ACLU TV
I’ve been listening to recordings I made at Take Back America last month, and I came across the panel called “Taking Back the Media”. The overall recording quality is pretty good, and perfectly suitable for podcasting. It’s hard to break up into smaller chunks, as it’s regrettably necessary to do for a podcast, as the panel forms a coherent whole.
Meanwhile I learn that Julie Bergman Sender, who was on the TBA Media panel, will be presenting at a lunch meeting at the New Politics Institute, which appears to be a spin-off of New Democrats Network. Here’s the blurb:
Learn about paid search advertising, viral video, blogs, mobile phone media and more. Presenters include Jerome Armstrong, Google Executive Jim Lecinski, Simon Rosenberg and many others. Registration is free, so don’t miss this opportunity to understand the powerful new tools and media that are transforming politics. The lunch is on July 20th from 12:00pm to 2:00pm at the Phoenix Hotel, 520 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC.
Which brings me to my point: while it may be true that no one has gone broke by underestimating the intelligence of the average TV viewer, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an intelligent audience waiting for their due. The form may not be that of the traditional media, i.e., radio or television. It may be live-streaming over the internet, audio and video podcasting or through DVD distribution (the advent of indie DVD clubs is a topic unto itself).
Take aclu.tv for example, which offers live-streamed progressive video. I got to their site from linktv, which offers live-streamed progressive general programming.
I watched several of the aclu.tv docs, my favorite being the “Religious Freedom” short. You know, this is pretty good “tv”. I had to ask myself if I’d choose this over what I would consider the best on cable (e.g., Frontline, the Daily Show, NOW, Real Time with Bill Maher) and I’d say: “Maybe not, yet. But it’s close enough you can taste it.”
Note: light blogging over the next few days. I’m nursing an ailing back today, and am heading off to an undisclosed bunker Monday and Tuesday.
Update: I found a relevent excerpt from my recording of the “Taking Back the Media” panel featuring Cenk Uygur, co-host of The Young Turks on Sirius Satellite Radio. This set the theme for the panel, which briefly put is: just do it. It’s worth listening to. As far as distribution goes, this is my own recording, and I just ask that you reference blog.althippo.com if you want to use the clip.
Here’s the mp3.
