Obama's First 100 Days Captured in Newsweek's 'The District' Spoof

By now it’s secret that today marks President Obama’s 100th day in office, so it’s only fitting that the most technologically progressive and transparent White House to date would have a web series keeping us up to snuff on the honeymoon.  Newsweek jumped all over this idea with its lighthearted reality web series The District, which premiered back in January just days after the President was sworn in.

Sure, it’s a bit of a spoof of the MTV semi-reality series The City, which is essentially just an East Coast (NYC) version of The Hills. Newsweek wanted to bring that glitzy, breezily narrated format with Barack Obama as the lead character, asking “what if MTV made a reality series about Obama’s first 100 days?”

Subscribe for daily Tubefilter Top Stories

Subscribe

One drawback however is that the series didn’t make it to the 100 days, choosing instead to end its nine episode run on March 30th. That said, it’s worth a watch. The producers even used The City’s

theme song—The Pussycat Dolls’ “On Top of the World”— for the series’ opening. Episode 5 even has Barack taking a nod from Hills star Brody Jenner and his embrace of the ‘bromance.’

It’s a clever show, spoofing the latest drama-loving MTV reality style while still being surprisingly informative. Real footage fast cut with a catchy pop score and a narrative sporting an Obama impression better than anything SNL has mustered up.

Sadly, that’s all she wrote on this series, so for more hours of White House voyeurism try Obama’s Creative Commons-licensed Flickr stream, official Barack Obama Twitter account, and the revamped White House web site. Further showing the new administration’s embrace of the web, tonight you can catch the live stream of the President’s 100th day press conference live on YouTube tonight at 5PM PT.

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.

Share
Published by
Marc Hustvedt

Recent Posts

YouTube just made a Shorts deepfake machine so creators don’t have to be in their own videos

Hey YouTubers! Do you want to be rid of the pesky chore of actually appearing…

3 days ago

Have you heard? Gaming Historian says so long, Ms. Rachel sells shoes, and TikTok ad exec moves on.

Each week, we handpick a selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends,…

3 days ago

NAB Show wants to be the meeting ground for creators and legacy entertainment: “These two segments have so much to offer each other right now”

Back in 2024, the National Association of Broadcasters recognized the importance of content creators by…

3 days ago

Hoorae returns to Issa Rae’s web series roots with “Screen Time” microdrama

Too much screen time can be a dangerous thing, and Hoorae is taking that idea literally. The…

3 days ago

Kylie Jenner brings “star power and aura” to hydration product k2o, launched in tandem with Night

The latest product backed by Night's venture studio emerged out of a partnership between the creator…

3 days ago

Hollywood has a lot to learn from creator animators (and their IPs), YouTube says in latest Culture & Trends report

Indie animation is flourishing on YouTube. From the pop culture juggernaut that is The Amazing…

4 days ago