In 2008, the Obama campaign seemed to re-invent modern elections with their success in new media–raising cash, organizing supporters and channeling them to the polls. As President Obama gears up his 2012 re-election campaign, he’s turned back to the tried and true for presidents seeking four more years: TV interviews. Gloria Goodale, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, says it’s notable that the guy who “made his name in new media during the 2008 election cycle, is burnishing some old media tools this time around.”

It’s the kind of story bitter, sarcastic local news writers live for: a molasses truck overturning on a California highway. You know there’s no way you’re getting through the story without somebody–actually, everybody–describing it as a “sticky situation.”

Eight thousand gallons of molasses hit the road, and sure, that “sticky stuff” is indeed “thick as molasses,” as a Sacramento reporter tells us. He adds the “sweet smelling stuff” left drivers caught in the resulting traffic jam “feeling sour.”

Ah, local news: a neverending fountain of stream-of-consciousness obscenity shocking and awing myriad housewives all over the nation. Today’s profane slip-up comes to us from Ohio’s WFMJ, where “Nancy from Sparkle” has a bold and tasteful suggestion for combining sweet and savory: “biscotti does go great with cock.”

In this local news clip, there is clearly a backstory to explain the awkward and hilarious tension between anchor Belinda Heggen and sports correspondent Mark Aiston. After Aiston finishes his report and discusses his amazement with a small trophy, Heggen icily declares he shouldn’t be so shocked because he has experience with small things.

In the once peaceful town of Lafayette, Indiana, recent snowstorms have not only brought chilly weather but also a new menacing threat. Children are frightened, neighbors are helpless, and worst of all, local police are laughing and doing nothing to stop the carnage. Never fear, the stone cold serious reporters at Newschannel 18 are on the scene to restore order.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano attended the funeral of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry who was fatally shot while pursuing a gang last week in Arizona. In a phone call where Napolitano offered condolences to the family, the father of the murdered agent, angry that the border is still not secure, told her “you gotta wake your man up in the White House” and she allegedly responded “he’s done more in the last two years than any other president.” However, to the Terry family such sentiment represented “empty words.”

Local news crews spent last week descending upon an Indianapolis-area shopping mall, perhaps to buy some stocking stuffers. What they found instead, however, has sparked a controversy for in the region: a mom-and pop selling “racist soaps with inflammatory labels.”

With a goal of breaking out of Washington and speaking to the folks who have their finger closer to the pulse of the country’s important issues, President Obama chose to speak to local news affiliate 9News in Denver, Colorado. Most revealing from the awkward interview was Obama’s admission, “I don‘t think there’s a sense that I’ve been successful. I think people feel that Washington still is dysfunctional.” Oh boy, where to begin.

A very solemn WABC 7 report on a Bronx robbery went awry when a woman in the background tripped and fell to the ground. Reporter Joe Torres, aware that something was amiss behind him, turned around. Apparently disappointed that it wasn’t the robber, he ignored the flub and finished his field report as though nothing had happened.

Here’s what we know: A Norwegian News program was filing a live report “about problems with quality of the soccer field related to the freezing cold temperatures of -15C (5F)” (at least according to the YouTube poster of the video below. We also know that a young man was not deterred by the frigid weather in his strange and inexplicable effort to ostensibly expose his nether regions on live television. People are weird, all over the world.

It is now safe to say that Facebook has permeated every aspect of American culture, including penal culture. An inmate serving a 30-year murder sentence in Tulsa, OK somehow found a way to post several pictures on his Facebook profile from jail exhibiting various illicit items– photos the local Fox affiliate took to the streets for an informal peanut gallery poll. The results? Americans are concerned.

“You can practically feel the excitement!” says the correspondent from Seattle’s King 5 News as she does her report on the crazy shopping spree at a local thrift store. A few seconds later, you can hear the excitement as well. When asked what he’s purchasing, a man carrying what looks like a very healthy amount of clothing can’t contain himself and blurts out the best response to a local news question since a dude realized he had no Quran.

South Carolina’s Alvin Greene must be moping, since he’s no longer the wackiest or most polarizing person running for Senate this year. (That honor, of course, goes to another Senatorial hopeful you may have heard of.) He is, however, still plenty wacky—as the video below shows.

