I've had a tough time getting transcripts for news shows. They typically come out a few days after the original airing. Even then you have to find them. FoxNews' site is impossibly sucky so this post never got a link to a transcript. MSNBC's site only displays the last few days of transcripts so this post never got linked to a transcript that appeared three days after airing and disappeared a couple more after that.

To make a transcript you need the original video. Official web video (if the source provides it), a Tivo, or a video capture card work fine. To make a good transcript you need proof readers. So the two requirements are cheap widely available technology and people willing to fact check it. Sound like the blogoshpere to you? I expect transcribers, factcheckers, and aggregators (transpundit anyone?) would figure out who they are in short order.

Originally this post was also supposed to include a transcript of CSPAN's recent Scalia v Breyer debate, but my weekend was blown on Football, cards, and beer. Seemed like a good kickoff, the transcript isn't supposed to be available until the end of this week. I hope the official transcript includes timestamps or I might have to add them to make sense of my notes.

UpdateJan26: I still can't find the transcript on CSPAN.org, only the video feed.

A while back I emailed The Daily Recycler to ask about his setup, here is most of his response

Actually.. You'd might be surprised to hear that I've never fielded a HOWTO request.. although I had been expecting one.

First thing is: I'm actually not a video pro by any means -- in fact, I learned everything while doing the blog.

I use a standard TV Capture card, a crappy DVD video editing software package, and Photoshop for everything on the site.

The card is an ATI 9600 Radeon, the DVD software (which i wouldn't recommend actually.. you could just as easily use the Windows Movie Maker software) is called ArcSoft ShowBiz DVD2, and then I use Photoshop to create that little image teaser that precedes the video.

I set up my computer to record a five or six hours of TV a day.. picking out shows that would be likely to be good sources for the blog --- it's hit or miss really. Every day I get emails asking for a cool video from some show I didn't record.

Update3 Jan29. full transcript available and has been for weeks , just not linked through CSPAN. Hat tip, Daily Kos (Kos, wha?! google made me do it, q=scalia+breyer+transcript).