Tag: YouTube
The CPD Holds No Cards - Alternate Debates Likely
The Commission on Presidential Debates is in a world of hurt, the 24/7s and technology have bypassed them and it appears McCain and Obama also are interested in holding debates outside of the rigid CPD's fall foursome (or at least adding other forums). The Commission should be nervous, very nervous.
Candidates Apply Pressure:
Floating a trial balloon via McCain's lead media creator Mark McKinnon last week, the GOP presumptive suggested that he and Obama "agree to campaign together in some states, attending joint town hall meetings and debating each other without a moderator."
McKinnon rather directly suggested:
The town hall meeting is John's best format. He's a natural campaigner up close with the public. That would test Obama's claims that he wants a clean fight on the issues."
Yesterday, according to
Alaska Report, Barack Obama seems interested
it would be a "great idea" to hold joint town hall-style campaign events with John McCain. Obviously, we would have to think through the logistics on that, but ... if I have the opportunity to debate substantive issues before the voters with John McCain, that's something that I am going to welcome."
Below the fold: New Orleans Debate Looms Large
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: CPD, New Orleans, alternative debates, McKinnon, YouTube
The "Beginning-of-the-End" for the CPD
The Commission on Presidential Debate ability to control presidential debates is about to end. Likely there will be four CPD debate in the fall but there may a lot more debates as well.
The latest entry is set for Sept. 18 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, featuring Google and YouTube technology to generate questions for the candidates.
The three remaining candidates have been contacted about participating and have not signed on (waiting for the Democratic nomination), but notably no one had rejected the idea in deference to the CPD.
New Orleans, spurned by the commission in the selection process as "not ready" has the support of the Louisiana political establishment, including popular Governor Bobby Jindal, continuing a lobbying effort begun nearly a year ago.
And why shouldn't the candidates agree. Exposure is the name of the game and there are easy alternates to the major networks and inflexible CDP structure. Why not spread the risk and recovery time from three over-hyped CPD productions? Surely the 24/7 networks would be willing, having scored all time ratings during the primary period.
New Orleans may just be the tip of the iceberg. The CPD, which scooped the League of Women Voters to take control for the two major parties, may be endangered themselves.
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: CPD, New Orleans, Presidential Debates, Jindal, League of Women Voters, Nework debates, YouTube
GOTCHA - THE FALLACY OF CNN'S DEBATE QUESTIONS
My prejudice is that the CNN-YouTube debates were poorly orchestrated affairs, and have said so on record (Minnesota Public Radio) . This project is a more systematic examination of the questions selected by CNN. After viewing the questions preferred by Anderson Cooper and others I expected to find the following:
- Entertainment bias in selection
- Gotcha Questions
- Themes aimed at Party (GOP) hypocrisy
- Issues selection tilted toward conflict/drama rather than consequence
When I examined the individual questions my inquiry took an unexpected turn. Certainly, many of the questions could be viewed through the above lens, but the variety of questions was much richer than their generalized duplicity. Damning the questions as double-dealing alone fails to answer
how the questions worked. What were their specific sins?
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: CNN, YouTube, GOP debate, questions, fallacies
It's Not YouTube's Mess . . .
techPresident has just pointed out that YouTube has invited feedback following the CNN debacle GOP debate. They interpret that call as YouTube "responding to the CNN blowback." OK, but why? CNN made the choice from thousands of questions, selected the rotations, and delighted in the "you're a hypocrite" framing. The offending party is not YouTube.
The jury is in and it is nearly unanimous: CNN's selection process produced entertainment, not light. Even the Save-the-Debate-Coalition condemned the process. The voice was less that of voters and more of CNN's "crack political team." Save-the-Debate writes:
Unfortunately, CNN's flawed editorial process in choosing the questions asked of the candidates marred an otherwise lively debate and betrayed the trust of the Republican candidates and the YouTube user community.
Not to mention voters who are left to assess crazy questions eliciting equally undignified answers.
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: YouTube, GOP debate, CNN, Questions, criticism
Whose Tube?
Writing after the Kennedy-Nixon debates in 1960, historian Henry Steele Commager lamented that televised debates "submit the greatest elective office in the world to the chances of arbitrary and miscellaneous questions put forward not to elicit information or to illuminate problems, but to provide sensations." Commager, of course, was bemoaning the tendencies of reporter panelists to use a television debate not to enlighten voters on important topics but to produce headlines or make journalistic capital. Yesterday's Republican You Tube Debate certainly did little to demonstrate that questions from "real people" are any less vulnerable to those urges. With an array of potentially provocative questions at their disposal, journalists apparently gain new license for putting candidates on the spot and for testing who's glib under fire.
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: debate, debates, youtube, GOP, questions, debate formats
Guns 3, Energy, Iran and Health Care 0
Yes, this was a Republican primary debate.
But zero questions on what are three of the top five issues in the polls?
Republican voters do not care about these issues?
There are no differences among the candidates on these issues?
There is less daylight between candidates on these issues than on guns?
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: debate, debates, youtube, GOP, questions
A YouTube Difference: What We (Probably) Won't Hear
Unless Anderson Cooper or one of the candidates wedges them into the debate as a segue or follow up, we probably will not hear questions about the breaking news of questionable travel expenses using tax money to help Rudy conduct adulterous visits, news that broke just hours ago at Politico.
CNN can discuss little else in the hour leading up to the debate and their reporters say that's the main buzz they are discussing.
