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| 2007/12/3-6 [Politics/Domestic/Election, Politics/Domestic/RepublicanMedia] UID:48735 Activity:high |
12/3 Media Matter's displays CNN rules for submitting debate questions:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200711270007
---
Anyone who wants to submit a question may do so by uploading a video
clip through YouTube. All the videos that are submitted will be posted
on the site. CNN will then choose as many as 50 videos to use during
the debate.
Asked for guidelines on what kind of questions were most likely to make
it on the air, Bohrman said they should be concise -- no more than
30 seconds -- provocative, and creative.
"We're not going to have anything obscene or inappropriate, but I think
we'll get some very inventive questions," he said.
---
Note the conspicuous abscence of a requirement that one be undecided
or a member of one party or the other.
\_ http://www.csua.org/u/k57 (LA Times)
A review by the Los Angeles Times of the debate sponsored by CNN
and YouTube four months ago found that the Democratic presidential
candidates also faced queries that seemed to come from the
conservative perspective. At least two of the citizen-interrogators
had clear GOP leanings.
CNN officials said that in the Democratic debate, as in Wednesday's
Republican encounter, they had not attempted to determine the party
or ideology of the questioners.
\_ How did the discussion go when the Dems refused to debate on Fox
News?
\_ Totally different story. Fox news has made its reputation
(and fortune) by being very anti-Democratic Party. That's not
the same thing at all.
\_ No, they made their rep/money on providing the other side
of the news to the people who felt the rest of the news was
biased to the left. These days FN is pushing the same
agenda as CNN and the rest, but it was fun while it lasted.
\_ "The other side of the news"? Like, "War is Peace,"
"Slavery is Freedom, "Ignorance is Strength," that kind
of thing? What planet do you live on, and what's the
weather like there?
\_ When is MM going to run her correction?
\_ What correction?
\_ For her claim that the GOP did not insert any of their
supporters into the Democratic debate. For her claim that
these people all represented themselves as undecided.
\_ I can't find the claim that GOP supporters didn't insert
themselves into the Dem debate. As far whether they were
"undecided", while that's not a formal requirement, it's
reasonable to assume that someone asking a question at a
debate actually cares about hearing the answer. So if
someone has already decided to openly support a
candidate *not on the stage* what are they doing asking
them questions (and ridiculous ones at that)?
\_ "But the persistent media double standard is obvious
to everyone but the manure spreaders at CNN: Had
GOP candidates somehow been able to insert their
operatives and supporters into a Democratic debate,
and had, say, Fox News failed to vet the questioners
and presented them as average citizens, both Fox
and the GOP would be treated as the century's worst
media sinners." -MM
So by your standards, the numerous GOP supporters
who asked questions during the Democratic debate
should not have done that? When are you going to
condemn them for it? Why is your outrage so
selective?
\_ Well, I didn't care about the Dem debate and so
didn't watch it because I know enough about the
candidates' positions that there's no way I'd
vote for any of them. And yes, had any GOP
activists been outed in that debate, I would have
been just as annoyed. There's a difference
between "conservative questions" and GOP
activists. In *both* cases CNN should have
screened for questions that actually matter to
the actual primary voters. -pp
\_ get a clue.
\_ GOP activists did ask questions at the
Democratic debate, you are just too blind
to see that.
\_ Name em.
\_ John McAlpin, for one. |
| 4/4 |
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| mediamatters.org/items/200711270007 post to The New York Times' political blog, The Caucus, staff writer Ariel Alexovich purported to give a "sneak peek" at how questions for the November 28 CNN/YouTube Republican presidential candidates debate will be selected. Wednesday's Republican event is 'a debate of their party,' " and quoted debate executive producer and CNN Washington bureau chief David Bohrman saying, "There are quite a few things you might describe as Democratic 'gotchas,' and we are weeding those out." Alexovich further wrote that, according to Bohrman, questions that "involve asking the candidates to defend their opposition to gay marriage and abortion," which Bohrman called "lobbying grenades," "would be disqualified by the CNN selection team." spenders: "I'd like to know, if the Democrats come into office, are my taxes going to rise like usually they do when a Democrat gets into office?" CNN also aired two separate questions on same-sex marriage. article, the Associated Press reported that when asked about "guidelines on what kind of questions were most likely to make it on the air," Bohrman said that he would eliminate questions that were "obscene or inappropriate." In contrast to the statements Bohrman made to The Caucus regarding the Republican debate, there is no indication in the AP story that CNN intended to make the July 23 Democratic debate a "debate of their party," or that CNN was attempting to "weed ... All the videos that are submitted will be posted on the site. CNN will then choose as many as 50 videos to use during the debate. Asked for guidelines on what kind of questions were most likely to make it on the air, Bohrman said they should be concise -- no more than 30 seconds -- provocative, and creative. "We're not going to have anything obscene or inappropriate, but I think we'll get some very inventive questions," he said. to eliminate some of the questions" submitted, and then aired a video montage of "some of the videos