Mr. Stewart Goes to Washington
Jon Stewart’s appearance on Crossfire has been widely blogged, BitTorrented, and mirrored. Stewart’s plea that broadcasters take their responsibilities to provide news more seriously clearly resonated with the studio audience, and which is not evident from the transcript.
There are lessons here for television archivists. Easily accessible archives of television news can inform public debate, and make media more accountable. The Stewart clip isn’t available on CNN’s site, or via a traditional archival institution, but is all over net, permanently preserved, and easily accessible. Grassroots, bottom up archiving efforts are clearly viable approach, and split between broadcast and IP TV is starting to become a lot less meaningful.