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Why Get It Live?

hank you
and good
evening,"
said the

and before VCRs, any time the presi-
dent made a speech on television, it
was a very big deal and cause for fam-
ilies to plan their entire evening
around it.
If you missed it, you were out of
luck unless you could catch a segment
on the local news at 11 or read about
it in the local paper the next morn-
ing.
In the 21st century, when Bush
speaks, or anyone else for that matter,
you can tape it, watch a rerun on
cable news, or find it somewhere on
the Internet. Call it the media answer
to instant gratification: Everything,
from everywhere, at any time.
Whether that's good or bad is up to
the individual, but it doesn't help
water cooler conversation.
The fact that many of my col-
leagues didn't want to watch the

president.
"I'm honored to
visit the Army War
College.
Generations of
HARRY
officers have come
KIRSBAUM
here to study the
Columnist
strategies and his-
tory of warfare. I've
come here tonight
to report to all Americans and to the
Iraqi people on the strategy our
nation is pursuing in Iraq, and the
specific steps we're taking to achieve
our goals. ),
So began President George W. Bush
on May 24, as he addressed the
nation in the first of a series of
weekly speeches that intend to lay
out plans for Iraq's hand-over to a
provisional government on June 30.
Coming home after a quick work-
out, I was listening on the car radio,
even though my VCR was taping
the speech, too.
Once home, I watched the speech
on cable news until I realized that
my concentration lied not in his
words, but in the makeup he was
wearing to cover up that nasty
scrape on his chin from a mountain
biking accident.
The president at the War College
So I tuned into Game Two between
speech is telling in its own way and
the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana
may be gist for another column.
Pacers and read the speech transcript
On another note, while celebrating
the following morning.
the
long holiday weekend, remember
According to the New York Times,
this:
During the Yom HaZikaron,
the White House did not ask the net-
Martyr
and Heroes' Memorial Day in
works to air it live.
Israel,
sirens
wail throughout the
The White House knows it was up
country. Every citizen stops and
against May sweeps, and networks
stands silently with bowed heads for
would never run a 33-minute presi-
dential address against Fear Factor, the the entire two minutes. Even people
who are driving on the highway pull
season finale of The Swan, the
over and stand in silence.
Academy Award winning movie A
While it's impossible to assume that
Beautiful Mind and an episode of Yes,
something of that magnitude could
Dear.
be pulled off in the United States, it
I took a rather informal and way
would
be nice to think that sometime
unscientific poll on Tuesday morning
during
the day on our Memorial Day,
and found only one person in the
all
of
us,
no matter our political per-
newsroom who listened to the speech,
suasion,
would
take a brief moment
and she was watching the Pistons on
from tending the outdoor grill to
television at the same time.
Not trying to date myself, but when remember the heroes who have died
for us. LJ
I was younger, before cable television

Harry Kirsbaum's e-mail address is
hkirsbaum@thejewishnews.com

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