and the questions you're not going to see tonight, and why." ust because a video was popular online" did not indicate that it would be asked during the debate, and that while "one campaign made an excellent effort to try to get a particular question into tonight's debate," such an attempt to "stuff the ballot box, so to speak," would not result in the question being aired. However, Cooper gave no indication that CNN removed from consideration any questions that may have been submitted by Republicans. Media Matters for America compiled the following list of possible Republican "gotchas" asked of candidates during the July 23 CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate: * I'd like to know, if the Democrats come into office, are my taxes going to rise like usually they do when a Democrat gets into office? And the follow-up: Are we watching the same blankin' war? I certainly wasn't a big fan of the invasion/liberation. It sickens me to hear about soldiers wounded and getting killed daily, not to mention innocent Iraqis, but how do we pull out now? Don't you think if we pulled out now that it would open it up for Iran and Syria, God knows who -- Russia -- how do we pull out now? And isn't it our responsibility to get these people up on their feet? I mean, do you leave a newborn baby to take care of himself? In one of the previous debates, you said something along the lines of, "The entire deaths of Vietnam died in vain." How do you expect to win in a country where probably a pretty large chunk of the people voting disagree with that statement and might very well be offended by it? I'd like to know if you plan to defend that statement, or if you're just going to flip-flop. The Arab states, Muslim nations, believe its women as being second-class citizens. If you're president of the United States, how do you feel that you would be even be taken seriously by these states in any kind of talks, negotiations, or any other diplomatic relations? Further, during the July 23 debate, Democratic candidates were twice asked about their position on same-sex marriage: * Hi, my name's Mary; and my name is Jen -- and we're from Brooklyn, New York. If you were elected president of the United States, would you allow us to be married to each other? I'm the pastor of Exodus Mission and Outreach Church in Hickory, North Carolina. Senator Edwards said his opposition to gay marriage is influenced by his Southern Baptist background. Most Americans agree it was wrong and unconstitutional to use religion to justify slavery, segregation, and denying women the right to vote. So, why is it still acceptable to use religion to deny gay Americans their full and equal rights? From CNN's July 23 broadcast of the CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate: COOPER: Good evening, and welcome, and thank you very much, Chris, for that introduction. We are coming to you tonight from the Citadel, the military college of South Carolina. This is the first debate of the presidential election season sponsored by the Democratic National Committee -- sanctioned, I should say, by the Democratic National Committee. The candidates on this stage don't know how it's going to work, neither do their campaigns, and frankly, we think that's actually a good thing. We received about 3,000 videos from YouTube viewers all around the country. And reading off what Chris said from Portland, the challenge tonight is to make sure that all the candidates actually answer the questions that were asked to them. As I said, we got about 3,000 videos from all around the country, and, frankly, all around the world. A lot of them were incredibly smart, very thoughtful, very heartfelt, and it was a real tough decision trying to decide which questions would actually go to the candidates tonight. It was pretty easy, though, to eliminate some of the questions. And since we're -- yeah, as you can imagine -- since we're doing this again September 17th with the Republican candidates, we thought we'd show you some of the videos and the questions you're not going to see tonight, and why. COOPER: Dressing up in costume was probably not the best way to get taken seriously. Nothing against costumes, mind you, it's just kind of distracting. COOPER: We saw a lot of kids making videos, and that was really great. UNIDENTIFIED MALE 2: Most scientists say that when I'm about your age, half the species on Earth will go extinct. COOPER: But we also noticed a lot of people seemed to use their kids to ask adult questions. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 2: Will Social Security be there for my generation? COOPER: Does a 5-year-old really care about Social Security? COOPER: Just because a video was popular online doesn't mean you'll see it tonight. UNIDENTIFIED MALE 3: What are your thoughts on a recent poll suggesting that 88 percent of Californians elected Governor Schwarzenegger in hopes that a cyborg of his nature could stop a future nuclear war? So, we all know that Arnold Schwarzenegger is a cyborg, so there's no time -- no need to waste time actually asking the candidates that question. We also eliminated, we think, any attempt to stuff the ballot box, so to speak. We noticed that one campaign made an excellent effort to try to get a particular question into tonight's debate. UNIDENTIFIED MALE 1: So here's what we'd like you to do: We'd like you, all of you, to ask the same "then what" question to the candidates. CROWD: Every Democrat wants to get our troops out of Iraq as soon as possible. QUESTION: My name is Marcus Benson from Minneapolis, and I'd like to know, if the Democrats come into office, are my taxes going to rise like usually they do when a Democrat gets into office? My question for all the candidates: How do we pull out now? And the follow-up: Are we watching the same blankin' war? I certainly wasn't a big fan of the invasion/liberation. It sickens me to hear about soldiers wounded and getting killed daily, not to mention innocent Iraqis, but how do we pull out now? Don't you think if we pulled out now that it would open it up for Iran and Syria, God knows who -- Russia -- how do we pull out now? And isn't it our responsibility to get these people up on their feet? I mean, do you leave a newborn baby to take care of ... |
