"Curated and vetted" news sources

AI generated video content

"We live on the cusp of history" sounds overly dramatic, but I believe it is warranted with regard to the overwhelming amounts of "fabricated" video content polluting streaming platforms.

Who benefits?

Potentially, the legacy media outlets benefit because they can market themselves as only broadcasting "curated, vetted content". The problem with that is that the legacy networks have a history of creating (i.e. "fabricating") stories either for sensationalism or to forward an agenda.

One of the earliest documented cases involved a "hit-piece" on General Motors pickup trucks in 1992. Unlike earlier victims of hit-journalism, GM had the will and the resources to "push back".

The morning after the piece ran to a national audience, GM Legal called NBC and demanded to know where the pickup truck was so they could run their own forensic analysis. NBC told them "It has already been crushed."

That answer seemed too pat and too quick, so GM sent a team of crash investigators to the location where the "test" had been run and started visiting scrap-yards. The found the "crushed" pickup in one of the scrapyards about five miles away. It had not been crushed. They purchased the vehicle, put it on a flat-bed and transported it back to the GM Tech Center in Warren, Michigan.

They found out that the gas cap was not the factory-original cap but was some random, undersized cap that almost fit. It is not know if the producers had replaced the factory cap with one that guaranteed spillage. Regardless, that event is one of the reasons why gas-caps are now tethered to the vehicle. You cannot accidentally drive away from the gas station without it.

The cheap ink used to print information on the outside of the rocket cases had transferred to the modeling clay used to hold them in place. The printing was still legible.

The found evidence that three Estes Rocket Motors had been affixed to the frame of the pickup with modeling clay and duct-tape. The rocket motors had been ignited shortly before the collision to ensure that any gas that spilled was ignited.

The producers of the segment over-filled the gas tank, literally filling it until gas was spilling out of the filler tube. 

Finally, GM obtained video footage from the fire department that had been hired to perform Safety Over-watch during the taping of the event. I assume that the over-watch was required by the film crew's insurance carrier.

The fire department recording, when played at full speed showed that the entire flame-event lasting for five seconds with the big fire-ball lasting about 1.5 seconds. If you watched the NBC footage, you might have noticed that they went to slow-motion to prolong the fireball and then cut the feed as it started to die down. Then they kept replaying the short-lived gout of flame from other angles leading the viewer to believe that the fire lasted much, much longer than it did.

The Mainstream Media coverage of the January 6 demonstration ("insurrection") used the same video techniques to make the entry of the demonstrators into the Capital look like Santa Anna's 6000 Mexican soldiers storming the Alamo. 

Not just NBC

It isn't just second-rate news sources like NBC that have been "nipped".

No less than National Geographic and BBC have been implicated in "pressuring" characters in the reality series "Life Below Zero" to perform dangerous stunts to increase viewership. Sue Aiken has been the most vocal about the pressure but Glen Villeneuve was also goaded into potentially life threatening situations. For example, Villeneuve was "coached" to swim a snow-melt fed river from inside-of-bend to outside-of-bend for drama. He almost didn't make it. 

For those who are not in-the-know, find a wide spot in the river on a straight stretch. Wide means shallow. WADE across the river keeping your core body dry. Outsides of bends are treacherous for three reasons. The current will pull your lower body down due to the fluid dynamics, the bottom and shore are usually very steep AND finally, there are often tree roots and trash sticking out of the bottom that will snag your clothing or legs.

Summary

History suggests that the legacy media will not neutrally "curate and vet" content. They have their own biases and their profit incentives are not transparent.