Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Desertdog on January 22, 2009, 09:33:11 AM
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Obama inauguration got unprecedented news coverage
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE50K6E320090121
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's inauguration generated an unprecedented 35,000 stories in the world's major newspapers, television and radio broadcasts over the past day -- about 35 times more than the last presidential swearing-in -- a monitoring group said on Wednesday.
The Texas-based Global Language Monitor said there had also been 6 million new Obama-related mentions on the Internet since December 31.
By comparison, the last U.S. presidential inauguration, of George W. Bush in January 2005, resulted in about 1,000 stories in major media worldwide, Paul JJ Payack, president of Global Language Monitor said.
"The Obama numbers are unprecedented and speak volumes to the global fascination with the new American president, his wife and young family," Payack told Reuters. "Obama is the biggest story of the century so far."
U.S. television audience ratings for Tuesday's inauguration ceremony, which was shown live on major broadcast networks and cable news channels, are expected to show record numbers tuning in when they are released later on Wednesday.
Payack said that according to his group's monitoring, the Obama campaign and election story had generated 717,000 citations in print, television and radio across the world in 2008 and 254 million mentions on the Internet and in Web blogs.
That surpassed media interest generated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the global financial meltdown in 2008, the Iraq War in 2003 and the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, Payack said.
The tallies were calculated using the group's proprietary algorithm which tracks the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, the Internet and major databases.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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The media is biased.
The sky is blue.
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Not politics.
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I don't see why this is a surprise. It was the most historic election in quite a while, as well as one with a young charismatic family, history aside. Media is attracted to charisma like flies on *expletive deleted*it.
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What jamz said, also they're comparing a first term to a second term.
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What jamz said, also they're comparing a first term to a second term.
Still a lot of BS over 1(one) political candidate.
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What jamz said, also they're comparing a first term to a second term.
This is true.
However, THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND stories seems a bit excessive, no?
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However, THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND stories seems a bit excessive, no?
No argument there... :)
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they're comparing a first term to a second term.
Yeah, why even bother? Why didn't they compare it to the 2001 inauguration? ???
I don't see why this is a surprise. It was the most historic election in quite a while, as well as one with a young charismatic family, history aside. Media is attracted to charisma like flies on *expletive deleted*it.
I agree with that, except that the family is not especially charismatic, nor were the Bushes all that old in 2001. Besides, Bush had a much more photogenic First Lady. =)
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This required a study? I fail to see the anticipated value of comparing the two, unless Bush had magically turned black before his second term. :laugh:
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Yeah, why even bother? Why didn't they compare it to the 2001 inauguration?
If you can find the answer; What was the percentage of positive press that GWB recieved compared to negitive press in 2000/2001 or 2004/2005?
70% neg, 30% pos?, maybe?
What was the percentage of positive press that BHO recieved compared to negitive press in 2008/2009? 99% pos, 1% neg?, maybe?
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Besides the worship.
He is the first Black President. It is a big deal to alot of people. Being a young white boy raised in the Military, I don't get it. But apparently to alot of people its a real big deal.
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I have tried to appreciate the racial equality angle of the Obama Presidency. A long time ago, I even thought that I wouldn't mind an Obama presidency, as it would at least get that "First Black President" thing out of the way, to help us get over these racial problems.
But all of that is obscured overshadowed completely eclipsed by the disturbing cult of Obama and the weaknesses of Obama himself. That is, his hubris, his glib hollow-suitedness, and his thinly-veiled (and sometimes outright) rejection of liberty and other American political values.
But the cult-like nature of Obama's following is much more disturbing than the man himself. We could easily survive an Obama. I am not so sure if we can survive a generation with such poor discernment and such detachment from American traditions.
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Since I never really paid much attention to any of the inaugurations as far as I can remember (Reagan, Bush, Clinton, W. Bush), how is Obama's inauguration compared to any of the previous ones? Also, was there such adulation among the media and Hollywood types for any other president (Kennedy?).
I'm of similar disposition wrt the President. I don't like what he's said and supported in the past especially with respect to gun control, but that's normal political disagreement. However all the hype and the drooling and fawning by so many of his supporters is sickening. That behavior is more appropriate to teenage girls and their pop stars.
