Re-used tornado video from 6/12/04

[Brian Stertz]

This has gone back to the OLD days like around the late 1800's and early-mid 1900's when they would doctor photos and fabricate events using same photos to sensationalize the storyline. Tom Grazulis has a write up in Significant Tornadoes about this. I hate to think we are back to that but it seems pirated photos, staged video stunts, and now improper video facts with the actual event are becoming more known.

 

[Joe Lauria]

Since I remember our station running this video...From an AP story...
By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) - The Associated Press and video services operated by CBS and NBC have pulled video allegedly taken of a tornado in Nebraska last weekend after questions were raised about its authenticity.

A tornado chaser has claimed that the video was a doctored version of pictures he had taken of a twister that touched down four years ago in Rock, Kan.

The AP paid another storm chaser, Andy Fabel, $295 for footage of a tornado that briefly touched down Saturday afternoon near Valentine, Neb. The video was sent Sunday to nearly 2,000 Web sites that subscribe to the AP's Online Video Network, and more than 60 large digital customers that buy AP's online content individually.

Yet on Tuesday, a person who asked that his name not be used contacted the AP and said the supposed Nebraska footage was really video he had taken four years ago. The image was "flipped" to make it seem the tornado was pointed in another direction, and the action sped up. The Nebraska images add power lines and subtracts trees that were in the Kansas pictures.

Upon seeing the video evidence, the AP eliminated Fabel's video from the Online Video Network late Tuesday and contacted its other customers to urge them not to use it, said Kevin Roach, the AP's acting head of domestic broadcast news operations.

"We never want to mislead people," Roach said. "Based on evidence provided to us, we believe that the video was not authentic."

Fabel did not immediately return an e-mail and message left on his cell phone by the AP. Officials with NBC News Channel and CBS News Path said they had talked to Fabel and he had insisted his pictures were authentic.

Both the NBC and CBS services provide video to the network's affiliates. Both had purchased Fabel's video and sent it out, then took it off their servers on Tuesday after suspicions were raised about its authenticity, representatives said.

"There was enough evidence for us to make it suspect," said Sharon Houston, an executive producer with NBC News Channel.

The AP has purchased tornado video from Fabel three times before, Roach said.

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

It does not surprise me this happened, but what does surprise me is that he supposedly did this and ruined his name and reputation for a petty $295.00.
Isn't this the same guy who supposedly did work for or was involved somehow with TWC also?
I would think people would learn after hearing the stories of others who have done similar things and got caught.

 

[Chad Cowan]

It was just a matter of time until this kind of thing happened, but my money was on chaser video being uploaded to CNN iReport by someone else. Hopefully this will have a positive impact for the people who sell authentic video to the media.

There is an Andrew Fabel who is an ST member and judging from some of his great contributions to this forum it's probably the same guy. A few gems:

I have room to take 1-2 chasers from mid April to May 3rd -- the rest of May & all of June I'm totally full since my girlfriend and other chasers are going out w/ me this year. I'm a full-time, professional tornado chaser -- I own a film company that sells my severe weather footage all year round.


I have all the equipment so if you want to ride along and see a bunch of tornadoes you're welcome to -- I have a couple of XL-1's that I don't use anymore that you could use if you wanted but I'm sure that you have your own video cameras. Historically, I do quite well the last 2 weeks of April and so far 2008 is looking awesome.


If interested, email or PM me but please only serious inquiries because I've been so busy filming all the severe winter weather the last 3 weeks around the country that I really don't have time to reply to prank inquiries.


Thank you in advance for your consideration.

June 13th, 2007 (4 miles west of Orienta, OK on Highway 412 in the Glass Mountains)

I knew I was in a bad spot w/ MTN showing strong rotation to my south. I basically was right under the huge meso when the tornado dropped approx. 800 feet to my south. It was a sidewinder but def. moving directly at me. I was so close that I could see cactus being ripped out of the ground.

It was mesmerizing and I didn't want to leave my front row seat so I didn't. In a split second, I planned to keep filming until it got 100-200 feet away then jump into the steep ditch and take the hit. Since I was directly in front of the tornado, I was getting hit w/ light precip so my XL-1S was constantly going out of focus (I was even on manual focus too) which really pi**ed me off.

The tornado lilfted when it got 400-500 feet away and passed directly over my head. I could see the funnel spinning away prob. 200 feet over my head. That was 1 of 4 that I saw that supe spit out that day (actually early evening). One of the tornadoes that I filmed that day (elephant trunk), you prob. saw on CNN, TWC, FoxNews.

That was a fun storm.

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

Not sure, but this looks pretty similar to Justin Teague's photos from his site. The video is not available now.
Andy Fabel's name is even mentioned in the chase log.
Justin, if this is yours, I hope you nail this guy.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

Could it really have been his video but from Rock Kansas?? Not that it justifies what he did regardless....

Storm Guy Chase Log June 12 2004

Myself, Kristal Kissinger, Al Williams (from the UK), and Grant Johnson met up with Steve Miller and Steve Bluford on hwy 412 at hwy 18 in Oklahoma, then caravanned to Wichita. Followed shortly by Dan Robinson, Pete and Tammy McConnell, and Andy Fabel. Two of Steve M's friends showed up, Mike Lewis and Sean O'Connor. We sat W of Wichita briefly eyeing the storm to our N near Hutchinson.

