Why you can't trust cameras

[Guest guest]

It is the nature of most important events to be dull, and by nature television

cannot handle the dull... It is monstrously untrue that the camera cannot lie.

It is the most eager and pliant of liars. [The reason the motion camera lies is

that] its nature its name says. Motion. It needs action, and of a particular

kind... It is adept at catching the moment of police brutality... But the long

hours of provocation that yielded that brutality? The camera hasn't the eye for

that.

- Henry Fairlie, July 1980

Naturally this applies to much more than police brutality. In particular the

camera ignores the very boring but potentially devastating actions, and

inactions, of those in power, the nattering and deals that go one day in and day

out while the economy fails and freedom is slowly stolen away.