Two Halves of One Whole

Reconnecting

Author's Note: Begins with a blog post where she has been speaking about the Obama Girl "I've Got a Crush on Obama" controversy- it picks up partway through her post- the rest isn't important, it's to set the scene of what she's been up to and how exactly our beloved Logan found her.  

And frankly, as this reporter is the daughter of two very young, charismatic and, (according to pretty much every friend I've ever had) "hot" parents, I cringe on behalf of the Obamas at this video. Of course, this family lives in the spotlight, their lives are public and speech in this country does remain free- but regardless the creator's intent in making this video- whether as a playful parody, a biting indictment on the way the family has been handled by the media, or even just a genuine love song to a young woman's crush object- I cringe at the thought of my social media and email accounts being swamped with messages telling me to listen to a girl singing innuendos about either of my parents.

That being said, I found myself clicking through on this video, on the controversial 1984 web ad and of course the video of John McCain singing Bomb Iran to the music of the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann as well as a few other musical parody videos, commercial parodies and SNL/Upright Citizen's Brigade-esque comedy sketches- although only after furtively checking around the bus, making sure no one could see what I was watching- earphones in, screen semi-dim and a look of guilt on my face as I realized that I was truly no better than anyone else.

While we all like to imagine we are better than this, that we are focused on the facts, the policies, the important issues at stake in this election and anything else is simply beneath us, it is true that this election is different than any other- this election in a full-on Facebook/Twitter/YouTube blogosphere type of world is a different story- the playing field has been changed. Look at me, dear readers, writing for an online news aggregation site- we're part blog, part AP Wire and part user generated content platform. The democratization of the internet has changed things- now parodies, rant videos, blogs and v-logs are easily shared and accessed by people across the world.

Now someone in France's opinion of American politics can be posted, shared and responded to. Now a journalism student with a good blog name and following can weigh in on the Student Loan crisis or their feelings about Planned Parenthood and be picked up by a site such as this- published for the entire world to see. Now my stories will not only be judged by a newspaper subscriber base who voted with their wallets and wrote letters to the Editor, now there is a handy comments section where they can post anything they like, 24/7- instant and voracious fact checkers who would make my former Editor at the YDN proud (please be kind to me)! All of this means that if America thinks that a girl's racy comments on Senator Obama are the appropriate conversation to be having as we go into the second half of the Primary Campaign season- who are we to behave otherwise? The people have spoken, so Sasha and Malia, if you're reading this, let me know if you need tips on dealing with truly embarrassing parental moments.

Reporter Girl, out.

To: Reporter Girl

From: lhuntzberger

Date: 6/29/2007

Wow, Hugo snapped you up after graduation I see- he'd have been a fool not to! Congrats on the job and your blog, 6 weeks on the trail and you're already trending, I'm so proud of you. I always told you how wrong Mitchum was about you, you're already a star and I love reading your posts- I have an RSS alert setup for you so I never miss a piece.

Hey, I understand if you hate me- truth be told, I hate me. I know we didn't leave things in a great place, Ace, but I wanted to let you know that you were right- you needed time, I was an idiot and a pretty big jackass. I tried to call your number a few times, but it seems you got a new phone when you went on the trail and I wasn't sure whether your mom would give me the new number if I asked her. For the record, mine hasn't changed.