I only watched the final 30 minutes of the “YouTube/CNN” debate, but what I did see leads me to agree with Jeff Jarvis who said, “CNN selected too many obvious, dutiful, silly questions.”
The producers — or did they outsource this to Andrew Keen? — seemed hellbent on displaying how inane YouTube users are. They didn’t just select the obvious and silly questions, there seemed to be an attempt on the part of the producers to choose video from questioners who were stereotypical to the point of trivializing their issue.
In probably the worst example, CNN selected YouTube user Jeredt Thompson from Michigan (or was that David Koresh from Waco) for the “gun-control” question. “Americans want to know if our babies are safe,” he said. He then holds up an AR=15, the non-military version of an M-16 and says, “And here’s my baby.”
Joe Biden responded — in what, if this were a debate in which one actually scored points, would have been the play of the game — that Jaredt would likely flunk the mental-illness back-ground check == and then Biden worried out-loud that he’d “come looking for me.” All of which the audience loved. And frankly, it was probably one of the better answers in the history of such cattle-call appearances that go by the false labeling, “debate.”
Okay, so CNN found someone to play Travis Bickle. Great theater. And a great chance for Biden to knock one out of the park. But what did it do for either side of the debate? Nothing. It merely reinforced gun-control advocates perception that gun-owners are crazed lunatics. And for gun-rights advocates, it merely reinforced their belief that the main-stream media is out to disparage them and confiscate their shotguns.
Next debate, Jay Leno needs to host it. He should get questions from the people who appear on his “Jaywalking” segment — the ones with the IQs of fescue grass. That way, there would be no doubt that the questions are being selected to display how dumb people-on-the-street are.
When Danah Boyd wrote her blog post and related essay, Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace,” I thought it was well-crafted and provided a thought-provoking, nuanced insight into a complex, but important online and cultural phenomenon. Unfortunately, by the time it made it into this Forbes.com article, it seems like tripe.
I’m glad Netscape co-founder Marc Andressen recently started a blog because it has been filled with great information and insight from his vantage point. Also, if he hadn’t started blogging, I doubt I’d have ever seen a blog post that has the subject line, “HP buys my company…for more than $1.6 billion in cash.”
Sidenote: My two favorite billionaire bloggers have the same first name, except the other one spells his Mark.
Bill Gates (and Warren Buffett, possibly) flew into Nashville Saturday to participate in the North American Bridge Championships. No word on whether or not he attended the Opry.
(nashville.ismyhome.com)
My custom publishing/custom media friend Joe Pulizzi has launched Junta42, a new “digg-like” service focused on “content marketing.” Content marketing is a term Joe uses to describe, “the biggest industry that nobody has ever heard of.” It encompasses all those types of media that are being created by and for the group formerly known as advertisers. I’m not a big fan of the term, but I can see the need to have a phrase like “content marketing” in order to place an umbrella-term over a lot of different types of developments in the worlds of media and marketing that mash-together custom publishing and custom media, branded media, sponsored media, association- and corporate-owned media, advertorials, etc.
Says Joe, “The future of content around the globe will rest, not in the hands of the traditional press, but in the hands of corporations. It’s businesses, not the media, that have the financial resources to go out and find the best research and editors to create great content. Plus, businesses are beginning to figure out that the creation of great content is key to lasting customer relationships.”
According to Joe, Junta42 was created to make it as easy as possible for marketing, association, and publishing professionals to find out what’s going on in content marketing. As someone who has been looking for a source of such information, I hope Junta42 delivers on that wish.
