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Tuesday, July 5

Cosmic Comment on Obama's Washington: Even our televised July 4 fireworks were phony

This screen grab is a sample of what the public broadcast of the 2016 Independence Day fireworks on the National Mall looked like. Notice the clear sky: 



This is what the displays actually looked like last night. Notice the fireworks disappearing into fog and thick clouds:



I don't think I should describe my personal experience as a Washingtonian with this mess because I'm already in a bad mood. What they should have done yesterday morning was reschedule the fireworks display because they knew it was a virtual certainty that it was going to rain cats and dogs on and off all day and into the evening, and that it would be foggy and overcast even if the rain stopped in time for the fireworks and that all the parks would be soggy. Realize that most people who wait to watch the fireworks on the Mall and from nearby parks sit on the ground -- unless they want to stand for hours. 

I suspect PBS fudged the display not out of patriotism, as they claimed (see below), but because they didn't want TV audiences to see just how bad the city's decision had been to keep to the original schedule.

JUL 4 2016, 11:17 PM ET
PBS' 'Live' Fireworks Aren't, and the Network Hears It From Viewers
by ALEX JOHNSON
NBC News

PBS was pummeled on social media after it acknowledged having spliced in video of previous years' Washington, D.C., fireworks in its live "A Capitol Fourth" broadcast Monday night.
Hundreds of viewers complained on the annual show's Twitter and Facebook pages that the fireworks display couldn't be live because the images were in clear weather.
Washington, however, was heavily overcast and foggy Monday night — which was readily apparent as the pyrotechnics faded into dense clouds.
About 10 p.m. ET, the show's Facebook and Twitter pages acknowledged that the supposedly "live" show was, in fact, " a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years."
Reaction online was swift and savage:

We showed a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years. It was the patriotic thing to do. 

We showed a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years. It was the patriotic thing to do. 
[END REPORT]

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