Lies, Politicians and Videotape

When I was a kid, I used to lie in bed late at night and listen to the radio.

In the dark, when everyone else was asleep, you could tune into some extraordinary stations from very far away on the AM band.

My favorite was a guy named Jean Shepherd, who was a storyteller. He used to be able to capture my imagination because, despite the fact he was broadcasting on radio,  made me feel like he was talking directly to me and no one else.

Now, thanks to the Internet, I am able to get things from people far away without tuning in. In fact, I don’t have to ask. All I need to do is open my email.

One far away person who contacts me continually is Patrick Murphy, who is running for Congress in Florida’s 22nd district.

Why Patrick Murphy continues to email me is beyond me.  I don’t vote in Florida’s 22nd district and I don’t intend to.

Maybe he thinks I will send him money.  He has a large box on his website asking for donations.

I would say this is unlikely as well.

I have, however, offered him free advice on his videos – which are terrible.

Now that video is so easy to make, politicians (and everyone else) are running to the medium.  Sometimes it helps. Sometimes it hurts. In Mr. Murphy’s case, it hurts.

Unlike Jean Shepherd, who talked to me, Mr. Murphy makes no contact with me at all, despite the video. In fact, the video is alienating. It almost makes me want to send a massive contribution to his competitor.  Why? What has Mr. Murphy done that is so wrong?

As they say in sports, lets go to the video tape.

Video on the web is different from television.  Television is (was?) a mass medium.  That is, it was designed for millions of people to see the same thing at the same time.  Online video however, is an intimate experience. It’s just you and me.  There’s no one else here. And, most likely, the screen is just inches from your face.

Very intimate.

Let’s look at Mr. Murphy’s video.  In it, we’re sitting at an outdoor table with him, at some cafe, somewhere in Florida, no doubt.  So far, this is pretty good. You’re having a coffee with Patrick Murphy who is running for Congress and who really wants your vote (or at least your money). Just you and him.

Or is it?

Here’s his chance to talk to you, but wait! He isn’t talking to you. He’s talking to the person sitting next to you – whoever that is…  Look at his eye contact.  He never once looks at you.  He’s looking at someone else (maybe an attractive woman?)  In fact, Patrick Murphy is ignoring you completely throughout the entire chat.

What a jerk!

You come all the way out here and take the time and effort to sit down and spend a few minutes with him and and can’t even be bothered to look you in the eye!

Try this as an experiment in your own home tonight.  Go home to your significant other and sit down with them and try to talk them into letting you buy that BMW you always wanted (out of the kids school fund, maybe)….  You’ll have a lot of convincing to do.  But here’s the fun part.  When you do it, never make eye contact. Instead, avert your gaze 30 degrees to their left.

No only will you not get the car, they will soon be contacting their divorce lawyer. What’s really going on here? Why won’t you look me in the eye????

If anything screams ‘shifty politician’ this does.

Screw you, Patrick Murphy.

Now, this is not Patrick Murphy’s fault (OK, it is).  I am sure he was told by his ‘media advisor’ (hey, this is Florida, you don’t get the best talent in the world to start with), who told him ‘don’t look into the camera’.

If you watch TV carefully, you have probably seen this all the time.  The ‘ear’ shot.  Someone is talking to you but you’re looking at their ear.

Where did this idea even come from?

It’s actually a function of a very old technology. In the early days of TV, video cameras were so big and heavy that you had to put them on a tripod and they were run by cameramen.  The reporter stood next to the cameraman and the subject naturally made eye contact with the reporter.  Great experience for the reporter – very one-on-one, but not so great for the viewers. The viewers ended up looking at the subject’s ear.

This unfortunate by-product of a rather archaic techhnology became cast in stone as the only way to do things.  “Don’t look at the camera!”

That is, ‘don’t make eye contact with the very people you are trying to talk to’.

Which is crazy.
Which is why Mr. Murphy, no matter how important or ernest his content, looks like someone trying to weasle out of an affair in front of his wife.

hmmm….

Well, this IS Florida. And Newt Gingrich did carry Florida.

Maybe Mr. Murphy is smarter than I think he is.

Maybe not.