It was a sorry state of affairs in Montana tonight when the long-delayed, put-off, kicked down the road, and downright shunned debate was finally begun.
It started at 7 PM in Billings and for those lucky enough not to attend, you could listen on the radio or online.
I tired the former first, but I couldn’t find anything on our crappy home radio so I went to the internet and found Montana Public Radio’s live feed.
Right away you could tell there were static problems, as seen in tweets like these:
It started at 7 PM in Billings and for those lucky enough not to attend, you could listen on the radio or online.
I tired the former first, but I couldn’t find anything on our crappy home radio so I went to the internet and found Montana Public Radio’s live feed.
Right away you could tell there were static problems, as seen in tweets like these:
Please fix the audio @billingsgazette! #mtpol #mtdebates
— Caitlin Copple (@caitlincopple) September 30, 2014 Is it just me or is the MTPR audio on the #mtal debate all broken up? #mtpol
— Sanjay Talwani (@Sanjay_Talwani) September 30, 2014 Please. Fix. The. Audio. #mtpol
— jhwygirl (@jhwygirl) September 30, 2014 It’s clear that it was bad, but at least you could hear it. Suddenly at around 13 minutes into the debate Montana Public radio comes on the ol’ #mtpol and says, yes, we know we’ve got one helluva problem:
Sorry about the audio problems. We're doing what we can. They seem to be coming from the source. #mtpol
— Montana Public Radio (@mtpublicradio) September 30, 2014 And then that was it, the audio was cut and regular programming commenced once again. There were a few attempts to point people to Yellowstone Public Radio, but I don’t think anyone fared any better.
So, by my clock, that means Zinke just had to undergo the agony of having the public hear him speak for, oh…13 minutes, and if you add up all the time we actually heard his voice, I’d say it was closer to 5 minutes, tops!
Yes, quite a performance indeed, by many characters, on many levels. Let’s take a look at some:
So, by my clock, that means Zinke just had to undergo the agony of having the public hear him speak for, oh…13 minutes, and if you add up all the time we actually heard his voice, I’d say it was closer to 5 minutes, tops!
Yes, quite a performance indeed, by many characters, on many levels. Let’s take a look at some:
- Montana Public Television: First they said they’d have the debate then they caved to the Republican Party and cancelled it. Guess their donations for the year were on the line, huh?
- Montana Public Radio: Well, what the hell am I donating to them for anyways? Obviously they can’t buy adequate equipment with the money they do have. Perhaps if they move more to the right they won’t have this problem. Oh, that’s what they were doing tonight – sorry!
- Montana Newspapers: I was happy to see they at least had Twitter feeds so regular people that are unsure of what Twitter is or how it works without a ‘Tweeter’ can give it a try. Maybe a few hundred more than usual clicked over to #mtpol…maybe not.
- Politicians: You saw quite a few politicians - and quite a few who want to be one - pontificating tonight, and that was pretty nice. The good news is that we know it makes an impact:
I changed my mind on the Lewis/Zinke race after reading #mtpol debate comments...
— Mayor Krauss (@MayorKrauss) September 30, 2014 Well, that’s about it. Things continued to go back and forth on #mtpol and the debate is still going on as I write this. Hopefully Zinke continues to sound as bad as he was, and I’m not talking about the audio problems.
