It said something about the déjà-vu effect that some network anchors covering Barack Obama’s second inauguration on Monday had almost as much to say about the president’s mother-in-law as they did about the president.
While the camera focused on the rarely seen Marian Robinson standing with her two granddaughters after church, Bob Schieffer of CBS News kvelled over the fact that Michelle Obama’s mother moved into the White House four years ago. “What grandma, and I speak as a grandfather, doesn’t want to be there?” he exclaimed. “I think it’s just beautiful.”
Perhaps speaking more as a son-in-law, Matt Lauer of NBC offered a different perspective. “A lot of people wondered how long that would last,” he said dryly, referring to the Obamas’ decision to have Mrs. Robinson to move in. He added quickly, “It seems to be working quite well.”
Second inaugurations are rarely as exciting as the first ones, and when the first was a never-before-seen historic moment, television has a hard time trying to whip up a similar sense of wonder and novelty. (Even MTV carried the 2009 event live, but not this year’s.) The result was a weird combination of canned statements about the majesty and pageantry of democracy and more spontaneous rubbernecking at celebrity faces — and Justice Antonin Scalia’s choice of poofy Renaissance headwear.
Even on Fox News, anchors immersed in parsing the president’s speech — one said it was “a call to arms for the liberal agenda” — were pulled off point by the sight of Jay-Z and Beyoncé. The normally imperturbable Brit Hume seemed so star-struck while describing Beyoncé as “stunning” that his colleague Chris Wallace reminded him what happened recently to an ESPN football commentator who gushed a little too wolfishly over a Miss Alabama. “Watch out, Brent Musburger got into trouble for that, my friend,” he said.
Inaugurations are long, the coverage is continuous, and the prattle that anchors and commentators have to deliver in a steady stream can at times get trite and tiresome. Even though in this case Mr. Obama was returning to office, not taking over from a rival, news personalities so marveled over the nation’s peaceful transfer of power — “uniquely American,” in the words of an ABC promo — that it almost seemed as if most foreign heads of state routinely set their successors on fire.
What helped the coverage was the fact that the inauguration fell on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, 50 years after King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech during the march on Washington. The timing lent extra resonance to the president’s speech and gave commentators a historic context. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on CBS on Monday that the ceremony reminded her of how far the country had come since 1963, and also how much was left to be done to correct “the birth defect of America’s slavery.”
Ms. Rice was one of scores of former officials, experts and well-known journalists tapped to fill the time: the presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was so ubiquitous on NBC, MSNBC and CNN that she became hoarse before Mr. Obama took the oath of office on Monday.
And it is not always easy to move smoothly from an interview on the set to live images coming over the monitor. Brian Williams of NBC was talking to former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell about political intransigence when former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, suddenly appeared on the screen. “There’s nastiness out there in the land,” Mr. Williams said. “There’s nastiness between these two parties — there’s President and Mrs. Carter — and how do we fix that?”
It can also be tricky to try to identify famous faces. On ABC, George Stephanopoulos spotted an older African-American man with a white beard and a Celtics cap. “That’s Morgan Freeman, I think,” he said. His guest, David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, gently informed him that it was actually Bill Russell, the legendary former center for the Boston Celtics.
During the parade, when Mr. and Mrs. Obama got out of their limousine to walk past fans and wave, the NBC weatherman Al Roker positioned himself behind a barricade and hollered “Mr. President!” so often and so loud that Mr. Obama turned, gave him a thumbs up and said the weather was great. From the set, Mr. Williams said sardonically, “Wow, there you have it, the first interview with the newly reinaugurated 44th president of the United States.”
Watching this kind of ceremony on television is a little like being invited to someone’s skybox at the Super Bowl — the view is amazing, but the host is still going to jabber throughout the game. It was worth it, because some scenes captured on camera spoke more eloquently than any commentator.
One was after the swearing-in ceremony, when Mr. Obama was leaving the stand to go back into the Capitol, and then turned to stare at the huge, celebrating crowd jammed on the Washington Mall. “I want to take a look, one more time,” Mr. Obama said. “I’m not going to see this again.”
