WASHINGTON, Feb 11: The White House made another leap into the media age on Tuesday by “live-blogging” a speech by President Barack Obama.

The White House website, whitehouse.gov, carried a real-time running account of Obama’s town hall speech in Fort Myers, Florida, mixing in blogger commentary with the president’s remarks and questions from the audience. The first “live-blog” by the White House came a day after Obama held his first full-scale press conference and invited a website reporter, Sam Stein of The Huffington Post, to ask a question. Obama also called on 88-year-old correspondent Helen Thomas, who has been covering the White House since John F. Kennedy was president.

“All right, Helen. This is my inaugural moment here. I’m really excited,” Obama said as he invited Thomas to ask a question.

—AFP