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Snipped from slate.com.
I don’t know if you caught the YouTube Democratic presidential debate last night but for once a national debate actually had some real people in it. Thanks to the genius of YouTube. I found it to be absolutely refreshing compared to the slick, stylized questions asked by seasoned journalists and political pundits. This was the first entrance of true citizenry participation on a large scale. I hope there were many watching because it was worth the time spent. Some questions were silly, some provocative and some just downright good from the series of homemade videos filmed from people’s back yards, living rooms and just about anywhere else you can think of. You may find some went a little too far but at least, they were real. The following is a sampling of some of the stand-outs.
There was the woman who has breast cancer who posed a question about preventive medicine as she pulled the wig off her bald head. There was a real snowman in someone’s front yard who asked if he should be worried about global warming. Here are a few more that caught my attention:
- A guitarist asked about taxes and requested that his parking ticket be pardoned.
- A Michigan man who wanted to know if his ‘baby’ — a huge automatic rifle in his hand — would be protected.
- Two Tennessee men asked whether candidates’ feelings were hurt by the Al Gore hype.
- People at a refugee camp asked how the candidates would help the Darfur region.
- A North Carolina pastor asked why religion was used against gays.
- A woman asked about energy consumption as she showed off her energy efficient lights.
Here is a portion of the article that reveals what viewers experienced.
The highly hyped experiment in user generated content worked. In the privacy of their homes people were at ease and their videos reflected that. They sounded human. Had the same people been standing in the auditorium at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina asking questions they would have frozen up or tried to sound too polished.
In the slate.com article there are responses to the above questions and more. If you would like to read the full article click the image below.
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