Sunday, May 08, 2011

President Obama CBS 60 Minutes Interview On Osama Bin Laden In Full

CBS News 60 Minutes has the first, and perhaps for some time the only, full interview with U.S. President Barack Obama and just a few days after the successful raid, capture, and demise of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan last Sunday.

For that achievement, 60 Minutes is to congratulated. But it is to be flogged for an awful, illogical, and uncoordinated video effort that leaves it's 34 minutes of video interview on 60 Minutes Overtime on a website with an embed code that cuts the image in half, and a YouTube version that was split into three parts, and where the embed code is disabled.

In other words, I can have a half-assed version of the video on my website, or a click to the video on the CBS News website, or click to the YouTube videos, when what I want is just the embed code for the full 34 minute version.

Just because a brand does something doens't make it correct. In CBS' case, it was trying to gain traffic for its video ads, but the same ads could go on the YouTube version as well, and with the embed active, gain even more traffic from bloggers, like me, putting it on their sites.

So, I made this workaround:  each picture below is a link to that YouTube video at CBS News On YouTube.    CBS News, please stop doing this.

Now, about the Obama 60 Minutes interview.

The talk between CBS' Steve Kroft and President Obama, was one part highly informative, the other part complex dance.  It's Obama trying not to give too much information or gloat, versus Kroft asking questions that could cause the President to do both.   Obama wins.

Perhaps the most revealing part of the interview series is that the plan was finalized and approved just before the White House Correspondents Dinner, where President Obama looked comfortable, and took time to call out Donald Trump for his "birther" obsession.  Now I know why the President seemed so happy.

Also, it's clear President Obama's main concern was getting "our guys" out after getting Osama Bin Laden, more than any thing else.

Here are the videos, with a partial transcript and link back to CBS News:


Obama - Part One


Obama Part Two




Obama Part 3 - Final 

Partial Transcript, with remainder at CBS News:


STEVE KROFT: Mr. President, was this the most satisfying week of your Presidency?

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, it was certainly one of the most satisfying weeks not only for my Presidency, but I think for the United States since I've been President. Obviously bin Laden had been not only a symbol of terrorism, but a mass murderer who's had eluded justice for so long, and so many families who have been affected I think had given up hope.

And for us to be able to definitively say, "We got the man who caused thousands of deaths here in the United States and who had been the rallying point for a violent extremist jihad around the world" was something that I think all of us were profoundly grateful to be a part of.

Watch part one, part two and part three of Steve Kroft's report.

KROFT: Was the decision to launch this attack the most difficult decision that you've made as Commander-In-Chief?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Certainly one. You know, every time I send young men and women into a war theatre, that's a tough decision. And, you know, whenever you go to Walter Reed [Army Medical Center] or Bethesda [Naval Hospital] and you see the price that our young people pay to keep this country safe, that's a tough decision. Whenever you write a letter to a family who's lost a loved one. It's sobering.


More here at CBS News.

1 comment:

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