Walk the Walk, Guys

Tony Kornheiser did something pretty clever during his run as a columnist. He attached his name to Michael Wilbon. He'd refer to Wilbon by name, and Wilbon would occasionally refer to Tony. Eventually, someone came to the bright idea, what if we put these two on a sports show together. Thus was begotten Pardon the Interruption, or PTI, for short. Despite its awful name, that apparently invokes gentility in a field of conversation better known for its religious fervor. It's Charles Barkley, being a gentleman.

Despite a gig at ESPN doing Monday Night Football, and a radio show which Tony leaves when he does the ESPN gig, the Washington Post still likes to claim these two as their own, even if Tony writes little columnettes, his talents better suited to the radio format, where his exasperation and story telling find solid footing.

Even so, WP created this You-Tube like video format where, for 6-9 minutes, Tony and Michael do a mini-version of PTI, with Cindy Boren, a sports editor, as moderator. Some days Michael is by himself. Others days, Tony. Sometimes both show up.

While this is a fun distraction, there is an issue.

Brightcove, which handles the video distribution for the Post, is simply not up to the task. I was at a hotel with pathetic Internet. But YouTube knew how to buffer the result so I could finally watch the thing. Brightcove wheezed and coughed and froze the video. You couldn't control how it played. You couldn't tell if it was buffering. And of course, you're forced to watch insipid commercials before being show the main course.

You would think, in a day and age, where knock-off competitors to YouTube can do a credible job of handling the bandwidth demands of viewers, that Brightcove could manage as well. But quite often, it is simply painful to use it, as it whines "please, your bandwidth is too low", as if some lolcat, mewing "halp!" and "oh noes!".

Find another alternative Washington Post. We like Wilbon and Kornheiser, but don't make us have to have high-speed Internet to allow us this entertainment.