2/2/05

The State of the Union Address, CSPAN, ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC, PBS

On the whole, not as bad as going to the dentist. At least I could squirm.

It’s amazing that television producers haven’t figured out a way to dress up the State of the Union Address. It would be a great boon for our ADD, multiply distracted and overworked age.

What about a ticker scrolling across the bottom? What about superimposing names of people focused on during the speech?

The amazing thing is that the format is such the president could say anything, his party would cheer, and the next day everyone will be talking about it as fact. The Earth is flat? Of course! We need to limit our civil rights!

I want to see something done so that there’s real-time fact-checking on the speech. What about pointing out the times he fudges facts, pump up numbers, flip-flops, and lies? That’s what the ticker could be used for. It would make the speech more exciting, and I bet people would tune in.

The problem is that Fox would probably pioneer this feature and sex up Republican lies (‘Saddam is still responsible for 9/11’) while slamming Democrat lies (‘The surplus under Clinton was 100 million less than he stated; that’s an impeachable offense’). Good thing they’re the most popular “news” organization in the country. The only news organization willing to challenge them on tv is The Daily Show.