White House TV

- or, "It hurts to agree with the Drudge Report" -

Yikes! ABC will be broadcasting live from the White House with a special on healthcare reform?

That's like broadcasting live from within a private office of an auto exec. Any way you go about it, you're going to be a guest.

However, if you view the White House as an American institution and not Obama's personal property, you can begin to see why this almost makes sense. Drudge, of course, is skewing the issue. Let's see what the fine succinct folks at USA Today have to say:

On the night of June 24, ABC News and Obama will host a health care town hall at the White House. The president will take questions "from an audience made up of Americans selected by ABC News who have divergent opinions in this historic debate," according to the network.

Double yikes! Let's zoom in on that last sentence for a second. Are you focused? Good. Now check out this quote of ABC News Senior Vice President Kerry Smith:

"ABCNEWS [sic] alone will select those who will be in the audience asking questions of the president. Like any programs we broadcast, ABC News will have complete editorial control. To suggest otherwise is quite unfair to both our journalists and our audience."

So the media is more similar to the government than we initially thought. Now instead of the government picking the reporters who will ask "the best" (read: softball) questions, ABC News is hand picking an audience that will surely represent America in every way.

Well I certainly hope to see Joe "A Little Off His Rocker" Nonagerian and Jane "Single Ethnic Minority Mother Living in the Projects Who Might Or Might Not Have A Drug Problem" Doe. Because that's what town hall meetings are truly like. And it will sure as hell make it more interesting than Billy Collins and Bill Cosby sitting around, wondering what they're doing there.

Actually, those last two might not be so bad. But drunken farmers and hostile auto workers would certainly be better. Let's hope they let them in.