January 17, 2007

Bredesen's Interview With The Tennessean: Hear It For Yourself

Last week, The Tennessean published a story based on an interview the paper did with Gov. Phil Bredesen at the start of his second term in office, which I blogged about here.

While the paper is making some steps into the world of multi-media journalism, the paper missed a chance to provide its website readers with audio of the interview. I don't know if not releasing the unedited audio was intentional or merely the byproduct of the mainstream media's now-obsolete position of "gatekeeper" deciding what its audience should and shouldn't read, hear or view, but I've rectified that situation.

Assuming, correctly, that the governor's office audio-records at least some of his press interviews, I used an open-records request and have secured a copy of the audio recording of the 51-minute interview.

Right-click the link below to download the 6-megabyte Mp3 file, which you can listen to on your PC with Windows Media, iTunes, RealPlayer, etc..., or click the Play arrow below to listen online.

Tennessean Interviews Bredesen, Jan. 12, 2007

I am, by the way, deliberately not going to blog about the contents of the interview. I'm going to let my readers listen to it and form their own reactions, thoughts and opinions, and I'm going to let other bloggers do the same and write about it.

Update: The participants in the interview were Bredesen's press secretary, Lydia Lenker, his communications director, Bob Corney, Tennessean reporters Jessica Fender and Michael Weber, and a Tennessean photographer. Lenker says the governor's office does not record every event with the governor. "That interview was recorded since it was covering significant issues involving the start of the governor's second term and the new legislature."