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Edward Jay Epstein looks at the entertainment industry's habit of 'pushing the reality envelope' in its dealings with the press. Well, pushing the envelope is kind of a euphemism. Consider:On Sept. 4, 2005, the New York Times printed the following intriguing correction: An article last Sunday about film piracy included incorrect revenue data supplied by the Motion Picture Association of America. Hollywood's global revenue in 2004 was $44.8 billion, not $84 billion. Of the total, $21 billion, not $55.6 billion, came from sales of DVDs and Videos.The correction was the result of a Times reporter, Timothy L. O'Brien, asking the Motion Picture Association of America to urnish the combined global take of the major studios in 2004... Instead of supplying the New York Times with the actual numbers, the MPAA sent bogus figures. Hollywood's DVD revenue alone was inflated by more than $33 billion, possibly to make the MPAA's war against unauthorized copying appear more urgent. Of course, the reporter had no way of knowing these impressive-sounding numbers were inaccurate and published them in an otherwise accurate story on film piracy.According to Epstein, stuff like this happens all the time.
A couple of years back, the Big Four Organized Music family's RIAA said a raid against a New York counterfeit operation resulted in the equivalent of 421 CD burners being seized.However, Bill Evans had been told the numbers was actually156.When he asked for an explanation for the discrepancy, "We stated that the raid was the equivalent of 421 burners, as we need to put these operations in perspective based on burning capacity and output, not the number of physical slots for the discs," RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) truth adjustment specialist Amy Weiss said. "Since they burn 4x burners - it is roughly 4xs the numbers of burners."A recent MPAA ( Motion Picture Association of America) operation netted "US$30 million in illegal stampers and DVDs," said the movie industry owned pseudo-cop unit.How did it arrive at its "$30 million in illegal stampers and DVDs" figure, widely quoted as hard fact by the mainstream media? It "estimated" the value of the DVDs seized during the raid, "as well as the value of DVDs that could be produced using the equipment."
