I’d Rather Have Text

Did you watch it on TV? Did you stream the video live to your office PC? Did you beg, borrow, or steal, to get to DC and see it in person?

I didn’t.

I read the speech, and I was inspired. But I didn’t then feel the need to go home and watch the replays endlessly spooled out in hi-def.

There’s not much that the video adds for me. I particularly don’t need to see the announcements of each person on the speaker’s podium. I don’t need to see the outgoing president shaking hands. I don’t need to see the fatuous Pastor Warren invocation of generic Christian pieties cribbed from forebears.

I saw photos of Michelle’s dress, and that was nice, but I don’t need to see every step she takes in it. I feel the same way about other gratuitous video usage — “Dear Prudence” on Slate.com is not improved by having Prudence read the column aloud to a camera.

Yes, I’m excited about the new government sausage. No, I do not need to see every step of its manufacture. At least, not video.