(Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction. Learn to take a joke; you’ll live longer.)
ISLAMABAD – Rubbishing the claims of senior anchor Hamid Mir that his interview with former president Asif Ali Zardari was ‘stopped’ from being aired shortly after it started on Geo, a leading expert on non-linear editing for such transmission has revealed that the reasons for the footage being taken down were ‘purely videographic’.
In an exclusive interview with The Dependent, the editor of the confession video of Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) spy Kulbhushan Jadhav reiterated that Zardari’s interview wasn’t shot properly and hence had to be taken off air so as to not offend the viewers.
“You see with the advent of HD, UHD, 4K, 5K and whatnot, the television viewer will not compromise on the video quality,” said the editor, wishing anonymity, given that their magnum opus with the RAW spy was a ‘result of team work’ and an ‘institutional effort’.
“And as you can see from the footage that did manage to creep on air, the quality of videography is poor and it is natural that many were going to deem the interview offensive. Therefore, the producers had little choice but to take it down – out of their complete free will,” the editor added.
The editor further advised the NLEs working on videos such as Zardari’s interview to use their editing skills in a better way.
“As we have shown with videos of Kulbhushan Jadhav, [Indian Air Force pilot] Abhinandan Varthaman, proper script and censorship can result in masterpieces,” the editor said.
“My advice to other editors would be to live up to their professional titles. You are ‘editors’ – you can add, subtract, multiply or divide anything you want!”