| www.csua.org/u/k57 -> www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-youtube30nov30,1,4823606.story?ctrack=1&cset=true Subscribe YouTube Stan Honda / AFP/Getty Images DEBATE DEBATE: A YouTube questioner queries Republican candidates in St. Critics said some questioners were Democratic partisans. A review of Julys Democratic YouTube debate found that some questioners came from a conservative perspective. The right views partisan YouTube questioners, cries foul Stan Honda / AFP/Getty Images DEBATE DEBATE: A YouTube questioner queries Republican candidates in St. Critics said some questioners were Democratic partisans. A review of Julys Democratic YouTube debate found that some questioners came from a conservative perspective. Democratic partisans were allowed to put Republican hopefuls on the spot by CNN, Internet talkers say. By James Rainey, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 30, 2007 Conservative Internet commentators were buzzing Thursday with accusations that producers had skewed the CNN-YouTube presidential debate by allowing Democratic partisans to pose tough questions to the Republican contenders. Several bloggers said CNN had betrayed a liberal bias by selecting questions designed to put the eight presidential candidates on the defensive. But executives at the cable-TV network said they were proud of Wednesday night's debate and had simply chosen 33 questions -- from nearly 5,000 submitted by videotape -- that would prompt a spirited and substantive discussion. Candidates challenged on gays in military A review by the Los Angeles Times of the debate sponsored by CNN and YouTube four months ago found that the Democratic presidential candidates also faced queries that seemed to come from the conservative perspective. At least two of the citizen-interrogators had clear GOP leanings. "We were looking for people who were interested enough in the process to ask a question," Sam Feist, CNN's political director, said Thursday. "We didn't inquire about people's ideological beliefs, and that wasn't relevant. We were looking for questions that would make for an interesting debate." Feist said that the high number of viewers who watched the two-hour session was proof that the network and the video- sharing service YouTube had achieved that goal. Nearly 5 million people tuned in, a record audience for cable television coverage of a primary debate, CNN said. Controversy over the content of video questions began almost as soon as the broadcast ended, when Republican former Education Secretary William J Bennett said on CNN that one of the questioners had ties to the presidential campaign of Sen. Keith Kerr, who is gay, had asked the candidates why gays and lesbians shouldn't be allowed to serve openly in the military. Kerr is a member of a steering committee for Clinton on gay and lesbian issues. Although the retired military man and Clinton's camp said the Democratic candidate had nothing to do with the question, CNN apologized. David Bohrman, executive producer of the debate, said the network wanted to avoid "gotcha" questions from clear Democratic partisans and would not have allowed the query if it had known of Kerr's ties to the Clinton campaign. But several Internet commentators said the cable-TV network should have screened out Democratic partisans, who they said "hijacked" the Republican forum. In postings that popped up throughout the day Thursday, they said that: A Texas woman identified only as "Journey," who asked if women should be punished for having abortions, had appeared in another YouTube video wearing a "John Edwards '08" T-shirt; a man asking a question during the debate about gay rights had also appeared on a social networking site as a supporter of Sen. Jay Tea was one of several to complain, writing at the blog Wizbang: "Those were good, solid questions. But CNN, by playing by completely contradictory standards for its questioners at debates, betrays its bias: the Democrats get to stack their questions to make their candidates look good; the Republicans find themselves having to squirm and evade, or give concrete answers that won't make some people very happy." But, CNN's Feist said, conservative commentators did not complain when questioners who shared their political ideology had videos aired during the Democratic forum in July. During that session, one video questioner asked the candidates to choose between raising taxes or cutting benefits in order to save Social Security. Another demanded to know whether taxes would rise "like usually they do when a Democrat comes in office." A third featured a gun-toting Michigan man, who in an interview Thursday said he had voted twice for President Bush, who wanted to know if the Democrats would protect his "baby" -- an assault rifle he cradled in his arms. Another questioner from that forum who seemed to have clear conservative credentials was John McAlpin, a sailor who asked Clinton: "How do you think you would be taken seriously" by Arab and Muslim nations that treat women as "second-class citizens"? McAlpin's MySpace page features pictures of Rudolph W Giuliani, the former New York mayor and Republican presidential candidate. It depicts Fox commentator Bill O'Reilly as a friend, while offering a caricature of a bearded, turban-wearing "Borat Hussein Obama" -- a derogatory reference to Obama, the Democratic candidate who as a youth attended a Muslim school. CNN officials said that in the Democratic debate, as in Wednesday's Republican encounter, they had not attempted to determine the party or ideology of the questioners. |