Obama Inaugural Celebration on HBO

[Elspode]

If the event had been paid for with public money, then yes, everyone should have had free access to it. But it *wasn't* public money that produced the event. It was a celebration put on by Obama's team and supporters. Was it significant to everyone in this country? Absolutely. If one of the major free networks was interested in picking up the tab, I hadn't heard about it, but at least HBO gave permission for the event to be shown to anyone who had access to cable/dish.

I would say that it would have been a stroke of genius for Obama's people to have granted the rights to it with the codicil that it be distributed to everyone with a TV, but that might have made it impossible to have the event happen at all in the current economic climate.

I think we can argue that at least two free networks weren't interested...its the AFC/NFC Championships today!