Political wonks may recall Stéphane Dion’s cringe-inducing “address to the nation” back in 2008 during the constitutional crisis over a putative coalition government… If not, Adam Radwanski described this way:
At a time when he needed to look reassuring, to look prime ministerial, [Dion] looked exactly the way the Conservatives have been trying to portray him – like the leader of some sort of third-rate coup, being filmed in his hideout with one of his accomplices sticking a cheap video camera in his face.
Fast-forward three years and it seems that the same blundering crew of AV boneheads are resolutely determined as ever to make the Liberals look as cheap and inept as possible…
Patient viewers will note that there’s a seemingly interminable 5 minutes of video consisting of nothing but sound checks preceding the “action” to come. When a speaker does finally appear at the podium after this inexplicable waste of time… Surprise! There’s no audio whatsoever. For an entire minute the speaker is without sound. When the audio does eventually cut in, it’s of the worst possible quality – crackling and breaking on every high note. Subsequently, the AV team seems to get that problem under control, but then the volume is HIGH… then low… then HIGH again… Only in the last 15 minutes or so do they manage to get things right.
Yes, I know… it probably seems like a trivial gripe, and this could just be regarded as “raw video” and therefore held to a lesser standard, but I believe that presentation matters. Good grief, what sane person with better things to do would even bother sitting through that first five minutes of pointless faffing around?
Red Tory v.3.0.3 
My 13 yr old nephew, a budding film maker, has a better grasp of presentation. Unreal.
Why would they put this out there?
I wonder if your site has been hacked. Under the website option in comments, an URL linking to mattsplatto was automatically inserted.
I’m starting to believe my tinfoil hat wearing cousin, that the people running the LPC are really trying to destroy it. CPC operatives? Bitter has beens? I don’t know. But clearly the patients are running the asylum now.
This is pure amateur hour, and an embarrassment to watch.
Amateur hour sums it up. In retrospect, perhaps the Liberal Party died for Canadians with Dion’s horrible video. So of course, cue the guy with the party that seems to have its act best together to take on Mr. Harper — Jack Layton, and his NDP.
(How long did they have to film Dion’s video? Only to deliver it late? And they produced what?! And they retained the company after it? Think about it.)
Jeff: Any suggestions on what I should do to change that hack?