PBS uploaded the video of Kirk's wife eulogy and the thumbnail was her smiling and people, including myself chocked this up to PBS being propogandist scumbags.
I did an experiment and downloaded their video and uploaded it, and these were the AI auto generated picks.
The thing about auto youtube thumbnails is they almost always pick happy faces over sad faces because in general people will click a happy attractive face over a sad face.
As someone who's uploaded videos to Youtube, youtube's auto thumbnails almost always go for moments where smiling happens because it's "good for the algorithim"
Those were the only 3 choices I was given without having to create a custom thumbnail.
Since PBS news uploads like 10 videos a day, and their videos are just news, they go with whatever the auto thumbnail is over custom thumbnails. The majority of their videos are just screenshots from the video itself. On their channel they rarely use a custom thumbnail.
They're a factory mill trying to compete to get things out in a world where seconds matter in terms of having the edge with views.
Would it be better for them to scrub through, find a shot where she's sad looking, screenshot it and post it as a custom thumbnail out of respect? Absolutely.
But they're a business, and businesses only care about opportunity cost, is the time worth the money, juice worth the squeeze. When you're right on to the next upload immediately, you don't do the due diligence or care about your last upload if you're a video factory mill.
Same thing with all the AI slop channels that fills the internet. They don't care about quality, just about the bottom line.
I would also like to note that Erika has no experience speaking from what it looks like. It's a very difficult speech for a widow to make, while going through an emotional roller-coaster, while trying to convey different messages at different times. Sometimes she almost came across as performative, but I think it was mostly just that she was stiff... from being stressed... about being a widow, and the new major speaker of the organization.
I think it was a bit too difficult of a speech to give her, so it's a little weird.
PBS uploaded the video of Kirk's wife eulogy and the thumbnail was her smiling and people, including myself chocked this up to PBS being propogandist scumbags.
I did an experiment and downloaded their video and uploaded it, and these were the AI auto generated picks.
The thing about auto youtube thumbnails is they almost always pick happy faces over sad faces because in general people will click a happy attractive face over a sad face.
As someone who's uploaded videos to Youtube, youtube's auto thumbnails almost always go for moments where smiling happens because it's "good for the algorithim"
Those were the only 3 choices I was given without having to create a custom thumbnail.
Since PBS news uploads like 10 videos a day, and their videos are just news, they go with whatever the auto thumbnail is over custom thumbnails. The majority of their videos are just screenshots from the video itself. On their channel they rarely use a custom thumbnail.
For sure!
So they're just lazy as shit.
Understood.
They're a factory mill trying to compete to get things out in a world where seconds matter in terms of having the edge with views.
Would it be better for them to scrub through, find a shot where she's sad looking, screenshot it and post it as a custom thumbnail out of respect? Absolutely.
But they're a business, and businesses only care about opportunity cost, is the time worth the money, juice worth the squeeze. When you're right on to the next upload immediately, you don't do the due diligence or care about your last upload if you're a video factory mill.
Same thing with all the AI slop channels that fills the internet. They don't care about quality, just about the bottom line.
It would take all of five seconds to wait until she's not smiling, take a screenshot, and set it as the thumbnail. Dont excuse their laziness.
The "digital" department falls outside of editorial control in a lot of media companies. It's weird.
I would also like to note that Erika has no experience speaking from what it looks like. It's a very difficult speech for a widow to make, while going through an emotional roller-coaster, while trying to convey different messages at different times. Sometimes she almost came across as performative, but I think it was mostly just that she was stiff... from being stressed... about being a widow, and the new major speaker of the organization.
I think it was a bit too difficult of a speech to give her, so it's a little weird.
It also felt like she was forcing herself to smile so as to not break down.
Yeah, that's kind of what I mean.
Fuck that.
Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
ALWAYS ASSUME MALICE.
PBS wasn't always garbage, but it has been pretty awful for a while now. Something something thanks Obama.
They're straight up evil nowadays. I don't think I would ever willingly listen to them again.
There was a controversy about this?
It was pinned on the Donald a few days ago
What was the thumbnail they had?
The bottom one in that photo there was the one they had.
If anything they picked the most respectful one.
In the top 2 photos she looks way more "ecstatic", more of a beaming smile