Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Joe Biden to Use Justin.tv to Stream to the White House From Abroad


by Amar Toor

When Barack Obama speaks, he gets the attention of every media outlet known to man. When Joe Biden speaks, he gets Justin.tv.

Biden, who's currently touring the Middle East, is scheduled to give a speech later in the week at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Because he's not with Obama, though, the official White House camera crew didn't make the trip with him. Without the crew, live-streaming Biden's speech on the White House Web site initially seemed impossible, since, according to The Hill, such a feat is difficult to pull off with a non-White House camera feed. Luckily for Biden and his fans, though, Justin.tv will be picking up the slack, and will stream the video live on its site. That's right: the same Justin.tv that, back in 2007, gave everyone the chance to watch Justin Kan's every waking moment, and the same Justin.tv that controversially broadcast the overdose suicide of a 19-year-old.

Since its inception, though, Justin.tv has expanded beyond lifecasting, and has now become a bona fide hosting platform, with millions of daily viewers and users. It just so happens that the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv is one of those users, making the arrangement plenty convenient. Playing Ed McMahon to Obama's Carson may not be the most glamorous job in the world, but you'd think the White House, in all of its technological splendor, would've made more of an effort to internally stream Joe's speeches. Considering how notoriously loose-lipped Biden's been in the past, though, perhaps the move was way more calculated than it seems

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