Don't know whether you are aware, but a great many of what used to be live, in-person press conferences are now done by conference call. This happens regularly, almost every day of significant development, during the Coleman-Franken recount-contest-etc.-case.

This enables the chosen spokester to communicate, from his/her office or some other comfortable spot, with reporters who likewise don't have to go anywhere. We just have to know about the event and have the call-in number and code. Very convenient and civilized.

Today is no different. Reporters covering the story, mostly based in Minnesota or in Washington, just hung up from Coleman lawyer/spokester Ben Ginsberg's briefing, giving his reactions to the big ruling yesterday and his thoughts on the Coleman appeal. And we'll be calling in shortly to hear from lawyer Marc Elias on behalf of Team Franken.

I thought some MinnPost reader/listeners might like to hear the raw, unedited and especially unmediated feed, not because this one is so much more important than the dozens that preceded it, but so you can experience one of these wingdings directly. So I taped the Ginsberg call and here's a link to the audio.

I plan to do the same with Elias and will post the audio this afternoon.

In the spirit of the exercise, I make no comment on the contents, and you can decide for yourself what, if anything, is the news here. And you can check around some of the usual news sites to see what other reporters made of it and have the pleasure of second-guessing their decisions. But be kind.

The tape is a little less than 25 minutes. Unfortunately, you can hear me typing in the background. Sorry. But it doesn't drown anything out. Also, don't be fooled by the silence after Ginsberg finishes his very short opening statement. The Coleman staffer who is in charge of unmuting the reporters who want to ask questions had a momentary problem. Feel free to let me know what you think, of either the style or the substance, in the comment thread.