Rock, Paper, Shotgun

TV Confuses Arma With Real Life

By Jim Rossignol on September 27th, 2011 at 3:24 pm.


Hey, everyone, please join in with the rest of the internet and laugh at ITV. They’ve only gone and made a documentary about Gadaffi’s links with the IRA, and then used footage from Arma II to illustrate it. “IRA Film 1988″ it says over a dodgy Frapsing of Arma II. No, they actually did that. Presumably, as PCG points out, because of this dodgy YouTube video. You can watch the clip in question below. (This spectacular stupidity was originally discovered by the BI Forums.)

The timing of this event, given recent trends, is impeccable. Good times.

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107 Comments »

  1. ShineDog says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:28

    This really is amazing.

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  2. KikiJiki says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:30

    Good grief

    Edit: I wonder if they can be referred to Ofcom for this.

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  3. CMaster says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:30

    I like how you can see all the jaggies.

    Real life is anti aliased, ITV!

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  4. Santiaguito says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:31

    at first i was like wut??
    but then i remembered stupids are everywhere

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  5. terry says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:31

    Terrorists play ARMA2!

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    • Mehbah says:
      09/27/2011 at 15:39

      This is exactly how they will spin it. No one will admit that the people who produced this were incompetent. Instead, you can expect various media to report that OH MY GOD MURDER SIMULATOR ARMA 2 IS TEACHING PEOPLE HOW TO JOIN GADAFFI’S TERRORISTS.

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    • Gap Gen says:
      09/27/2011 at 17:22

      Ah, since when has media commentary been impartial and level-headed?

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    • figvam says:
      09/27/2011 at 18:11

      It’s a good indication of the validity of the whole “Gaddafi & IRA” story If they had to use *this* as a factual evidence. One has to wonder about the substantiality of other hot “facts” about the Libyan regime the media is spinning endlessly in the recent months.

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  6. Teddy Leach says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:33

    I told you the graphics were realistic.

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  7. Jimbo says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:33

    LOL, seriously? Did the person who included this not have eyes?

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    • johann tor says:
      09/28/2011 at 09:58

      Or they are internet illiterate enough not to realize that something being posted on youtube doesn’t necessarily make it authentic.

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  8. Joseph-Sulphur says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:34

    I bet Egg was flying that chopper.

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  9. Will Tomas says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:34

    Good god… Wow, just wow. That’s surpremely lazy, incompetent, and utterly idiotic. And hilarious. But, still…

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  10. chris says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:34

    Is this the real life?

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  11. Unaco says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:35

    It’s not even FRAPS’d. It looks like someone’s recorded it with a camera off the screen.

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    • EOT says:
      09/27/2011 at 15:43

      Dunno, looks like they’ve deliberately edited it to make it look like ‘real’ footage. Interesting. Perhaps we should have a camera man on Tactical Tuesdays.

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    • royaltyinexile says:
      09/27/2011 at 15:47

      No, I think the original was actually filmed on a potato :p

      Now, this is edited to make it look ‘real.’ :)

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    • EOT says:
      09/27/2011 at 16:16

      Well…I am watching it on a phone in the middle of a fairly boring maths lecture so my appreciation of it may be somewhat skewed.

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    • El_MUERkO says:
      09/27/2011 at 20:18

      I’m pretty sure what they’re saying is the original edit is not the original edit, I saw a similar if not identical video a while ago, it had the shaky-cam stuff but also pretend news stuff like how BIS do in their cut scenes.

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  12. Bull0 says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:36

    Fucking hell. Idiots.

    I now feel really bad for regularly criticising more competent people.

    This may genuinely have opened my eyes. I do need to revise my standards. I’m too cynical of good, basically hardworking and intelligent people. Clearly there are some real morons in work. I’m sorry.

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  13. Jorum says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:37

    British journalism shines again.
    Our press quite a while ago eroded to the point where most journalists just trawl and regurgitate internet, twitter, and PR feeds (apparently a large number now aren’t expected or allowed to leave the office).
    TV is looking to follow that example it seems.

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    • Dances to Podcasts says:
      09/27/2011 at 20:12

      It just looks that way because tv spends half their time discussing newspapers.

      /tv at work is set to Sky…

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  14. Nim says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:38

    Someone send this revelation to competing media… please.

