Witnessing History

I don't believe there was a media outlet that failed to provide commentary on yesterday's historical events. Numerous outlets included up to the minute coverage, maps of the parade route in Washington and news feeds from spectators. The innovative way of covering this empowering, historical event were rather impressive -- in fact you can say that the use of various multimedia to broadcast the inauguration is historical in and of itself.

In class we took a look at the interactive tools that CNN, MSNBC, New York Times and Yahoo! had to offer in covering the inauguration. We argued that the New York Times, as a whole had better coverage of the inauguration and other news as well.

Looking back, I wanted to see what The New York Times would cover today and compare that to the LA Times. I believe both our strong online media outlets, however I am still partial to the New York Times.


The current main story for the LA Times is about Obama and the policies that he is putting in place on his first day. On the other hand, the main story on NY Times' page currently is Caroline Kennedy's decision to decline the position as NY Senator. Obviously, for New York readers this is more important and newsworthy. I applaud the NY Times for ranking stories in order of their potential relevance to their local readership. I see the overall relevance of the Obama story, which NY Times has as their second main story and I understand why LA has it as their main story. My only concern is that other more local news might be taking a back seat to the news and excitement of the new President.

This is not to say that there should be less coverage of the changes happening in American government because I am truly excited to witness what is to come in American politics. In addition, I am interested in seeing how the news continues to handle and cover Obama's presidency. I wonder if, unlike Bush, Obama will continue to receive praise and admiration from the media not because he is making history, but because he has good policies and procedures-- one can only hope.