Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Where's the White House Channel?

We have, at the very least, an interesting President. He's doing and saying a lot. At his press conference today, he made compelling points on a number of issues, and showed again how superficial the media coverage is, not to mention the White House press corps. ( It's not always pretty, evidenced by the sight of ABC's Jake Tapper barely suppressing his hostility while being overmatched by Obama's intelligence and wit.)

But we must depend on those superficial and witless outlets to transmit these press conferences, speeches and events. And they don't always do it. They almost never present events other than press conferences and major speeches in full.

Meanwhile, the House and the Senate each have their own channel of C-Span. It's only when they aren't bloviating to empty chambers that the President gets on.

So why doesn't the White House have a channel? Just on equity grounds, it makes sense. But maybe Obama is just too interesting, and his dynamic and serious concentration on the real needs and opportunities for people in this country might put the rest of the programming to shame. As if shame wasn't pretty self-evident.

I'd sure watch it. I don't agree with everything he does and especially isn't doing, but every time I see him in action, as in today's press conference, I know there isn't another person I know of--not in the whole of my lifetime, in fact--who I would rather see as President of the United States right now. I'd not only watch it. It would be my favorite channel. I realize, given what's available, that isn't really high praise. But it's reason enough to demand: why isn't there a White House channel?

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