Electronic media do not tolerate a show of open antagonism. Despite their cultivated air of spontaneity, these media are totally dominated by a sense of closure which is the heritage of print: a show of hostility might break open the closure, the tight control. Candidates accommodate themselves to the psychology of the media. Genteel, literate domesticity is rampant. Only quite elderly persons today can remember what oratory was like when it was still in living contact with its primary oral roots.

Ong, Walter. Orality and Literacy, 137.

This morning, we were listening to a MP3 of a speech FDR gave to a group of Teamsters. I had never really listened to a recording of his voice before, nor had I read any transcripts of his fireside chats or speeches. The recording was just a stump speech, one of many, one that was probably given over and over again. I had never heard anything like it. I was struck by the wit and humor and graciousness he displayed, and wondered when these things left the political arena. None of the politicians I've grown up with ever managed to appear this human.

Then, tonight, I read this passage from Ong. It would make sense, because the generation FDR was talking to was one of the last who could remember the advent of radio. They would have heard outdoor political debates and have been used to immediate oral arguement. The immediacy and humanity of that address would have been products of such an environment.