Posted on 04/23/2007 5:09:38 AM PDT by Daffynition
NEW YORK — The 2008 presidential contenders may soon be slugging it out in cyberspace, with pioneering online-only debates being planned for early next fall, a new media partnership says.
The political blog Huffington Post, online portal Yahoo and Slate Magazine will host the debates — one for Democratic candidates, one for Republicans — sometime after Labor Day, with PBS host Charlie Rose serving as moderator, the sponsors planned to announce Monday.
Voters will be invited to submit questions, and can blog in real time to share their opinions on the candidates' answers.
Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, said the idea for online debates was hatched earlier this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which bloggers and citizen journalists had been invited to cover.
"It was clear to me, the 2008 campaign was going to be dominated by what's happening on line — new technologies, new media like never before," Huffington said. She then contacted Rose and Slate editor Jacob Weisberg to form a partnership to produce the forums.
Yahoo, the largest provider of online news, will host the debates and provide the technological expertise to produce them.
Candidates will be able to participate from far-flung locations, speaking and interacting with one another before separate video cameras. The video will also appear on the Slate and Huffington Post Web sites.
Major news organizations have already harnessed Internet technology for debates, often Webcasting them and televising them at once. But Web-only debates will be substantively different than televised debates that appear online, participants in the partnership said.
Scott Moore, director of Yahoo's news and information service, compared the debates to the first televised forums between Democrat John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960.
Historians believe voters who watched the debate believed Kennedy was the winner, while voters who listened on the radio thought Nixon had won.
It's a really significant, historic opportunity for the candidates to test their debate skills in a brand new format," Moore said.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has agreed to introduce the Democratic debate, Huffington said. She said the campaigns had all been contacted about the idea and most had indicated an interest in participating.
Heck in this instance the candidates don’t have to bother to remember what their handlers told them to say. The handlers themselves can simply write the candidates’ responses for them.
Oh! Those were my thoughts exactly!
...to really really ensure that nobody hears ‘em? People barely watch ‘em on TV. Ya think they’re gonna watch ‘em on-line when American Idol or any other asinine program has priority?
Sorry, I can’t see this happening in any manner that would be of use. I am sure for the Democtatic debate, only softball questions would be given to the candidates. Questions from those who border on psychotic will not be of much use to the Amercian people.
For the Republican candidates, every Left-wing question that could be asked would be pushed through. Intelligent, well worded questions about how to solve things will never be asked. Proper solutions would ruin everything for the left.
Other than to show they have the stones to take the questions, I am pretty sure this would be a waste of time.
What happened to the 3rd party and independent candidates? This is just like the bad old days when mainstream media censored debates by only allowing major (in power, moneyed) candidates to participate. Doesn’t seem like progress to me.
gary
http://www.ExpertVoter.org
Unfortunately “not voting” is pretty much the worst thing you when it comes to democracy. What’s needed are more informed voters. Or I like to call’em, ExpertVoters.
gary
http://www.ExpertVoter.org
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