diff --git a/modules/media_wysiwyg/includes/media_wysiwyg.filter.inc b/modules/media_wysiwyg/includes/media_wysiwyg.filter.inc
index 592b130..4d1ce21 100644
--- a/modules/media_wysiwyg/includes/media_wysiwyg.filter.inc
+++ b/modules/media_wysiwyg/includes/media_wysiwyg.filter.inc
@@ -58,9 +58,9 @@ function media_wysiwyg_parse_css_declarations($declarations) {
 function media_wysiwyg_token_to_markup($match, $wysiwyg = FALSE) {
   static $recursion_stop;
   $settings = array();
-  $match = str_replace("[[", "", $match);
-  $match = str_replace("]]", "", $match);
-  $tag = $match[0];
+  $input = $match[0];
+  $tag = str_replace("[[", "", $input);
+  $tag = str_replace("]]", "", $tag);
 
   try {
     if (!is_string($tag)) {
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ function media_wysiwyg_token_to_markup($match, $wysiwyg = FALSE) {
   }
   catch (Exception $e) {
     watchdog('media', 'Unable to render media from %tag. Error: %error', array('%tag' => $tag, '%error' => $e->getMessage()));
-    return '';
+    return $input;
   }
 
   // If the tag has link text stored with it, override the filename with it for