The New York times had this to say:
by Katharine Q. Seelye, NYT
From Indianapolis, it’s Friday afternoon live!
The Indianapolis Star is carrying its editorial board meeting with Senator Barack Obama live on its Web site.
In the old days in the old media, editorial board meetings were hush-hush. The sages of most edit boards liked to take the measure of the presidential candidates privately and then weigh in with their judgments.
In this campaign, a few editorial boards have taped their meetings with the candidates and then put the video up on their Web sites. The Reno Gazette-Journal was one, which was noteworthy because it made some news; that’s where Mr. Obama made some much-discussed comments about Ronald Reagan.
But this may be the first time such an interview is live streamed in real time. In this fast-paced campaign, you might as well use the Web to break news yourself before someone else does. And readers love the transparency. So this is yet another way that the Web is changing politics.
Mr. Obama just arrived arrived at The Star. While they were waiting for him, you could eavesdrop on the journalists as they prepared for the interview.
And it looks as if they’re taking comments too. Maybe they’ll even ask Mr. Obama your question.
Updated | 4:05 p.m. : Update from the Indy Start edit board:
Here’s a sample Q and A. One of the journalists noted to Mr. Obama that Indiana’s demographics were somewhat similar to Pennsylvania’s and that he had not done well with some of those voters. What is he going to do in Indiana to change that?
Mr. Obama said he wasn’t going to do anything drastically different, but he also said he was going through the worst patch of his campaign during the Pennsylvania primary. And he said he’s better situated in Indiana than he was there — enough to “shake things up.” Here’s a rough transcript of his answer:
“There is a Mid-western sensibility that is practical and common-sense and that I find that I connect with very well because it’s familiar… what I’m used to in Illinois. And people in Indiana are more likely to be familiar with my record. As someone who’s relatively new on the national scene, people are more familiar with my record and are more likely to feel comfortable voting for me. What I’ve found is that regardless of demographics, if you talk to people about the kitchen-table issues they’re dealing with — health care, education — people will respond. We’re not going to do anything drastically different…. Let’s be honest. I had about as much turbulence over the last month as I have had at any point in the last month. I started off 20 points down; I start off here tied. It’s pretty hard to make up 20 points. If you start off tied, that indicates you’ve got a base to work with…. This is an opportunity to shake things up in a way we haven’t seen in a long time.”
Update | 4:34 p.m.: The interview just ended. The Star reports that the interview set a record for live video on the site with about 4,000 people tuning in. The video will be posted to their Web site later this evening.
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