Watching US Government Cover Itself

US government media looks a lot slicker than at the last inauguration. There were strange camera angles because they were still thinking in 4 by 3. Now, it's all highdef, with the kind of documentary quality that is disappearing from mainstream television. More storytelling - and definitely more use of historical context. Full of links with President Lincoln.

Not many views, at least not yet. Guess it will rise to around 35,000 by the end of the day. VOA (Voice of America) is using an interactive map, though I wonder if the foreign audience gets the jokes in some of the tweets?

Personally I was more interested in exploring the fantastic Gigapan photos back at the 156th, which allow you to zoom in on the crowds. But I appreciate that these photos take time to capture and render, so probably not practical during the event itself.

US Elections - Romney still Rich

Clever parody. Dipped in to several alternative bits of coverage. Thought the New York Times had a rather poor vodcast service - basically a camera in the newsroom. No expense was spared - it didn't seem to be much of priority with people yapping in the background as though the podcast was a distraction.

Washington Post faired better. Volkskrant, a national newspaper here in the Netherlands was really awful - not sure why they bothered. When it comes to making video, they clearly have no clue whatsoever.





No labels on the Volkskrant pieces, so apparently we're not supposed to find it. Found some of the material on the Voice of America site to be of value, explaining how the system works - Never understood how complex it all is. But the No Agenda Show predicted the outcome more than a month ago. A close shave? Rubbish. 

Singing About Further Cuts to Public Broadcasting?

Yesterday's US debate was very quickly "songified" by the Gregory Brothers. I note they picked up on Mitt's very clear promise to end the government subsidy to PBS ( and I presume National Public Radio too).

Frankly, I thought the public TV host Jim Lehrer did a really lousy job of moderating. Imagine if Jeremy Paxman had  been there instead? Although Lehrer did little to interrupt the candidates, it was because he was never really in control of either of them. Twitter followers described him as rather like a substitute school teacher - monitoring how much time people had rather than giving a robust lead. And why did they bother with an audience if they weren't allowed to say anything...not even to react?  PBS confirmed it's image of being one of the world's weakest public networks. Definitely Lehrer's last debate. He must be regretting the day he decided to come out of semi-retirement.

US has dozens of closest allies.

With all of America's friends punching above their weight, it's no wonder the economy is floating along on hot air. Someone needs new script writers in the White House. I like some of these investigative programmes that are popping up on public TV stations, and the fact that they are finding way to build audiences outside their own country. Denmarks Radio did it with this story. Shame that a show on Dutch TV called the Rekenkamer only deals with very domestic financial scandals.