Several miles E of the previous tornado, to the W of Rock, Kansas, the storm cycles again and produces a wall cloud and our third tornado of the day.

 

[Justin Teague]

I don't think that Andy stole the video from Stormguy.com. The video that Dan linked to was far too bouncy to have been our tripoded video.

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

Well, thankfully, it was not your video. I am glad to hear that.

 

[fplowman]

I looked into this for Dan after he sent me the info and I have talked with a bunch of the networks and it sounds like a stringer / chaser has just ended their career just to sell footage from four years ago in order to make a quick buck.

Im wondering how this is really much different than some of the tornado documentaries we see proliferated on TV?

All too frequently I'm watching one of these and they show video that Reed or someone else shot and play it off as if it happened on the particular chase or chaser(s) activity they are documenting

 

[Doug_Kiesling]

Im wondering how this is really much different than some of the tornado documentaries we see proliferated on TV?

All too frequently I'm watching one of these and they show video that Reed or someone else shot and play it off as if it happened on the particular chase or chaser(s) activity they are documenting

The difference is simple.

Doucmentaries and drama shows know what their buying off of stock video sites and royality free sites to add to the drama on the TV show.
I've seen a ton of stock from Reed in all kinds of shows but the bottom line is that it is just stock video and Reed along with just about everyone else can back up what their selling for news or for stock.

The news is and always has been "The News" and once one goes down the road of making up the news, if that was the case here, then all journalistic credibility is lost.

Just look what happened to the New York Times when Jayson Blair made up news stories. Several people lost their jobs.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/06/05/nytimes.resigns/

 

[Shane Adams]

When you Google his name, this AP story is the top listing.

ouch

 

[fplowman]

I understand. It was more of a tongue in cheek.

Just shows to go ya. To me and you we see stock footage from everyone when watching the documentaries in question. To the average watcher non - chaser, however; they see continuous action, thinking they are witnessing it all first hand.

Somewhat like the old Harold Ensley or Bill Dance fishing shows. Novice fisherman would watch them catch dozens of fish thinking, That Bill Dance is a hell of a fisherman, none the wiser the show was shot over a 2 week period of time.

Call me cynical, however; to me "the news" has little credibility to begin with, referencing your news story. Although it seems to be for plagiarism and not reporting inaccurate news stories.

News reporting used to be how, what, who, where and now the majority of it has some kind of opinionated slant or hell we can just call most of it editorial as opposed to news. lol

 

[Doug_Kiesling]

I understand. It was more of a tongue in cheek.

Just shows to go ya. To me and you we see stock footage from everyone when watching the documentaries in question. To the average watcher non - chaser, however; they see continuous action, thinking they are witnessing it all first hand.

Somewhat like the old Harold Ensley or Bill Dance fishing shows. Novice fisherman would watch them catch dozens of fish thinking, That Bill Dance is a hell of a fisherman, none the wiser the show was shot over a 2 week period of time.

Call me cynical, however; to me "the news" has little credibility to begin with, referencing your news story. Although it seems to be for plagiarism and not reporting inaccurate news stories.

News reporting used to be how, what, who, where and now the majority of it has some kind of opinionated slant or hell we can just call most of it editorial as opposed to news. lol

I agree and could go on for pages and pages about how the news has changed and how in some cases it has become news-entertainment. But that is the networks and local channels that are being packaged and produced to be glam.

Now I know someone will say this is not that much different then some of the photoshop jobs on storm photos to make them look pretty sweet. But there is a difference since a photoshop job of a event that happened on a date is still the event from that date. Anyone could always ask to see the raw if they wanted to buy the photograph so they could edited to their specs.

But it does not change the fact that if your a freelancer, you have to be hitting 100% accurate stories all the time or it's your neck on the line. So if its a video that someone tweaked the colors on or pumped up the gain. If it's that day, it's that day. No different then a photo of an event that was edited to make it look better. But to pitch video of an event that was not of the time and place, and to pitch it to several networks, that takes some balls if that was what happened.

I can only guess what AP found that was not reported for them to issue such a harsh news release. That story even ended up in my local news paper in Minneapolis, MN.

My gut forecasting feeling says that there has to be more to the story and from seeing the other threads here on ST, it sounds like there is a heck of a lot more and AP was covering their arse by publishing it. Mike P can chime in since he is the legal wiz kid, but I don't think they would have published what they did without their lawyers looking over the story first.

 

[Sam Barricklow]

Rock Kansas tornado video

Is the reversed, doctored video still posted anywhere?

Here's my version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s7C0DQtnYE

Sam

 

[Lanny Dean]

I actually met Andy on the Mulvane storm south of Haysville and then again closer to Rock KS and he seemed like a very nice guy. I have problems thinking that he could/would do something like this although I do not know him well. I believe Steve Miller (OK) and company were right there close us as well as Andy and whoever was with him as the third tornado (Rock Tornado) did its thing. We all pretty much got the same video which is no doubt what they have been showing.