Campaign Audio from PRX

In order to add context to the debate of over Obama, Wright, and race PRX has annotated Wright’s speech to the NAACP in Detroit, his Q&A at the National Press Club, and Obama’s press confrece in Winston-Salem, NC.

So far the national media has been devoid of context so we are offering everything raw but still in a usable way. I urge stations to resist going after the usual sound bites, much will be lost if you do. If you listen to as much as you can I think you will find Wright to be clear-minded and very funny at times.

So far I have seen very little MSM discussion on this. Shame on us.

Wright believes this controversy and criticism against him is actually an attack against the black church. Here, Obama artfully/despicably dodges by saying that the black church is one of “struggle” and that instead of “black liberation theology” he uses “social gospel.”

Just looking at polling data (and to some degree the tactics of the other campaigns) race will be a deciding issue. I hope local stations can raise the timbre of the discussion. Question local religious scholars, black church leaders, and others in the black community. Find out how much race will actually matter in your state come November.

Also, we have WHYY’s now famous interview with Bill Clinton on “the race card”

Again, everything in the PRX archive is available free to public media producers. If you want a tour of our collection or story ideas, get in touch.

I’m way behind the curve today, but PRX has Obama’s press conference today where he (again) qualified his position on Jeremiah Wright.  It’s here.

We have Wright’s appearance at the National Press club yesterday here.

And here are some other pieces on African American Issues

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Awash in Democrats we are.

They’re everywhere. Running from state to state aggrandizing thier politics. Majority leader Harry Reid locked the Senate doors this week so he can push his Democratic agenda. And well-whipped congressional Republicans have been forced to parry a cavalcade of scandals and financing woes. All of this adds up to a steady hum of left-leaning policy ideas: tax the rich, free trade is killing Main Street, and universal everything for everyone.

But then we have McCain and his economy speech last week in Pittsburgh. Take a listen, it may just shock your ears to hear something other than non-liberal thinking. Said out loud. In public. To applause.

Flash above and you can download and license here.

Clinton’s victory speech in Philadelphia is ready on PRX here.

Obama’s concession in Evansville is here.

Everything is annotated and of course free. Happy broadcasting!

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NPR just sent audio from Clinton outside a polling station. Flash above, here’s the link: http://www.prx.org/pieces/25340

She talks about getting tough on Iran, going negative in PA, campaign debt, and why Obama can’t “close the deal”.

The WSJ has it that John McCain is getting around campaign finance limits by creating state victory funds in key states this election year: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico, California, Ohio and Florida. This means contributors can effectively increase their contribution to McCain from $4,600 to $70,00.

Hope stations in the key states run something on it. To help out here’s some FREE resources on money in politics:

• A collection of sound bites from each of the candidates
• An extended interview with Jules Whitcover
  • (Whitcover wrote the book No Way to Pick A President: How Money and Hired Have Debased American Elections).
• Here’s a super fast way to get local data on money in politics
• A feature (4:45) on the history of money in politics
• Everything we have so far

The candidates have so far spent most of their time on the coasts and barely addressing issues central to the heartland. So I wanted to spotlight an excellent interview from Montana Public Radio’s Sally Mauk. She grabbed Clinton after a rally and in 8 minutes asked three key questions for Western states: coal, forest management, and tribal issues.

Coal is her most salient position–trying to blend energy independence, economic concerns, with the environmental core of the Democratic party. In the interview Clinton says, yes, she supports a moratorium on new coal plants. In another interview with West Virgina Public Radio, Clinton ducks and dodges questions of mountaintop removal.

Don’t know for sure, but I wonder how friendly Clinton is to coal staters. But I bet newsrooms out there can find the answer. Go to coal mines, steel plants, environmentalists, and everyday energy users and ask them the questions Clinton wouldn’t answer.

And if you do a story, post it to PRX! Here’s some other resources to help out:

• Here’s a uber-quick gloss of coal in the US
• Here’s an interview Clinton did with (liberal-leaning) Salon.com about the environmental impact of coal
• Here’s Clinton delivering her energy policy
• And here’s McCain’s energy policy
• (sorry, no Obama. But if you have it, post it!)

For our brethren in states still covering the Democratic primary, here’s 3 (FREE) sound bite collections to help make the elections local and tailored to your listeners.

• Health Care (Obama & Clinton)
• Foreign Policy
• Economy (Obama & Clinton)
• Or all of our speeches tagged and ready to go

So how do you use these? Give them to someone in your newsroom to take a closer look at the issues your listeners care about. It can be as easy as bringing a local university professor into the studio. Or it can be ambitious like what Wisconsin Public Radio did, a 4-parter that reached deep into the community.

Other ways :

• Use them as conversation-starters for local talk/call-in shows.
• Add balance for when only one candidate comes to town.
• Generate more web traffic by posting them online and encouraging listeners to post their responses.

There’s lots of things you can do. If you think of other ways, tell me about it!

We have audio from Clinton and McCain speaking in Memphis about the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. It’s doubtful we can have it posted by East Coast drivetime, but it will be available for airing tonight and over the weekend. Here is the transcript to Clinton’s speech and here is McCain’s. Here is Obama’s recent speech on race. Here are a collection of recordings on AfricanAmericanIssues (some good stuff in there).

Also, here’s a good example of how newsrooms can use PRX to produce good radio quickly. It’s from Susan Phillips at WHYY; she used raw audio from Obama’s race speech and went to a black church to feel her city’s pulse on race issues in the election.