Was Bill Clinton checking out Ivanka Trump at the inauguration?

Well, was he?

Answer: I do not have the answer.

If this post is not actually about debunking whether or not he was, then what is the point of this?

In the era of fake news being brought to the attention of, and even being covered by mainstream media, I think it is important to understand the virality of the video.

On my Facebook newsfeed, I noticed many people were sharing the video, which was posted by Being Libertarian. By reading comments, commentary, and the caption to the video itself, it looked like the video contained definite proof of Bill Trump staring at Ivanka Trump. Before I go any further, please watch the scene for yourself.


Thanks to the video, the page got thousands of likes, and the post itself received a plethora of likes, shares, and comments. It was highly popular. However, since then (maybe due to copyright laws), the video was taken down. Unlike this YouTube video, the video on Facebook was of high quality, and was a single shot, versus this video has a transition. (I think this video has a transition because it takes a while for Hillary to look at her husband, and it wants to get straight to the point.)

Even though the quality and editing of the original video I watched and this one are different, they share something in common - we do not even see what/whom Bill is staring at.

So why are these versions of the video going viral? Because of the captions and titles of the videos. We had the image, but all we needed was a suggestion to let our imaginations run wild. I see similar sensational headlines, usually having to do with a male politician "checking out" a woman who is not his wife. When I watch the video, everyone had been in the middle of turning their heads, and it just "happened" to be paused at an awkward-looking moment.

For this headline to go even more viral, the videos should have been edited to include a video of Ivanka at the inauguration, especially if cut into the middle of the clips of the Clintons. And that is what I found from some of the videos listed on YouTube. The problem is that we do not even know if the cuts to Ivanka Trump are happening at the same time, and even if they are, if Bill is even looking at her. To be fair, the photography and videography necessary to conclude whether or not he was staring at her would probably be hard to come by, especially since there were so many things (and more important things) happening at the inauguration.

Whether or not Bill was "mentally undressing" Ivanka (like I saw a few articles describe it), we will probably not know for sure. However, anybody seriously sharing these videos have been very misled. These are people who are confirming their biases that Bill is a terrible person. (There are so many other things that you can talk about regarding that, if you that is what you are going for.) A similar (but not identical) situation is currently happening with a video TMZ shared about A Dog's Purpose with its usage of cut clips, headlines, and captions.

"I see you sharing that video."

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