How Times Have Changed [Or Not] In Response to New Media, installment 14,441:

• Obama explaining why he decided to have a live Internet video chat:

 “This is an experiment,” the president said in a video promoting the event, “but it’s also an exciting opportunity for me to look at a computer and get a snapshot of what Americans across the country care about.”

(via Obama Makes History in Live Internet Video Chat – NYTimes.com.)

• FDR explaining why he decided to have a live radio “fireside chat,” on the subject of the banking system (from the New York Times of March 12, 1933, in advance of the 10 p.m. address that evening):

The President said that the Constitution laid upon him the duty of reporting to Congress assembled in Washington the condition of the country, and he believed he had a like duty to convey to the people themselves a clear picture of the situation at the national capital “whenever there is danger of any confusion as to what the government is undertaking.”