Cyber POTUS

It was an amazing piece of of cyber-theatre.  The President of the United States “streaming” on my computer. He was answering questions from thousands of Americans who Emailed the White House with their queries.

A Cyber-Town-Hall meeting.

Sort of reminded me of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “fireside chats” on radio that helped America through some pretty tough times.

Mr. Obama made it a point to “get out from behind the podium”, to meander around the room, filled with adoring subjects…uh…audience members. Very media savvy, I thought. Maybe a bit staged.

I glanced through the questions that were posted on the White House web site.  Most looked pretty normal. There were lots of people watching. Plenty of hits for the White house web site.

But wait.

Picture This Bernie

If ever there were a case for cameras in the court room Bernie Madoff’s appearance in federal court on Thursday is it.

The main objection to having cameras has always been that cameras create a “circus” atmosphere in the court room. Bogus argument. Every judge that I’ve seen in every courtroom has run his or her court room with amazing precision and control. At the slightest hint of a “circus” most judges gavel things back to order.

Anyone take notice what it was like when Bernie ran the gauntlet of cameras, photogs, reporters and producers this morning?

Dead silence.

Not a word from anyone. The predictions from veteran court observers of their being a “real zoo” at Bernie’s appearance this morning was over-rated. If cameras were allowed inside, I am sure there would have been similar control by the media.

Now’s the time to revisit the cameras in the court room controversy. It’s time that our judicial system take a look at the calendar. It’s 2009 not 1809.

Bernie cheated thousands of people out of 50 or 60 billion dollars. It would have been great for his victims to be able to see him in front of a judge. It would have been gratifying for all his victims to see Bernie led out of the court room in handcuffs.

Instead we got to see just snippets of our judicial system at work. Bernie’s victims were ripped off twice. Once by Bernie and a second time by the antiquated and biased judicial rules against the news media and the public it serves.