Online Public Relations Thoughts

So the President is holding a press conference at 8:30 pm EDT today. Interesting. It seems to me that Presidential press conferences are leftover devices from an age without a 24-hour news cycle. Bush has a good reason to go before the media tonight. He has much to explain, and he needs to project an image of someone in control of the situation. But, for the most part, Presidential press conferences are an exercise in posturing -- the media preening before cameras and the President showing how he can knock off tough questions with evasive or non-answers. The public wasn't getting much out of them.

Another media device that has lived beyond its usefulness is the party convention. Today, they are huge rallies of the faithful talking to the faithful but convincing few anywhere else. No wonder networks stopped covering them.