On the September 25th airing of Wait Wait….Don’t Tell!, a weekly radio news quiz game show produced by Chicago Public Radio and National Public Radio, Peter Sagal, the host of the show, noted Sen. Russ Feingold is in a tough reelection fight, adding that Sen. Feingold recently made an ad showing that after all these years in Washington D.C., Sen. Feingold is still a Wisconsin guy. The ad, which I’ve embedded below, shows Feingold standing in front of his house in Middleton – the same house in his 1992 TV ad – but Peter Sagal, who apparently isn’t too keen on fact-checking, asked panelist Mo Rocca what Sen. Feingold used to film the ad, then offering that Sen. Feingold used a green screen to film the ad, instead of filming it at his actual house.
The only problem is that Sagal got his information from an article written by Daniel Foster of the National Review, who promptly “took back” his assertion that the ad was filmed in front of a green screen after contacting Sen. Feingold’s campaign and being told the ad was actually filmed in front of Sen. Feingold’s actual house in Middleton.
You can listen to the podcast from Wait Wait….Don’t Tell! right here, and here’s the TV ad in question:
And just in case anyone out there is a conspiracy theorist and doesn’t want to believe that Sen. Feingold’s ad was actually filmed in front of his house in Middleton, here’s some photos from the ad shoot:
It seems pretty clear the ad was filmed in front of Sen. Feingold’s house on a sunny Wisconsin day, and not in front of a green screen. The fact that Peter Sagal would put stock in one discredited article on the National Review Online to get some cheap laughs says a lot, and I can’t help but wonder if (and when) he’ll come clean and admit he was wrong.
Hey there–Mike Danforth, producer of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me! Though you can’t see it, I have an entire Denver omelette on my face. We clearly blew this story. Turns out our fact checker wasn’t a real librarian, just a lame CGI creation (Thanks for nothing, Jar Jar). Rest assured we will correct this on next week’s show. Our apologies to the Feingold campaign.
Mike, thanks for clearing that up….
I don’t watch much TV so I hadn’t seen the Feingold ad until after you highlighted it. Even so, imo it looked like it was filmed in front of a green screen. After viewing the ad, I can see why people thought that it was a studio production. Turns out just poor lighting during filming.
Received on twitter at 6:31 p.m.
@petersagal We screwed up in re: Sen. Feingold and the ad. Not greenscreened. Figuring out amusing way to abase ourselves
Not only is this a pretty shocking error, that could have MAJOR political consequences.
But sagal then goes on to misquote feingold in a really insulting way.
Some might say it was obviously humor, but sagal actually says “quote” derogatory statement then “unquote”.
If you are on radio, and you say things this way, people have no logical alternative but to think this is a really funny quote.
I am a fan of wait wait, but I am horrified and schocked to hear this on the radio. In today’s rumor mill media, this sort of thing is reprehensible. An apology on his show simply does not go far enough.
Maybe it is just the lighting and the angle, but I don’t see the dentil molding on the garage overhang, the tree limb overhanging the garage (maybe the shot is over more to the right), the driveway looks different (could also be the lighting/movement of the sun), and it almost looks like Sen. Feingold is pasted in (look around his head). In the first picture, look at the guy’s left shoulder shirt line.
Regardless, there are plenty of other things Senator Feingold has done that have impacted the people of Wisconsin.
Feingold is such a phony. Mr. Independent, Mr. Maverick, Mr. Lonely at lunch. Russ Feingold is trying desperately to show he’s outside the Beltway influence.
Some of Hollywood’s most recognizable names are digging into their deep pockets to help Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold, one of the Senate’s most reliably liberal voice.
Among Feingold’s contributors are filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Harvey Weinstein, actors Michael Douglas and Edie Falco, as well as NBC’s Jeffrey Zucker, music executive David Geffen, and producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and his wife, Marilyn, according to CQMoneyLine.com.
Writer and producer Tom Fontana, creator of the television series “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Oz,” also ponied up for Feingold, as did actress Kathryn Erbe, who has appeared in “Law and Order” and “Oz.”
In fact, Weinstein, Douglas and Fontana all gave donations that were over the $5,000 legal limit per cycle and had to be reimbursed for the surplus.
So you think out-state celebrities and business people shouldn’t be allowed to donate to candidates? You’re concerned about this for candidates of any party? You publicize it no matter which party they’re in? You’d like a rule against this?
I don’t care where the money comes from I just find it funny Russ is pretending to be this DC outsider, just a common guy, when he has some of the biggest far left Hollywood elitist supporting him.
And yet the cast majority of his donations are of the small dollar type…
You mean just like Obama’s donations were all small donors?
Who said all of Obama’s donations were small donors?
By the way, how do you feel about Ron Johnson receiving $5,000 from the Koch PAC, funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, who are far from being “average joes?”
And I find it funny that people take Ron Johnson seriously, too, when so many of the far right corporate elitists are supporting him. So there.
Like I said I don’t care where the donations come from but Russ likes to pretend he is a regular joe, but when you have never worked a real job and your friends are Hollywood elitist well your golly gee tv image just does not fly with middle class Wisconsin values, something Dane County and the southeastern area of Wisconsin cannot understand.
I think Senator Feingold gets plenty of input from the people in *all* parts of Wisconsin, as he goes to every single county once a year for a listening session.
But he apparently does not listen as he votes almost 100% against Wisconsin values.
Which Wisconsin values are you talking about? WMC’s?
Notalib, cite me a specific example of something Sen. Feingold has voted for or against that is contrary to a previously stated position held by Sen. Feingold in previous elections?
Notalib I see 4 comments from you and not a single policy criticsm.
Do you consider yourself a cliche?
So I must be critical in order to be relevant?
@Notalib, just because someone donates to someone’s campaign doesn’t make them BFFs. Russ has done some great things that effect the whole nation, so it is not hard to imagine that even people not from Wisconsin would have noticed and would want to help him keep his seat so he could continue doing that work.
And by “Wisconsin values” I’m assuming you mean “Notalib’s values”. He helped secure a government contract that created jobs in Oshkosh, Wisconsin not so long ago. Sound’s like he is working for Wisconsin values to me.