Live or Memorex?

Jett points us to an article in free! and another in Broadcasting and Cable, describing how CBS News digitally inserted ads into their New Year's broadcasts - the same technology that adds ads into live sports broadcasts. The technology to undetectably alter a still photo has been around for a long time, but only recently has the capability existed to alter live broadcasts in real-time. The CBS News director suggests that a good, ethical use of this technology would be 'blocking out objectionable signs or covering up a competitor's logo'. How can society cope with a world where seeing can not equal believing?

Comments

What you see...

[Hermetic]

I think it is more interesting to note that this allows broadcasters to edit images on the fly. Silly things like billboards or advertising are not goiing to change the world, but there are further ramifications to this sort of tampering.

What would JFK's assisination look like with a shooter added in?

What would the missle strikes in Africa look like with incriminating evidence added in?

Or maybe a president and some young woman?

I know these sorts of images are already present to some degree, with many people believing in faked images or others believing images have been faked (the moon landing and Mars faces come to mind), but technology such as this has the potential of allowing someone like Ted Turner or the military to wield power over what we know.

Yes, I am paranoid. But I know what I can do, and I am not as smart as they are.