN or the White House’s live stream.
I didn’t pull Fox News’s coverage but I assume they also kept Biden’s rage red motif — maybe even added some devil horns or a pitchfork, IDK.
But hey, if you want to talk about whether CNN kid-gloves Biden stuff you don’t really need to review how they handle on-the-fly color temperature adjustments at all. Like with any cable news, just read the network chyrons or check out their coverage on any given day and decide based on that.
