CNN and YouTube: Making Political Debate Matter Again

Something interesting is happening in the debates this year leading up to the 2008 Presidential Election – I’m actually seeing them. Maybe it’s just because I’m older and starting to care more about politics, but I don’t think so. I think it has more to do with the Internet being used as the Internet should, to disseminate information to the masses.

You browse to CNN.com, there are long video excerpts of the debates, you go to YouTube, there they are as well. Now, CNN is gearing up to announce a partnership with the video sharing site to actually hold their own debate for the Democratic nominees. The deal, set to be announced in a few hours, marks the first time one of the old standards (though not quite network-old) has teamed up with the new standards to create such an event. YouTube users will supposedly be allowed to upload video questions which, if selected to be played, the candidates will answer.

I’m hard pressed to find a way this is anything but good. Sure, there will be videos uploaded that won’t make the cut because they are offensive, too-hot, or simply stupid – but I see this format as a first step towards actual meaningful debates. Too long have the election debates been men in suits asking other men in suits softball questions and getting canned answers back. A debate should be a debate, not a ‘who can give the least-offensive, broadest answer’-a-thon.

Technology, and the Internet in particular, is changing politics. As everything becomes more transparent, more things are getting exposed. Who knows, maybe someday in the near future a candidate will even be able to win an election without support of either the Democrat or Republican parties.

Does anyone else remember when Al Gore said that he created the Internet? Ha. I’m sure glad *he* did.

  • Andy
    MG: you are right. We see lots of politicians running internet campaigns and blogging. This medium is simply too big to ignore ;)
  • MG Siegler
    Yeah, the funniest - I think are those on Twitter. I would really love to know if the politicians have anything to do with that or if one staffer is just dedicated to updating the status with where ever the candidate currently is.
  • Anonymous
    ...unedited unfiltered long form and totally not the youtube media craze of course this falls under the c-span you really have to want to watch idea
    http://fora.tv/presidency2008
  • JUNE
    What's up with all of this "empty reporting and vacuous commentary" from Pundits? (What are these anyway, pet names for ex-perts? Must be since they too seem to have no creds as people who are aware of political behavior 101. Looks like lots and lots of people are working overtime puting this whole mess on the new guy in town, President Obama!!! That is rank and file B...S..T REpuubican political 101. Look, payoffs (Corporate double-dealing at Federal and State legislative levels is the STINK in all of this!! Start with the highest contributors, and lobbyists who WROTE the "new bankruptcy laws" after (and just before) 2000.Make lists at both levels of legislatures and see which Banks, Financial institutions, COME UP at both levels. Look back to the banking fiascoes(e.g. S&L collapses-'80's style) and see which Senators were there too. At the state levels, especially Georgia, Alabama,et al, see which legislatures either seriously enacted reasonable consumer protections against PREDATORY LENDING, and see which so-called Mortgage (Banks????) lobbied against states' attempts to carry out their only mandate for existence: Protect Citizens who cannot Protect Themselves against ENEMIES, BOTH FOREIGN, (NOT CHUMPS LIKE OUR PREVIOUS FRIEND, THE OVERTHROWN PRESIDENT OF IRAQ), and domestic. Follow the money or STFup!

    The current level of citizen outrage about corporate economic rape is exceptionally small when compared to 9000,000+ families having to face economic ruin because every supporter of lassez 'fare economics is little more than a true communist (ONLY 'we' are entitled to the protection of the government from the suckers who put their $$$ in our hands); and with 11% of the population being out of work, and uninsured, and now homeless (or soon to be). My question is how much longer will the populace STAY PASSIVE when the only reporting being done is "how are people feeling about the pace of the new administration's efforts to help CITIZENS. If no other shysters are sent except this diversionary fellow in New York, then Washington may as well test the will of REpublicans and let these "banks" fail!! giving them my tax monies, 401k earnings, and probably the 529 savings too (a really frightening thought) must not be allowed-they've already shown that their greed knows no bounds and will not stop without legal sanctions. Anyone dumb enough to give more keys to Foxes who will even wipe the blood from their mouths, should be investing with Madoff?( or is that Made OFF).

    Have Newspapers, news casters, television networks, magazines, been so cowed by the virtual takeover by so-called "conservative" fat cats in the 80's and 90's that the only serious reporting being done now is on smash and grab store robberies, movie star scandals, the sex lives of gays and lesbians, the RED CARPET non-events in hollywood? People, none of this will help with the POLITICAL / ECONOMIC melt down nor will making the common American citizen the scapegoat for "terroristic infiltration", plane hijacking, etc. We must now wage political war (peaceful, refereed) on those who would cancel habeas corpus, arrest us for disagreeing with government policies (this is NOT CHINA OR RUSSIA, is it?). This is STILL AMERICA where freedom here cannot be abridged by rulers- the freedom to choose is the birthright of every single member of this country and every single member of the human species, no man, woman or whatever owns the planet or the lives of those born thereon.
  • grahamhmichaels
    I’m hard pressed to find a way this is anything but good. Sure, there will be videos uploaded that won’t make the cut because they are offensive, too-hot, or simply stupid - but I see this format as a first step towards actual meaningful debates. Too long have the election debates been men in suits asking other men in suits softball questions and getting canned fidelity 401k answers back. A debate should be a debate, not a ‘who can give the least-offensive, broadest answer’-a-thon.
  • paulbjaylee
    them as an affiliate. So Blendtec has taken it a step further by engaging with their power users and offering them an affiliate relationship for "closing the transaction" from their website - much like Amazon does for books.And the consumer problem is fidelity 401k not just, will it blend (turn solids into fine mush with no chunks), but even moreso, will it survive the abuse a blender takes? After you go through 2-4 cheap $50 - $99 blenders whose motors gave up the ghost after only 1 year, you start to think, there must be something better - but how will I know it can really survive? Will it blend answers this question subconsciously.
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