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    • Will Tomas says:
      09/27/2011 at 15:49

      I think Rory Cellan-Jones at the BBC, Benjamin Cohen at Channel 4 News, or The Guardian’s TV/technology sections might be a good bet if anyone does fancy e-mailing this to competitors.

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    • Tams80 says:
      09/27/2011 at 17:25

      Rory Cellan-Jones is hardly any better.

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  15. Xercies says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:38

    And it looks like there computer can’t even run it, looks like a bad machima or Full Life consequences lol

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  16. Srethron says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:40

    Life is just a dream, you know
    that’s never ending

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  17. weego says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:40

    What are the chances that they use this mistake to pivot into a “well if we were fooled by the footage just IMAGINE WHAT ACTUALLY PLAYING THE GAME IS DOING TO OUR CHILDREN”

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    • Bull0 says:
      09/27/2011 at 15:42

      The old “we’re going to dig ourselves out of this hole chaps, and we’re going to start by digging a much deeper one” tack. Yep, wouldn’t be the first time traditional media tried that

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  18. aircool says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:41

    Footage shown is representative of actual gameplay.

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  19. CharlO says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:41

    That’s because they use Playstation, they just don’t see the lack of AntiAliasing, and believe that if the camera is not steady, is just like real life.

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  20. DeanLearner says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:42

    I bet this was Adrian Chiles’ doing.

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  21. Raiyan 1.0 says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:42

    Never mind.

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  22. Zarunil says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:43

    Oh dear. How embarrassing.

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  23. Drake Sigar says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:44

    And after all that hogwash about gamers not being able to tell the difference between reality and fiction…

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  24. Oozo says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:51

    Did you hear that? That was the sound of Jean Baudrillard screaming “Told you so!” from beyond his grave, calling to arms and pens an armada of yellow press journalists, whose feriocious scribbling disturbs the afternoon sleep of twelve dozen beardy students of media philosophy, who just woke up to the strange and sudden feeling that there is a game-changing thesis waiting to be written somewhere out there, if only, if only one could remember the proper spelling of the word “simulacrum”.

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    • gamma says:
      09/28/2011 at 00:48

      The chart has replaced territory many decades ago. Much more deeply than one can understand… and not only by simple visual interpretations, myth has reached its operative enablers in the realm of tought/language as well. This is the single most consequencial problem humanity faces, superficially designated as lack of critical thinking…

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    • MrEvilGuy says:
      09/28/2011 at 04:41

      The equivalent of the conveyor belt here, is the Japanese vaginal cyclorama – it outdoes any strip-tease. Prostitutes, their thighs open, sitting on the edge of a platform, Japanese workers in their shirt-sleeves (it is a popular spectacle), permitted to shove their noses up to their eyeballs within the woman’s vagina in order to see, to see better – but what?

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    • gamma says:
      09/28/2011 at 05:43

      Definitely trying the game-changing thesis here by mispelling “simulation” with an extragenous “t” somewhere…

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  25. tungstenHead says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:51

    I like how the back end of the truck leaps into the air about a foot at 0:43 as the guy standing behind it goes prone.

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  26. Gundrea says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:53

    THIS VIDEO IS REAL I KNOW BECAUSE I WAS THERE. AFTER WE SHOT DOWN THE HELICOPTER WE spawncamped for like an hour lol

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  27. psyk says:
    09/27/2011 at 15:57

    Strange and you think they would of put “reconstruction” at the bottom, but it did seem to happen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNHNS1krOEs&feature=related.

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  28. DoctorBrain says:
    09/27/2011 at 16:00

    A shame they didn’t show footage of the ArmA 2 battlebus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coRoRTWPb-4

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  29. Valdyr says:
    09/27/2011 at 16:03

    They left out the genuine terrorist radio chatter.

    ENEMY,

    CHOPPER

    800 meters.

    to the

    FRONT

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  30. c-Row says:
    09/27/2011 at 16:03

    I love how the truck jumps up a foot or two at 0:43 and the producers probably just thought that no one would notice…

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  31. LTK says:
    09/27/2011 at 16:03

    They go on to say that nobody was killed in the attack, then in the original footage the helicopter crashes to the ground in a big fireball. They must have been tickling their own throat, that’s how far they went to pull this shit out of their ass.

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    • Gundrea says:
      09/27/2011 at 16:10

      It’s the smoke that kills you.

