President Obama recently complained about the technological backwardness of the White House. According to news reports, he said:
“The Oval Office, I always thought I was going to have really cool phones and stuff. I’m like, c’mon guys, I’m the president of the United States. Where’s the fancy buttons and stuff and the big screen comes up? It doesn’t happen.”
Brian Williams of NBC News added that this “extends to the president’s aircraft. The truth is Jetblue had live tv on its planes before air force one did.”
This is from Grover Cleveland, “Shocking News: Government Beat by Jet Blue.” Cleveland goes on to draw the obvious conclusion about government vs. private provision.
READER COMMENTS
Colin K
Apr 16 2011 at 1:08pm
The TV show “Fringe” is set in Boston, and they portray the main FBI office as being a very high-tech facility located in the new Hancock tower, our tallest and most glamorous building, populated entirely by large corporations, hedge funds, PE, etc.
In reality, the Boston FBI office looks more like an insurance agency than Minority Report, and is located in a kind of frumpy low-rise near city hall, which even the mayor himself calls the ugliest building in the city.
Then there is the fact that most mainstream movies and TV shows portray government agencies as being far more technically-advanced and competent than they are. There are exceptions, but shows like CSI generally yield little to North Korean propaganda films in their one-sidedness.
(FWIW, I have a lot of friends in law enforcement/government and believe that most LEOs/DAs/etc are ethical and earnest, but most of the stories my friends tell me make them sound just as bumbling and inept as any other large organization.)
Bob Murphy
Apr 16 2011 at 3:55pm
On the bright side, Obama gets to order invasions of countries. I can’t do that through JetBlue, even if I pay for first class.
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