Q&A Friday #79: Will There Be Any More YouTube Debates?

30 Nov, 2007 by John Hawkins

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Question: “Last night’s YouTube debate again highlighted CNNs bias toward the Democratic Party, by asking about issues that Democrats “care” about, but Republicans generally place those issue much lower.

Do you anticipate another YouTube debate after the primaries when it is the Democrats vs. the Republicans?” — canddmf

Answer: I hope it’s not the last YouTube debate because the problem with the debates was CNN, not YouTube.

CNN chose to do an ad from a snowman in the first debate and a Dick Cheney cartoon in the 2nd debate, not YouTube.

CNN chose to allow a Hillary plant not just to ask a question, but to go on a diatribe from the audience. It’s not YouTube’s fault that CNN allowed that to happen.

CNN chose to ask a question about the Confederate flag and the “DO YOU BELIEVE EVERY WORD IN THIS BOOK” guy, not YouTube.

CNN chose to waste 10 minutes at the start of the debate introducing the candidates. CNN chose to allow the crowd to boo and cheer instead of telling them to stay quiet. CNN chose to allow the candidates to go over-time regularly without having their moderators do much of anything about it.

In other words, every problem with the debate was CNN’s fault, not the fault of YouTube.

So, will there be another YouTube debate? I don’t know, but I’d like to see another one, particularly if they’re partnered with a network other than CNN.

PS: I’d also add that as a general rule, I don’t think having Democrats ask questions via video was a big deal. If the question is good, it doesn’t matter if it comes from a Republican or a Democrat. Now, it’s a different story if they allow the questioner to actually show up and comment, like they did with the gay general, but if a John Edwards supporter wants to ask a question about abortion or a former CAIR intern wants to ask about Muslims, it’s not a big deal to me.