I’m going to do something that Nicole White probably won’t do, unless dragged into a court of law by the TSA. I’m going to publically admit I was wrong and apologize.

I freely admit that the last time I did any serious video editing was back it the late ’80s. My statements were based on information that is dated and therefore no longer accurate given today’s technology. For that, I apologize to the readers of these comments.

I want to thank you, PM and Devender, for bringing correct information to this discussion. I also want to apologize to you both, and the other readers, for the obnoxious tone of my post. I get very frustrated when people whip out accusations of tampering with evidence–and those are VERY SERIOUS accusations, ones NO ONE should make lightly or in the heat of the moment–for no reason other than “It doesn’t show what I want to be true”. When that happens, I admit, I don’t moderate my tone the way I should, and I do get obnoxious. So again, I apologize.

I’m going to close with two things. First, Nicole White’s latest update:

http://www.mybottlesup.com/ownership

Short version: she stands by what she said. She “owns” it (as in, she’s taking responsibilty for her statements). And the rest of you can just shut up, because it’s not about you. Oh, and she’s really hurt that she’s lost some friends in the blogosphere over this.

White also states, “they call it social media for a reason. it’s social. it’s not news. it’s sometimes fact and sometimes fiction and sometimes a variance in between.” So, basically, because she’s a blogger, you can’t expect her to tell the truth.

Lastly, to Nicole White and her supporters: I just apologized in public for making an idiot of myself on the Internet. It’s high time White did the same.

If this story was true, it is very likely this could go to court, the tapes could be subpoenad and they would have to show all CCTV for extended periods. In such a situation it would be very easy to find a falsified timestamp as something would not match up between two camera angles.

Technically possible doesn’t mean it is even a remotely good idea to try.

“BlackRose: you, like Nicole White, don’t know anything about video editing. The timestamps on the video are what really make Nic’s version of events…problematic.
…
Editing video is one thing, but it’s _extremely_ difficult to fake timestamps, even if you know what you’re doing.”

I don’t believe the videos are faked either, but your comment makes it obvious you didn’t really look at the video (unless the low-res version is fundamentally different from the high-res version I’m looking at, which would be odd).

Sure, if the timestamp text was directly overlaid on the background video it would be difficult to change. But the timestamp here is in a black bounding box. There’s no changing background to worry about. Anything in that strip of black could have been easily modified without touching the rest of the video at all. I could do it with a simple free tool like VirtualDub in minutes. A timestamp on a solid background is next to useless as proof against tampering. Since it’s superimposed by hardware or software you can’t even compare ambient noise with the rest of the video to gauge similarity. You’d have to believe they went beyond a simple “choosing when to cut” to “active deception”, which I don’t, but there’s no technical proof that they didn’t.

“Beyond the timestamps are all of the other things happening in the video – during key parts of her story, there is no sign of editing (people moving through don’t suddenly appear or disappear).”

You’re right, they would have a hard time editing bits out in the middle of a continuous shot because of all the other motion in the background. They could do it in the latter portion when Nic is seated and there’s much less background motion, by just concentrating on her and the TSA’s area of the frame if nothing else, but that’s definitely another level of expertise I’m not willing to credit them with on such short notice.

However, if you don’t assume the timestamps are correct, (and there’s no technical reason why you must) then there’s also no way to tell how much time elapsed between cuts to different camera views. The background completely changes at those cuts whether it’s only skipping a couple seconds or ten minutes, and the views are different enough that there’s not much that’s constant between them to judge by. Again, not saying I think that happened, but there’s also no technical proof they didn’t without gaining access to the original version of all the raw footage. It just wouldn’t be that hard to do if they were so inclined.

I personally believe that her panic attack inspired some memory revision, which is understandable in someone with that kind of condition placed under stress. But if you’re going to come down as the voice of knowledge and authority, completely ruling something out based on your expertise and belittling the opinion of the uninitiated, you should really stop and think about it first. Implying that something which is relatively straightforward would be impossible without a full restaging or the efforts of George Lucas doesn’t exactly make you look like an expert yourself.

http://www.mybottlesup.com/tense

http://www.mybottlesup.com/therabitch

Rebecca, I suggest that you take a good hard look. Scroll down past the original post to see them.

Nic’s family and/or friends and/or blogging colleagues need to tell her to come clean, give a _real_ apology to the TSA instead of the pseudo-apology she has on her site right now, and then take a break from the internet for a while.

Honestly, I don’t think the woman genuinely understands the seriousness of her allegations. Does she really want to keep provoking the government at this point? And I don’t mean that question in a “facist jackbooted thugs will make your life a living hell” kind of way, but more in a “you keep insisting we did you wrong, so let’s just go to court and settle this once and for all; hope your attorney is a miracle worker” kind of way.