Oh the humanity: watching Newsom *

SF Weekly writer Benjamin Wachs is trying to watch all 7.5 hours of State of the City videos posted by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on his new YouTube channel.

There is no way --no way in Hell -- that the people of the city that invented web 2.0 wanted 7.5 hours of old-school municipal policy discussion. Newsom refers to his YouTube state-of-the-citysodes as "discussion and debate," but the fact that he appears to have disabled the "rate this video" and the "comment about this video" options means that the communication is entirely one way: which is oligarchic, even dictatorial - not democratic.

Here's NPR's story on the Newsom YouTube address from today's "Morning Edition" and yesterday's LA Observed post.

* Shot at Villaraigosa: Blog Johnny California isolates a clip where Newsom emphasizes he partnered with the San Francisco schools, unlike another unnamed mayor who tried (but failed) to take over.