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    • Christian O. says:
      09/28/2011 at 12:52

      What smoke does, and this is where it gets interesting, chokes you. And if we choke, what can’t we do? We can’t breathe! And if we can’t breathe what do we do?

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  32. Wizardry says:
    09/27/2011 at 16:06

    This is what happens when video games start having more than 16 different colours.

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  33. cheesetruncheon says:
    09/27/2011 at 16:12

    When I saw this on TV i saw it hit the helicopter and thought ‘something’s off about this’ thanks for showing me.

    This Clip aside, I found the show quite informative. I was unsure whether it was actually all bullshit or not though.

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  34. Inigo says:
    09/27/2011 at 16:20

    OH NO. FIVE. IS DOWN. THEY BE AFTER. ME LUCKY CHARMS.

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  35. Bhazor says:
    09/27/2011 at 16:21

    Wait a second.

    “ITV use fake video game footage…”

    Fake?

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  36. Athatar says:
    09/27/2011 at 16:29

    I love the fact in the original fan edit you hear Irish music playing in the background. It must have been this that confused the producers so much.

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  37. Daiv says:
    09/27/2011 at 16:39

    As you can clearly see in this footage the IRA has begun training their soldiers in cutting-edge techniques such as “bunny hopping”.

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  39. sinister agent says:
    09/27/2011 at 17:12

    Just wait until they get hold of our footage of the British army’s cruel and unusual punishment for insubordination: the banana phone.

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  40. Janek says:
    09/27/2011 at 17:38

    Terrestrial channel of the year, ladies and gentlemen.

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    • sinister agent says:
      09/27/2011 at 17:56

      I can’t be the only one wondering how the hell they’re allowed to claim that. Is there a loophole they just discovered allowing them to display it without mentioning that it was awarded in 1993?

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  41. Renfield says:
    09/27/2011 at 17:40

    I’m just happy no one died in this attack.

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    • bluebottle says:
      09/27/2011 at 17:57

      No, but they did have to spend the next 90 minutes as a seagul flying about before the mission ended.

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  42. cliffski says:
    09/27/2011 at 17:45

    Feel free to tip off channel 4 news about this:

    news@channel4.com

    I’m sure they would enjoy covering it. I’ve emailed them, but the more the merrier :D

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  43. Inigo says:
    09/27/2011 at 17:52

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8792315/ITV-Gaddafi-documentary-claimed-videogame-was-terrorist-footage.html

    An ITV spokesman said producers had real footage of a British army helicopter being shot down in 1988 but used the videogame material by mistake.

    “The events featured in Exposure: Gaddafi and the IRA were genuine but it would appear that during the editing process the correct clip of the 1988 incident was not selected and other footage was mistakenly included in the film by producers,” he said.

    “This was an unfortunate case of human error for which we apologise.”

    He added that the documentary would be re-edited to include the real footage before being made availabe again online.

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    • psyk says:
      09/27/2011 at 18:18

      Sounds about right seeing as the vid is actually real.

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    • Donjo says:
      09/27/2011 at 18:50

      That’s what was thinking, they had some kind of weird stock video game “footage” but forgot to switch it around with the actual footage. Still though. Feckin eejits.

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  44. Zeewolf says:
    09/27/2011 at 18:01

    I love how the physics engine bugs out for a moment there and the truck jumps. Very realistic, no wonder they were fooled!

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  45. JayeRandom says:
    09/27/2011 at 18:59

    Too bad they didn’t let the ARMA footage run a little longer– the sight of helicopter crewmen bailing out of the smoking helicopter and instantly getting good parafoil-type chutes really sells it.

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  46. dcgc says:
    09/27/2011 at 20:15

    AHAHAHAHAHAH

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  47. rapchee says:
    09/27/2011 at 20:47

    it’s even bugging out (truck jumping on the prone guy), how could they use this?? also the smoke puffs?? HOW???

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  48. andyhavens says:
    09/27/2011 at 21:51

    I guess there’s B-roll, and then there’s Not2B-roll…

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  49. Yage says:
    09/27/2011 at 23:18

    Gorilla marketing at its best.
    Great bit of product placement.

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  51. Thermal Ions says:
    09/28/2011 at 09:35

    The video embedded in the RPS article has now been pulled.

    Submitted the story to Australia’s Mediawatch (http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/). Might be good for a filler for them – they usually focus on Australian media snafu’s.

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