This evening I was watching former Vice President Al Gore endorse Barack Obama in a speech in Michigan. I was watching MSNBC, and Dan Abrams' show was covering the event. Gore gave his speech, which was carried on MSNBC without interruption. He then introduced Obama, and Abrams, along with his guest, began to talk their own points of view. MSNBC was kind enough to leave the the video of Obama's speech running while they talked over him, reducing the candidate's volume to almost nothing.

I immediately switched over to CNN, hoping that they would be covering the speech. Larry King was talking, and then went to commercial within a few seconds.

Three CSPAN channels to choose from...perhaps one would be carrying the speech. None were.

So here is my question for the major networks: At what point in time did the views of your pundits become more important than the spoken words of a Presidential nominee?

How about we just let the Presidential nominees talk to the American people in whatever way they feel is best for their own campaigns, and let the American people decide how they feel about each of the candidates? We, the American people, will let you know when your views are more important to us than those of our future President, whomever of the two candidates he will be. Were you all out sick the day they taught that in journalism school?

For those who still wish to watch Al Gore's endorsement and Obama's follow-up speech, you can visit the following link or play the movie below.
» Al Gore Endorses Barack Obama

UPDATE: 16 June 2008 at 11:21PM

The video above is now offline. It was only the live streaming of the speech. I'm sure that the speech will appear on the video section of BarackObama.com within a day or so. Check there for the full video. Alternatively, there's always YouTube, which is where the candidate's videos are all stored anyway.

For now, here are some photos of the event.

UPDATE: 17 June 2008 8:00AM

The video is now available on YouTube, via the following link or the embedded video below.
» Al Gore Endorses Barack Obama in Detroit, MI