Sham: Obama to hold "fireside chats" on Youtube

Jose Antonio Vargas of the Washington Post breathlessly informs us of this:

Today, President-elect Obama will record the weekly Democratic address not just on radio but also on video -- a first. The address, typically four minutes long, will be turned into a YouTube video and posted on Obama's transition site, Change.gov, once the radio address is made public on Saturday morning.

"This is just one of many ways that he will communicate directly with the American people and make the White House and the political process more transparent," spokeswoman Jen Psaki told us last night.

In addition to regularly videotaping the radio address, officials at the transition office say the Obama White House will also conduct online Q&As and video interviews...

...Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube [said] "Obama told us in a YouTube interview last year that he plans to have 'fireside chats' on video, and we expect his administration will launch a White House YouTube channel very soon after taking office."

In addition to youtube.com/BarackObama, he now has youtube.com/user/ChangeDotGov, with the latter having three videos all of which don't allow replies.

During the campaign comments and video replies on his videos were moderated and only those favorable were allowed. The best thing for him to do would be to either allow or disallow all comments, but given his past history he might continue to only allow those comments favorable to him. In the latter case, expect his glassy-eyed supporters to vote down unfavorable comments, meaning that people would have to click a link to see them.

And, if BHO conducts "online Q&As and video interviews", you can be assured they'll be setups. The interviews might be with an inept host who'll only ask puffballs, like Grove. Or, the questions will be screened so only those he can easily answer will be allowed.

Don't expect many of his followers to be able to figure any of that out, and those who'll be able to figure it out won't mention it.

Politics · Fri, 11/14/2008 - 12:09 · · Importance: 1