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Since I never really paid much attention to any of the inaugurations as far as I can remember (Reagan, Bush, Clinton, W. Bush), how is Obama's inauguration compared to any of the previous ones? Also, was there such adulation among the media and Hollywood types for any other president (Kennedy?).
I'm of similar disposition wrt the President. I don't like what he's said and supported in the past especially with respect to gun control, but that's normal political disagreement. However all the hype and the drooling and fawning by so many of his supporters is sickening. That behavior is more appropriate to teenage girls and their pop stars.
Clinton was loved by the media and the left, and he became loved by many in the center. Kennedy was loved by some while alive, but became an object of veneration only after (and largely because of) his death. The same with most every other President enshrined as candidates for "the best."
Nothing has approached this level of sheer worship for a living politician in this country. It's occured in other countries, but we never thought it would happen here or at least hoped it wouldn't.
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I've heard Teddy Roosevelt was pretty popular, but he was a bit more charismatic I think.
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And Reagan's landslide got more viewers than both :O
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Clinton was loved by the media and the left, and he became loved by many in the center. Kennedy was loved by some while alive, but became an object of veneration only after (and largely because of) his death. The same with most every other President enshrined as candidates for "the best."
Nothing has approached this level of sheer worship for a living politician in this country. It's occured in other countries, but we never thought it would happen here or at least hoped it wouldn't.
That doesn't bode well for this country in my opinion. The ones who hyped him up (media personalities) are partly responsible as well as those who bought into the hype without doing any critical thought. I know some believe that there will be an inevitable fall due to promises not kept, but there were also some who firmly believed he wouldn't be elected. It seems that some people WANT a monarch, and unless enough of them are awakened from La La land somehow, things will get worse.
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Serious question for the group: Are there any free and open societies that normally develop such cults of personality around their leaders?
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Nothing has approached this level of sheer worship for a living politician in this country.
Thank God he can only serve 2 terms.
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Nothing has approached this level of sheer worship for a living politician in this country.
Thank God he can only serve 2 terms.
Look for attempts to change that.
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Serious question for the group: Are there any free and open societies that normally develop such cults of personality around their leaders?
Yes. This whole thing about the "Obama cult" is just exaggeration. Yes, he's very popular. So what?
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Yes. This whole thing about the "Obama cult" is just exaggeration. Yes, he's very popular. So what?
I don't believe that people calling him "The One" and "Messiah" in all seriousness is exactly an exaggeration. If it was done with a bit of "tongue-in-cheek" vibe, sure, it would be an exaggeration.
Then you have the various adulatory hymns and songs being written about him, the old ComBloc style posters, public school kids in uniform marching around chanting his praises, people wanting to "serve" him specifically. There are other examples.
Most of this stuff is new to the American political landscape. I do not recall it ever being done for any other presidential candidate, at least in my lifetime.
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I don't believe that people calling him "The One" and "Messiah" in all seriousness is exactly an exaggeration. If it was done with a bit of "tongue-in-cheek" vibe, sure, it would be an exaggeration.
Then you have the various adulatory hymns and songs being written about him, the old ComBloc style posters, public school kids in uniform marching around chanting his praises, people wanting to "serve" him specifically. There are other examples.
Most of this stuff is new to the American political landscape. I do not recall it ever being done for any other presidential candidate, at least in my lifetime.
Americans will only tolerate so much of that Bovine Excrement.
Keep in mind, 50+ million other folks DON'T think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
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1400 Megapixels!!!! Inauguration... (http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c)
I clamped a Gigapan Imager to the railing on the north media platform about six feet from my photo position. The Gigapan is a robotic camera mount that allows me to take multiple images and stitch them together, creating a massive image file.
My final photo is made up of 220 Canon G10 images and the file is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels. It took more than six and a half hours for the Gigapan software to put together all of the images on my Macbook Pro and the completed TIF file is almost 2 gigabytes.
Use the controls to zoom and pan around the photo. You can also double click to zoom in and double click again to get even closer
That's a lot of stitched photos!
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35 times more coverge? I though it was a lot more than that.
I thought the Obamathon would never end.