A Cable News Abomination During the Gore/Obama Rally

None of the networks turned the sound on for Obama. Viewers were treated to a cavalcade of pundits dissecting the Democrat candidate, but denied the ability to hear him for themselves.
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CNN and MSNBC both aired Al Gore's primetime speech in Detroit tonight when he endorsed Barack Obama for president. The moment that Obama took the microphone, however, both networks piped in the voices of their anchormen while continuing to show muted footage of Senator Obama speaking.

On CNN, Larry King spoke about programming changes and how his interview with Steve Carrell promoting Get Smart would air tomorrow. On MSNBC, Dan Abrams chatted with some analysts about what Obama should say to beat McCain. All the while, the man who could be president spoke about his plans to lead the country, but viewers across the country could not hear him.

I wanted to hear him.

In a hopeless last ditch effort, I flipped to Fox News, where the muted Obama footage was also airing, while Hannity and Colmes spoke unrelatedly about McCain's veepstakes. None of the networks ever turned the sound on for Obama. Viewers were treated to a cavalcade of pundits dissecting the Democrat candidate, but denied the ability to hear Obama for themselves.

Was I naïve to expect the most important news event of the night not to be muted? Or should I have grown accustomed to spin preempting the real news event?

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Shame.

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