A Happy Media at Last
What a great day it was! A historic inauguration, the beginning of a new Presidency and all that comes with it. Hope and change, laughter and smiles. There's a giddy glee in the air. We can all take a sigh of relief, the men and women of the media are happy at last!
Keith Oberman it turns out has an actual smile. He can say things that are not sarcastic and bitter. Today alone he used the word "extraordinary" so many times I jotted it down. Chris Matthews is delighted, Katie Couric is no longer confused. Even the BBC seemed to be pleased with us once again... Its' like a dream come true.
I'm really excited for the next four years. I expect to wake up to a positive spin everyday. Imagine four years of what is going right, instead of wrong. Four years where we hear our leaders have the best of intentions and not the worst. Imagine the optimism. Hard to picture I realize, because we're out of practice. The last eight years were exhausting... everyday was doom and gloom and I'm not just talking about the journalists.
The change was most evident in fact, in the big pre -inauguration concert/ party followed by the balls. The previous eight years were marked by their obvious lack of celebrity. Every big event opened with a couple country western singers and rumors that maybe Tom Selleck or Bruce Willis were in the greater Washington area, but not on camera. But not so for President Obama.
Every A- list celebrity on the planet turned out to party this time. Sheryl Crow, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks, Beyonce, Usher ,Mariah Carey, Leonardo DeCaprio, Tom Hanks... the list is too long and star studded to run down. An ardent Obama supporter said to me at one point, aren't you glad to have all the beautiful people back and singing. Yes!! Everyone I admire from Bono to Oprah to Denzel was there and smiling... tear streaked smiles of joy. The best singers were singing. The best dancers were dancing. Even the comics appeared to talk seriously about the red, white and blue. It was stirring.
I've missed these lovely faces and look forward to four years of happy talk at the Oscars and praise at the Emmy's. Of course, Saturday Night Live will be dull... just the occasional warm hearted poke at Joe Biden for being his overly enthusiatic, overly political self. That's about it. The first sketch will probably be about how obviously overjoyed he was to be in the parade. He was bouncing and bowing... .ah good fun.
Welcome back Hollywood. Congratulations MSNBC. It's a great day to be an American, a celebrity and a journalist. Oh and a blogger, great day for that too!
P.S Speaking of happy media. This is an original post by Cary Bickley who''d like to thank Quaker Oats for throwing an inauguration party in which republicans moms, democrat moms and blogger moms sat together and enjoyed the inauguration in the spirit of goodwill and optimism.
