When smearing Fox just isn't enough, what do the haters do? They steal!

No sooner did we expose a shoddy, hack editing job by the unreliable propaganda site Think Progress, than they repaid the favor in a most unprofessional manner. It's a violation of journalistic ethics, netiquette, and basic honesty. And worse.

On Monday January 22 at 7:28 pm we posted audio from John Gibson's radio program: his response to criticisms from CNN regarding the Insight/Obama article. The next day, approximately 12 hours after our post, TVNewser commented on our audio and linked to it. So far, no harm, no foul.

The day after that--nearly 48 hours after our original posting--Think Progress suddenly came up with a commentary on Gibson's remarks. They give a very short excerpt, designed to make it look like Gibson was accusing CNN of covering up Muslim extremism at the school in question. Now obviously anyone who listens to the full-length audio knows that is not the case. But there's a further point here.

Alone with their carefully chopped transcript, they provide an equivalent, carefully chopped audio clip. How strange. If they taped Gibson's show on Jan 22, why did they wait 48 hours to post their clip? Why did they only do so after our original post, and after TVNewser publicized it?

The answer proves to be, as Sherlock would say, elementary. We believe they didn't have a clip because they didn't tape Gibson's show. Therefore they knew nothing about his comments until they read TVNewser and followed the link to this site. And seeing an opportunity, they filched our audio, hacked it down so it suited their purposes, and put it up on their website as their own work. They did not acknowledge J$P, or link to it, or in any way let their gullible readers know that they were trucking in the internet equivalent of stolen property.

The skeptics will ask: How do you know it's your audio? How can you prove it? Anyone could have taped the show and provided it to them.

Our secret revealed: every audio clip we post is one of a kind, because each is individually edited and customized. We shorten pauses, eliminate redundancies and "ums", and edit them down to their essentials. What's more, the audio signature is also wholly unique. To compensate for widely varying levels, we apply our own algorithm for volume compensation that continually changes the decibel levels to ensure maximum clarity for internet listening. Guess what? The "Think Progress" audio tracks at 100% with our original, from start to finish. Every pause the same length, every level change identical.

Anyone with the proper technical expertise can prove it for himself: take the two audio clips and convert them to WAV or AIFF files. Reverse the phase on one (making it the exact acoustic opposite) and then combine them. The audio vanishes: the identical, but inverse, signal cancels out the original, because the Think Progress clip has exactly the same edits, EQ, and level alterations as ours. That's definitive, and proves Think Progress to be cyber-thieves. All because they didn't want to link to the complete audio, for fear that the full context of the remarks would render their smear ineffective.

This blog displays a copyright symbol on every page. In addition, editing, improvement, or restoration of an audio recording produces a new product, which itself is eligible for copyright protection completely separate from that of the original audio. So along with the sleazy tactic of stealing our internet posting without permission or attribution, Think Progress also pilfered our copyrighted material and work product, without due compensation or color of law. We're going to enjoy this.