Tomorrow is the last day to submit your video questions for the CNN/YouTube Democratic Debate. The Debate airs live Monday, July 23rd at 7:00pm ET, from Charleston, South Carolina.
Your voice wanted in historic election debatesFor the first time in presidential debate history, candidates for president will face your questions submitted via YouTube. No journalists. No panelists. No filters.
In another first-ever facet of this live event, you will be able to provide your views as part of CNN.com's post-debate political analysis by submitting your video commentary through I-Report.
From our community, so far, Rusty and Benson have submitted questions (that I know of). [SH adds: so have I.] Shelby has press credentials and will be reporting from the event. Actually, he'll be live streaming video from the spin room. Can't wait to see the collision of old and new media up close!
It's only noted in tiny type on some of the materials, but this debate is being held in partnership with the South Carolina Democratic Party. Hmmm, since Atlanta is the home of CNN, maybe we could make something happen here next year? I know we're not one of the "special states", but think of the production costs CNN could save.
PS. The revamped CNN.com now tops MSNBC.com in visitors. More here.
Comments (7)
This is lazy of me but I'm going to go ahead and just paste here a comment I made on my own durn blog, just to balance out the fact that you repeated CNN's self-congratulatory bla bla bla. :-)
It's insulting the way CNN keeps blowing up its own skirt with all its "OMG we are soooo hip and revolutionary" hype, when every poli-tech blogger on earth has been bitching at them since day 1 that they're using a completely closed and non-transparent editorial process to select the questions that get used. Without any kind of user-based selection input, the user-generated content is about as "democratic" as GWB's "free speech zones."
We haven't blogged much about it here, but I do think this is a pretty big deal.
Sure, it's hyped, self serving, elitist and whatever else you want to call it, but this is broadcast news we're talking about. If they want to exercise editorial control over the questions submitted, they shouldn't get heat for it. It's what they do. It's what we expect them to do. It is their business to gather news and exercise editorial control.
Now stop sounding like a freaking anarchist and get up there and observe the tectonic shift. Whatever you think of CNN, this is a broadcast news first and you have ringside seats.
It's not anarchistic (is that a word?) to want *some* leve of transparency. Smoke-filled rooms are so last century.
Well, yes, final discretion is left to the editors, but I can't agree that constitutes a smoke-filled room.
Anyway, I think it's unrealistic to expect CNN to relinquish complete control. Given that the pool of submissions is already very limited, it's not going to be easy to pull a cross-section of questions.
I don't envy them that task, and frankly am grateful it's not open for vote. Otherwise, I'm sure we'd end up with talking cats and such.
PS. Remember Sanjaya?
It's imperfect, but it's still a major step forward - evolution always proceeds in spurts... http://paullevinson.blogspot.com/2007/07/youtube-cnn-democratic-presidential.html
CNN is using Ataru's ad in their preview pieces for the debate!!!!! Its being broadcast throughout the world!!!!!!!
Congrats!!
btw cnn said this will cause the vandidates to be more on thier feet than ever before, but its actually less so. the candidates's staff just have to review the questions on youtube and know whats coming...