Satellite feeds meant only for network control rooms, the raw video and audio sent up before anchors go live, are the entire raw material of this film. Brian Springer spent a year combing through hours of unedited feed from the 1992 presidential campaign, catching politicians, journalists, and pundits in the moments they thought the cameras were off. Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and various news anchors appear rehearsing lines, coordinating talking points with handlers, and dropping the performance they put on once broadcast starts. Springer builds no narration around the clips; he lets the gap between the on-air version and the backstage version speak for itself. Former CIA Director William Colby's line, that the agency owns everyone of significance in the major media, opens the film's argument without needing much commentary layered on top. The effect is less an exposé of any single lie than a demonstration of how thoroughly television news is staged before it ever reaches a viewer's living room.