But the questions were submitted by citizens who knew none of this. In fact, most of the questions will also pre-date the tiff between Rudy and Romney about Romney's crime record as Massachusetts governor as well as questions about Romney's having ruled out inclusion of Muslims in his cabinet.
These are the kinds of questions journalist questioners would love to raise. But they also do not make for very good debate. What facts and arguments could be brought, really?
And if they are raised, might Huckabee's questionable ethics record also become an issue?
My guess is that tonight's debate will stick to broader themes of experience and policy, the kinds of questions citizens tend to favor. The format has a certain rigidity that does not lend itself to last minute improvisation.
If not, the CNN crew must be hard at work picking out some last minute YouTube questions that would serve as good springboards to the questions the media really wants answered.
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: debate, debates, youtube, questions, formats, GOP, republican presidential primary
Preview of Previews of the GOP YouTube Debate
To get ready for tonight's GOP CNN/YouTube presidential primary debate (8pm EST on CNN and streamed at CNN.com) I read the blogs and the papers so you wouldn't have to. If you want to check my work or read more, I bookmarked everything for you at del.icio.us.
To find the best of the web on tonight's debate just go to del.icio.us and insert the following (no quote marks, no commas) into the search box there: GOP youtube debatescoop. To narrow the search to articles focused on the questions add the word questions. To narrow to pieces previewing and predicting add the word preview.
After the debate you can do the same search but add winners/losers to find items discussing how the debate turned out.
But for now, you can simply click on "read more" to find my synthesis of the news and my own take aways from it. . . .
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: debate, debates, 2008 elections, republican presidential primary, youtube, GOP, questions, formats, roundup
GOP YouTube Debate: Questioning the Questions
Tonight's GOP YouTube debate provides an exciting opportunity for members of the American public to ask the candidates questions to which they really want answers. Members of the public will not only have the opportunity to write questions for candidates, but they will also be able to ask their questions of the candidates in their own way via YouTube videos. This system creates a valuable opportunity to study the structure and delivery of the debate's questions and the impact those questions have on the debate itself.
The kinds of questions asked in presidential debates, as well as how those questions are asked, bear significant implications for how candidates answer the questions and how the voting public perceives the answers to those questions. Ben-Porath, in his piece, "Framing the Candidates" (Paper presented at the annual Conference of the International Communication Association, 2005), identifies three important characteristics of questions that can affect the candidate's response and how the voting public perceives that response.
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: GOP, youtube, questions, formats, republican, presidential primary, elections 2008
Still a Man's World.
The main thing I noticed about this debate was the fact that it was introduced and moderated by a gorgeous woman, Maria Bartiromo. Her role in the debate really grabbed my attention, but for a different reason than the producers probably intended...
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: Dearborn, GOP, women, Bartiromo, youtube
GOP YouTube Debate On Again and Link Fest
Not a lot of time to write, but the CNN/YouTube debate for the GOP candidates has been rescheduled for November 28. According to The Trail, all but Romney have already agreed to participate. Tommy Thompson dropped out today, but should be replaced by Fred.
To find the many write ups and other items of interest on the four debates last week, just go to del.icio.us. In the search box, enter debatescoop and:
GLBT -- for the Human Rights Campaign Debate on LOGO.
AFL-CIO -- for the AFL-CIO forum on MSNBC.
YearlyKos -- for the YearlyKos Democratic forum.
ABCIowa -- for the GOP debate from DesMoines.
Add the following for more fine tuned searches:
winners/losers -- for articles about the outcome.
videoclips -- for links to video highlights.
liveblog -- for links to liveblogs.
roundup -- for blog posts with lots of links.
You can, of course, combine the terms, separated by spaces, not commas, in the del.icio.us searchbox.
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: debate, debates, YouTube, HRC, links
Experts Advise Students on Debate Questions
Many a question that is submitted to the YouTube debates is silly, and some that make it onto the debate program itself are criticized from a number of perspectives.
While some dwell on flaws, the Ben Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Initiative (BFTFI) saw yet another teaching and learning opportunity.
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: debate, debates, YouTube, GOP, BFTFI, questions
Mitt and Rudy's Bad Argument: The YouTube Dodge
Application of debate skills to the debate about the September 17 CNN/YouTube Debate reveals that the Giuliani and Romney campaigns are making the worst possible argument for dodging the debate.
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: YouTube, debate, debates, Rudy Giuiliani, Mitt Romney
Questions for the Debate Question Ranking Study
[editor's note, by Ross Smith] David Thomas's contribution below contains a rich set of questions for people interested in pursuing the study of what makes a good debate question. Our exercise earlier this week was meant to raise the question of questions and to serve as a demonstration project for educators. If more people pick up where we left off and take up David Thomas's challenges, numerous fruitful projects will be undertaken.
This is my second contribution.
Here I comment on the research project in which Youtube Debate questions are rank ordered by a set of criteria.
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: Youtube, formats, debate, debates, questions, 2008 election, Democratic Presidential Primaries, education
The Best and Worst Questions?
Cross posted at Huffington Post's Off the Bus pages (but this DebateScoop has new info unavailable earlier).
Jack Muse reported that Monday's first YouTube debate "has been widely praised in all corners of the media" because of the one respect in which it really differed from previous debates, the use of citizen generated video questions.
But what is a good question? Which of the questions in Monday's debate were better and which worse? Our students and faculty at the Ben Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Initiative and the Wake Forest University Debate program set out to answer just that question and we have some interesting, albeit preliminary, answers.
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: debates, debate, 2008 elections, democratic primary, YouTube, questions