Chris Redfern, the chairman of Ohio’s Democratic Party, used some choice words to describe members of the Tea Party Tuesday night. Well, a single choice word. Specifically, one that starts with “f” and rhymes with “pluckers.”

In the early, halcyon days of Late Night, host David Letterman was known to, on occasion, stick his head out his 30 Rock office window and shout to passers-by “I’m not wearing any pants!” One is reminded of that bit, after watching the following clip of a Slovenian news anchor ending his broadcast, turning to speak to a production assistant and revealing that, he too, isn’t wearing any pants.

Anyone who uses their personal computer for work knows the inherent dangers that could be unleashed with the press of a wrong button (I, for one, am petrified to think that my coworkers might one day know how much of my laptop is filled with seasons of Boy Meets World). Well, an employee of a Pittsburgh high school endured the worst case scenario recently when a flash drive malfunction projected his or her collection of hardcore pornography to the student body during a blood drive assembly.

Making the rounds this week is another video to add to the Local Reporter Gaffe Hall of Fame. But is it fake? Mediaite has the truth straight from the sculptor’s mouth.

In the middle of broadcasting the daily news brief, a local Chicago news team was pleasantly interrupted by Ellen DeGeneres, who showed up unexpectedly to take command of the newscast, cheer up the place and hand out all sorts of freebies. Ellen doesn’t seem to realize she interrupted a live newscast, though, until it’s too late. And then she reports the weather!

t’s Memorial Day, which means that no matter how passionate we were about BP or Joe Sestak or Sarah Palin‘s kids earlier in the week, it’s time to take a breather and honor the troops. In New York, one of the most popular events is the Jones Beach Air Show, where experienced pilots celebrate by putting on a spectacular air show.

Dan Noyes is not only a local reporter for the ABC Bay Area affiliate, KGO-TV, but his tenacious style of local journalism is about to make him a rising star in the world of viral video. While attempting to get an interview at Laguna Honda hospital, Noyes came across hospital spokesman, Marc Slavin, who employs a “touchy, feely” approach to press relations (literally.) Turns out, Noyes doesn’t like to be touched. At all. Let the games begin!

A local Florida station has found a brilliant new way of using its resources for ratings: get a controversial figure of national stature from the area to agree to an interview and leak the most controversial snippet from it you can find to the internet. Lucky for WFTV-Channel 9, their local wonder, Congressman Alan Grayson, has developed quite a reputation for being a soundbite machine. He delivered, comparing his opponents in Congress to Al-Qaeda members in a teaser released by the network today.

Oh local news – where would we be would be without you on an otherwise slow news day? Yesterday, New Orleans’ WGNO News aired a segment about the “G Shot” – an injection of collagen into the base of a woman’s bladder designed to “put sparks back into ladies sex lives.” But oddly, that’s not the most remarkable part of the story. Check out news anchor Michael Hill‘s “friendly banter” at the end of the following clip after the jump. Update: The anchor defends his banter!

Here is a media bias no one quite saw coming: is local Kentucky media biased in favor of Republican senate candidate Rand Paul? David Weigel at the Washington Post seems to think so, digging up a news report that wonders whether the clouds over an outdoor event for opponent Trey Grayson are a metaphor and tries to suppress excitement over the “Rand Paul phenomenon.” Weigel uses the report as a gauge for Paul’s political popularity, but beyond that, it seems to indicate that even the most conventional newsrooms are starting to open up to libertarian candidates.

Nothing says December spirit like Jesus with a shotgun and Santa on the ground. That’s the front yard display that has one neighborhood up in arms this Christmas season, and though the man — no, artiste! — who created the scene understands the objection, our Central Coast News anchor assures us that he has an explanation. And it’s anti-capitalist! You have to see the clip to believe it.

We may have a winner for “laugh to keep from crying” story of the year. Local news anchor Kim Chapman called the story possibly as strange as any she’d ever reported, and it’s easy to see why: a four-year-old Tennessee boy was found wearing a girl’s dress with a partially-consumed beer in hand. But wait – there’s more.