“So the Republicans are as authentic as the Chinese”

That’s how Margie summarized this one. The Chinese, of course, faked elements of the Olympics opening ceremonies to make them more impressive — computer enhanced firework displays and lip-syncing by a cute little Chinese girl included.

Now comes work the RNC played a similar game during its opening ceremonies: Fake Soldiers Used In RNC Video, Patriotic Montage Shown At RNC Featured Actors Hired For One Day Shoot, Not Military - CBS News 

It was a video that was supposed to elicit soaring patriotism and real emotions about the Pledge of Allegiance. But to do that, it used fake soldiers and a staged military funeral instead of the real thing.

On Tuesday night, 15-year-old Victoria Blackstone, a sophomore at the St. Agnes School in St. Paul, led the crowd at the Xcel Energy Center in the Pledge of Allegiance. The audience heard her 434-word essay, “Pledging myself to the Flag of the United States of America,” an essay she’d entered it in the “Wave the Stars & Stripes” essay contest and won. The RNC turned that essay into a three and a half minute video, a visually stirring montage rolling over Victoria’s words about sharing the Pledge with Americans who have stood at important moments in history.

There’s the Continental Congress…A real WWII vet…Photos of workers at Ground Zero. A close-up of a folded flag presented to a grieving widow at a military funeral… profiles of soldiers swelling with pride in slo-motion.

But CBS News found that the footage of the ‘funeral’ and soldiers is what is called ‘stock’ footage. The soldiers were actors and the funeral scene was from a one-day film shoot, produced in June. No real soldiers were used during production.

I guess patriotism is easier when you can stage it.

For the record:

After a Web search of videos played at the Democratic National Convention last week, CBS News found no obvious use of stock footage.

The RNC did not respond to CBS News’ request for a comment.

Of course not! That’s sooooo last Tuesday!