Merged Thread: Romney Drops Out; Can McCain Defeat Democrats?

[Monkeydad]

Sure, because CNN never does anything wrong:




CNN places 'X' mark on Dick Cheney's Face

Everyone except the CNN graphics operator could clearly see the big black X that crossed Dick Cheney's face during a November 22 live speech about the War in Iraq.




According to Matt Drudge, "A careful review of the tape also shows a white colored 'X' transposed over Cheney's face during the speech as well." ...but what about the text below? What does the fine print below the big X say? Does it shed additional light on the sinister plot by CNN to make a mockery of the Vice President's important address to the American Enterprise Institute and the nation?



Unfortunately the truth isn't that sexy. The truth is, the text below is nothing more than a technical TV instruction to the program's producer and engineer.

Here's how I managed to 'crack the code':
1) I quickly discovered that the 'white X' graphic was easier to work with than the 'black X'
White 'X'


Black "X'


2) Next, certain properties became even more clear when the colors of the graphic were inverted.


3) At this point, I could easily make out several characters. The letters a-m-e-s and a few others are quite obvious.

4) A quick Google search provided the next clue. What television-related phrase includes these letters? Within minutes it was clear. The last few words read "frames of black"

5) Well, how many frames of black? The AFRTS standard is a minimum of 15 frames of black for the beginning and end of each spot but upon close examination, we did not see a 15. What we saw was a 5.


6) When the graphic is blown up and moothed out a bit, several more characters become clear. The letters a-e-r are quite easy to see.


7) At this point, a little crossword puzzle deduction helped me figure out what that next word was.

8) The next word (in reverse) was almost entirely hidden by the foreground text making it nearly impossible to figure out so I decided to test a few different fonts. If I could figure out what font was used, I could then figure out which letters could create the pattern. As close as I can tell, it looks a lot like arial but it's more likely helvetica.


Arial Font Overlay