One difference about President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech to Congress Tuesday evening was that the President was heckled by Republicans in the audience.
And while the President's speech may have been boring, the heckling gave the news media something interesting to report. Such activity may be routine in the British Parliament, but it's rare in Congress.
It wasn't until television became widespread in America that the annual comment on how the nation is doing became a major media event. Initially, the report was given in written version to Congress, and attracted little media attention.
Television, however, gave politicians the opportunity to present themselves to the nation in a well rehearsed effort to offer a glowing report on how well they are governing the country.
For many years, the speech was carried live on network television, followed by some opposing commentary by a representative of the other political party.
That in itself is odd, since the other side does not have a copy of the presidential speech before it is delivered. But the broadcast media felt obliged to carry it anyway, to satisfy the demand for "fair and equal coverage."
As for what President Biden said during his speech, that was widely carried by many news media around the world. I got bored after the first 15 minutes and decided to read about it the next day.
And while the President's speech may have been boring, the heckling gave the news media something interesting to report. Such activity may be routine in the British Parliament, but it's rare in Congress.
It wasn't until television became widespread in America that the annual comment on how the nation is doing became a major media event. Initially, the report was given in written version to Congress, and attracted little media attention.
Television, however, gave politicians the opportunity to present themselves to the nation in a well rehearsed effort to offer a glowing report on how well they are governing the country.
For many years, the speech was carried live on network television, followed by some opposing commentary by a representative of the other political party.
That in itself is odd, since the other side does not have a copy of the presidential speech before it is delivered. But the broadcast media felt obliged to carry it anyway, to satisfy the demand for "fair and equal coverage."
As for what President Biden said during his speech, that was widely carried by many news media around the world. I got bored after the first 15 minutes and decided to read about it the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment