Everett, Wash. Published: Saturday, November 15, 2008
Obama's addresses will be on YouTube
Associated Press
CHICAGO -- This isn't your grandfather's fireside chat.
President-elect Barack Obama plans to record a weekly address not just for radio listeners, as presidents have for years, but for Internet viewers, too.
Connecting the White House hearth to the American home, Franklin Roosevelt talked to the people through the radio, with crackling broadcasts delivered near a crackling fire. John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan mastered television. For Obama, who built a big part of his campaign on the Internet, it's YouTube.
Obama was recording a four-minute address Friday at his transition office in Chicago. It will be posted Saturday through a YouTube link on his transition Web site, www.change.gov. He will continue to make the videos when he takes office on Jan. 20.
And he won't be the only one in his administration taking a starring role online.
Transition leaders and policy advisers will appear in videos on a regular basis, Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. Other officials, such as Cabinet members, could also take part.
President Bush hasn't videotaped his radio addresses for online viewing as Obama plans to do, the White House said. YouTube wasn't around when Bush came into office, though podcasts of his addresses are available on iTunes, and the audio is posted on www.whitehouse.gov.
The Saturday radio addresses were initiated by Reagan and have evolved into a weekly fixture of the presidency, accompanied by a response from the party out of power.
Still, relatively few people actually hear them on the radio, and Obama hopes to reach many more with what his transition team calls a "multimedia opportunity."
