By the way, I have one other comment on Barack Obama's speech last night: being a citizen has become a whole lot more enjoyable for me ever since I started turning off the TV immediately following any major speech like this. I read a lot of reactions now, across the blogs and Twitter, but I almost never stick around any more to hear people talk about it on TV. Nor do I tune in early, or if I do it'll be with the sound off. In the old days, one could of course do that, but then there was no way of knowing how it was playing, or to get outside your own head and start the process of hearing the speech through other ears than your own (yeah, even if you watch with others, odds are you're not getting very far outside your own head). So it made sense to stick around. But now? No way.
Anyway, my apologies if I just sound like a clueless or cranky old guy, but my two big reactions last night were: (1) thanks again to Brian Lamb, a true American hero, for C-SPAN; and, (2) life is a lot better since the internet and, for a political junkie, the blogs.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
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It probably doesn't help that the people who talk after these major events are...well, often seriously WRONG.
ReplyDeleteEven last night, there was so much talk of Obama's speech vs. Palin's speech and while most of them were correct about which one was better...is that really necessary? Even if we put aside the crassness of talking pure electoral politics at this point, I can't believe the 2012 election is going to turn on who gave a better speech on Jan. 12, 2011.
well, if 3 is a trend, I also ran off immediately before the talking heads started in last night, and Fallows indicated swift impatient rejection of the chatter he heard during or after.
ReplyDeleteThe talking heads have, I think, gotten the American people's impressions of an Obama speech wrong just about every time. Like Jonathan, I prefer to watch on C-span, or not watch at all, and get it later on the internet. And I simply don't watch the cable news at all, anymore. PBS-News Hour and the internet news aggregators/blogs. Occasional Daily Snow or Colbert Report, even though they're not news. Even limiting myself to these sources, it's easy to see how the nabobs miss it in their instant response.
ReplyDeletebeing a citizen has become a whole lot more enjoyable for me ever since I started turning off the TV immediately following any major speech like this.
ReplyDeleteYup. Well, we switched to "Top Chef All-Stars" but it's the same idea. In fact, I will take this idea one step further and recommend everyone go on a news fast for 24 hours once a week. That means no blogs, no Twitter, no talk radio etc. And of course no TV.
I took a month off a while ago and it was so peaceful and wonderful. I stopped being so angry and agitated and ceased to be engrossed in the latest little kerfuffle. It reminded me that life before the internet was a lot less stressful. I think the entire nation's blood pressure was drop substanitally if everyone turned the noise off. A month is hard but one day a week is certainly doable. Or maybe try one week a month. You'll survive, I promise you.