Let’s spin some wild conspiracy theories—because it’s fun. You can choose whether or not to take them seriously, as nothing makes better hay than a presidential election year. So I look fondly on the Obama Administration’s preparations for the president’s last State of the Union address—nearly a year before Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, or some other soulless political pretend maven—boots him from the White House. Also, as a long-time tech journalist, what goes on behind the prep interests me.
Our Commander in Chief wants you to get the message whenever or wherever you may be. That’s an admirable ambition. But I can’t help wonder if the buddy-rule still applies; I suppose it could be coincidence that the tech that will bring you President Obama’s speech and followup conversations with the Veep, First Lady, and others is provided by people/companies close to the Administration. Hehe, a crony by any other name is still a crony, just not the same.
Consider the wow-wee way the speech and followups will be delivered. There’s YouTube with a livestream tomorrow; then this Friday, not coincidentally on Martin Luther King’s real birthday, America’s first black president will be interviewed by YouTubbers Ingrid Nilsen, Destin Sandlin, and Adande Thorne. Megan Smith, chief technology officer of the United States, used to work for Google, which owns the streaming video servoce. What a coincidence!
How about another: Jason Goldman, White House chief digital officer, and tech orchestrator making all this voodoo magic, used to work for Twitter. As he explains in blog post “Meeting People Where They Are“, on Wednesday “more than 50 administration officials will answer your questions on Twitter — including the First Lady, the Vice President, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, and Acting Secretary of Education John King”. What an amazing coincidence!
But why stop conspiracy-theorizing there? In the post, Mr. Goldman explains that “for the first time, this year SOTU will be available to stream on-demand on Amazon Video”. Mmmm. Jeff Bezos is CEO of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post, the government’s liberal newspaper of record. Amazing! Such a coincidence! What timing as the old administration looks to keep its party in the oval office. You scratch my back, and I’ll massage yours!
Yeah, probably the people working on the infrastructure use what they know. Or maybe not. It’s more fun to imagine the invisible tentacles from Silicon Valley reaching across the InterWebs—coast-to-coast, or quite literally “from sea to shining sea”—to share the liberal lovefest. You think any of the younger voters most likely to stream and beam would ever vote for Donald Trump or anyone from the Republican dweeb parade? 🙂
Photo Credit: Robert Scoble
Editor’s Note: This post is for archival purposes. The original appears on Frak That!