Tonight's segment on MSNBC's Connected: Coast to Coast was different from the one at CPAC, as I was in the studio itself with Monica Crowley this time. I much prefer talking with a live person than to a fixed camera in a small room although I need to learn about where the cameras are and then forget them. We ended up talking about Social Security, Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean.
UPDATE: Thanks! to Political Teen, who captured the video from our session.
The C2C people are really looking to integrate blogs and other media into the show. USMC-Vet is right - they're doing the sorts of things we've been asking the MSM to do. A good effort for a show that's only 15 days or so old.
Robin
Sorry I missed the show. Do you know if transcripts are available on the ciast to coast web site?
Jan at Political Teen has the video clip of our segment. It's embedded in an application I'm not familiar with, but she might be working on an mpeg version. If so I'll move it over to my private server so that she doesn't have to carry the bandwidth. But for now you can see it here.
I just watched the clip and was reminded again of why I never watch TV. You did well Robin, but the temporal aspect of the medium is just so restrictive that it never really gets beyond scratching the surface.
That's something I've felt. The several radio interviews I did at CPAC allowed more time to present a coherent message.
Perhaps C2C will evolve towards more in-depth analysis of how the Net and the blogosphere have changed information flows, organizing and other social phenomena. It's an area where I've done some academic study, but it's such a new area (and perhaps arcane to most people) that if it is broached it will probably be on a Sunday talking head show. And even then it will need to be in the context of some current event, I suspect.
Robin
The app she used is Macromedia Flash Player and thanks for the link. Ditto on Matt's comment.
60 Minutes III perhaps?
I loved the pandering 'isn't it hard for women' PC line that both Robin Burk and La Shawn Barber tossed back into their faces with sharp commentary.
Bloggers... not "women"-bloggers... just great bloggers.
Way to lead!
USMC_Vet - thanks. I knew it was flash but IIRC it was embedded in a remote video server. Anyway, she has .mpeg up now. Good to keep around for laughs (smile).
Ahh, Robin...attention to detail, my dear. (lol)
Good ol' USMC and good ol' USMC_Vet are two separate jarheads. Separated at birth, maybe, but separate indeed. He gets the Kudo's, not USMC_Vet.
I am glad that someone else has been observing what I saw coming with C2C. I must admit that I ahve missed many over the past week (with the exception of your appearance yesterday, of course).
I must admit that as I read my review days later online, I wondered if I sounded like a cheerleader for MSNBC. Oh, to the contrary has been reality. However, my ultra-positive review had little if anything to do with MSNBC. It was the format, the swing that will have changed everything.
I have been trying to eek the time to complete a top to bottom review of why I firmly believe that MSNBC finally gets it. Part of that is the very production of C2C itself, but not wholly. There are other things that have been, are or will be happening that point to a dramatic sea-change there that should be welcomed by all.
They could indeed screw it all up (again) and revert back to business as usual, but at this point doing that would actually prove more difficult than staying the course. I think they have just passed the point of no (comfortable) return.
To be sure, MSNBC has not calibrated their liberal bias in existing news coverage. But what they are doing is balancing their schedule and giving an unimaginable (for MSNBC) amount of air time to conservative hosts. They are, after all, beholden to a large degree to the auspices of the NBC News Division (who have seen no change at all).
That all deserves a deeper look that I am reluctant to post in full until I am comfortable with its points and flow.
Until such time, I am confidently comfortable applauding C2C in the change in coverage that they are bringing about...and it has nothing to do with bias in coverage. It has to do with information flow in coverage, and there is a difference. C2C addresses the What, not neccesaqrily the How. That's more than half the battle of bias that the tired FOX vs. CNN/MSNBC argument fails to properly acknowledge.
Cheers from:
usmc_ VET
(chuckle...)