The TV Watch: TV Watch: The Silly and the Sublime
It said something about the déjà-vu effect that some network anchors covering Barack Obama’s second inauguration on Monday had almost as much to say about the president’s mother-in-law as they did about the president.
While the camera focused on the rarely seen Marian Robinson standing with her two granddaughters after church, Bob Schieffer of CBS News kvelled over the fact that Michelle Obama’s mother moved into the White House four years ago. “What grandma, and I speak as a grandfather, doesn’t want to be there?” he exclaimed. “I think it’s just beautiful.”
Perhaps speaking more as a son-in-law, Matt Lauer of NBC offered a different perspective. “A lot of people wondered how long that would last,” he said dryly, referring to the Obamas’ decision to have Mrs. Robinson to move in. He added quickly, “It seems to be working quite well.”
Second inaugurations are rarely as exciting as the first ones, and when the first was a never-before-seen historic moment, television has a hard time trying to whip up a similar sense of wonder and novelty. (Even MTV carried the 2009 event live, but not this year’s.) The result was a weird combination of canned statements about the majesty and pageantry of democracy and more spontaneous rubbernecking at celebrity faces — and Justice Antonin Scalia’s choice of poofy Renaissance headwear.
Even on Fox News, anchors immersed in parsing the president’s speech — one said it was “a call to arms for the liberal agenda” — were pulled off point by the sight of Jay-Z and Beyoncé. The normally imperturbable Brit Hume seemed so star-struck while describing Beyoncé as “stunning” that his colleague Chris Wallace reminded him what happened recently to an ESPN football commentator who gushed a little too wolfishly over a Miss Alabama. “Watch out, Brent Musburger got into trouble for that, my friend,” he said.
Inaugurations are long, the coverage is continuous, and the prattle that anchors and commentators have to deliver in a steady stream can at times get trite and tiresome. Even though in this case Mr. Obama was returning to office, not taking over from a rival, news personalities so marveled over the nation’s peaceful transfer of power — “uniquely American,” in the words of an ABC promo — that it almost seemed as if most foreign heads of state routinely set their successors on fire.
What helped the coverage was the fact that the inauguration fell on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, 50 years after King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech during the march on Washington. The timing lent extra resonance to the president’s speech and gave commentators a historic context. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on CBS on Monday that the ceremony reminded her of how far the country had come since 1963, and also how much was left to be done to correct “the birth defect of America’s slavery.”
Ms. Rice was one of scores of former officials, experts and well-known journalists tapped to fill the time: the presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was so ubiquitous on NBC, MSNBC and CNN that she became hoarse before Mr. Obama took the oath of office on Monday.
And it is not always easy to move smoothly from an interview on the set to live images coming over the monitor. Brian Williams of NBC was talking to former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell about political intransigence when former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, suddenly appeared on the screen. “There’s nastiness out there in the land,” Mr. Williams said. “There’s nastiness between these two parties — there’s President and Mrs. Carter — and how do we fix that?”
It can also be tricky to try to identify famous faces. On ABC, George Stephanopoulos spotted an older African-American man with a white beard and a Celtics cap. “That’s Morgan Freeman, I think,” he said. His guest, David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, gently informed him that it was actually Bill Russell, the legendary former center for the Boston Celtics.
During the parade, when Mr. and Mrs. Obama got out of their limousine to walk past fans and wave, the NBC weatherman Al Roker positioned himself behind a barricade and hollered “Mr. President!” so often and so loud that Mr. Obama turned, gave him a thumbs up and said the weather was great. From the set, Mr. Williams said sardonically, “Wow, there you have it, the first interview with the newly reinaugurated 44th president of the United States.”
Watching this kind of ceremony on television is a little like being invited to someone’s skybox at the Super Bowl — the view is amazing, but the host is still going to jabber throughout the game. It was worth it, because some scenes captured on camera spoke more eloquently than any commentator.
One was after the swearing-in ceremony, when Mr. Obama was leaving the stand to go back into the Capitol, and then turned to stare at the huge, celebrating crowd jammed on the Washington Mall. “I want to take a look, one more time,” Mr. Obama said. “I’m not going to see this again.”
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/us/politics/tv-watch-the-silly-and-the-sublime.html?partner=rss&emc=rss