Posted on 07/06/2009 7:15:53 AM PDT by Publius804
TV and Obama: mutual love affair
By David Bauder July 6, 2009 Reporting from New York -- Even President Obama, a gleam in his eye as he talked at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Assn. dinner two weeks ago, seemed to recognize the special relationship he's forged with TV networks in the opening months of his administration.
"A few nights ago, I was up tossing and turning and trying to figure out exactly what to say," he said. "Finally, when I couldn't get back to sleep, I rolled over and asked Brian Williams what he thought."
The reference to the NBC anchor and host of the prime-time "Inside the Obama White House" special this spring drew loud laughter.
There's no denying that broadcast networks and the president have occasionally worked for their mutual benefit: Obama gets public platforms for his ideas and the networks get programming that delivers strong ratings at a time when that's hard to come by.
"Inside the Obama White House" was a hit, costing relatively little to produce, for a network that's starved for hits. The two-part series was rerun the same week that it originally aired.
Two of the three most-watched episodes of "60 Minutes" last TV season were devoted to Obama, topped by the 25.1 million people who watched Steve Kroft conduct the first postelection interview with the president-elect in November.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Let them build him up now. The more they build, the sooner the public will be immune to the hype.
Did he really say that?
Television loves Michael Jackson, too.
Yes, he really did!
Dear Leader? No, Queer Leader.
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