YouTube - U Think?

Last night we witnessed an interesting Democratic "debate". CNN hosted a debate among the Democratic candidates for President, using questions posed by YouTube users. I thought the format was particularly interesting for a number of reasons.

First, I liked the fact that "real people" got to ask the questions. I think it underscored the fact that these candidates are auditioning to serve the people. The format made it seem as if the candidates were responding to individual voters, not practicing yet another stump speech.

The format too, helped underscore the reality of the problems behind the question - the two brothers caring for their Alzheimer afflicted parent asked a question about health care. A lesbian couple asked whether the candidates would allow them to marry, parents of soldiers currently deployed in Iraq asked questions about the war.... very powerful stuff.

The questions weren't tempered, as they are sometimes by the media. After all, the media has a "relationship" with each of the candidates to protect. They can't ask the harsh questions or be particularly critical, because the next day, they may need a quote or response from the very candidate they've rebuked. By using real voters questions, they were given a "free pass".

While the questions and issues, for the most part were the same ones that reporters might have asked, the format left the impression, that the reporters weren't acting as middlemen in the Q&A process. (Although, it should be noted that slightly more than 1% of the almost 3,000 YouTube submissions were actually aired and that CNN alone chose the questions.)

While the entire production was carefully managed and the questions culled, it nonetheless left me with an impression of being a more "authentic" (honest?) exchange than previous debates.

And God knows, we could use more of that.