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The YouTube Debates Misrepresented American Youth |
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Watching tonight’s forum on CNN reminds me why I don’t like these early presidential debates. With so many candidates on the stage, complex issues were reduced to sound bites. The candidates unfailingly avoided answering the questions directly when they deviated from their prescribed stump speeches. They took veiled pot shots at each other, and they tried hard to differentiate themselves from the pack, but succeeded only in sounding at times vindictive and shrill. However, the real loser of these debates was CNN, who failed in its job of whittling the 3,000 odd submissions down to a handful of real questions.
The YouTube debates were supposed to be a revolution in grassroots democracy. They were targeted towards the youth in America and designed to bring out new viewpoints and presentations that don’t usually get airtime on mainstream media outlets. People who submitted questions were asked to be creative, personal, and focused. In truth, the set up seemed promising, and I feel that many politically active young people were very hopeful that in this debate, their views would be heard. The videos chosen by CNN, however, failed to broaden the issues, and instead misrepresented the youth of America badly.
Why were questions such as “Who was your favorite teacher?” and “What Republican would you pick as a running mate?” ever aired? Why did we need a talking snowball to ask about global warming? Why do we care if the candidates sent their children to public or private school? These questions certainly don’t represent the way I would address the candidates, and they definitely don’t represent the way youth in America approaches politics. As Redditors pointed out last week, America is full of smart, engaged young people, serious people who are seriously pissed at the way America is being run. We are intelligent, we can talk unflinchingly about the issues, and we deserve answers to many important questions. We can handle complexity, we can handle direct answers to direct questions, and as the future leaders of America, we deserve to be heard. CNN clearly didn’t see it that way.
Instead, CNN misrepresented the youth of America in their debates tonight. Instead of seeing the youth as the smart, dedicated, and serious people that we are, CNN equated youthfulness with childishness. I felt that I was being talked down to tonight as I watched people who were supposed to represent me lob softball questions at the candidates, candidates who are applying for the most important job in the world. Instead of seeing the immense political activism that is seething through youthful America, CNN decided that the kids today are all about irreverent videos and short attention spans. CNN has said that we don’t deserve a debate that seriously addresses the important issues that rarely get discussed in presidential forums. Why would we deserve something like that? We’re just kids.
This isn’t who I am. This isn’t what the youth of America represent. We have been let down in so many ways by the choices of our parents’ generation and we deserve a debate that addresses our issues in a serious, thoughtful way. Maybe the Republican version scheduled for September 17th will be different. However, with the flippant way CNN has treated young Americans tonight, I sincerely doubt it.
Update:
A commenter on reddit pointed out that I should include a few examples of questions that I would have liked to see posed to candidates tonight. Here are just a few I picked out relatively quickly:
If you go through the videos that weren’t selected, you’ll quickly see that most of them weren’t silly or specious. They were real people posing real questions. Why weren’t these videos included?
Feel free to post questions you think were worthy of air time in the comments. Here is the full list.
This is some major truth, J-Ro. Why does CNN need to be the middle man in this debate? Some sites have taken action; for instance, communitycounts.us allowed internet users to vote on which questions should be asked. The first question: should this President should be impeached, and what can be done to prevent further Presidents from abusing Presidential powers?
Certainly not asked tonight, nor were any questions about the centralization of media in our society… (go figure)
I guess I hold out some kind of need for the middle man. CNN shouldn’t have edited, but there should be someone like Anderson Cooper to moderate and ask followup questions. But community voting, hell yeah. Less editing, most definitely. IF CNN feels they need to edit, fine, but at least treat youth with respect.
CNN and all of the major networks treat their viewers like infants - that’s nothing new. No real content is aired, no real questions are asked. I don’t think there’s anything specific to this presentation - it is just business as usual.
OK, so I’m a Canadian, so I technically don’t matter, but I’d like to provide a bit of insight anyway, if you’ll let me.
I’d just like to say that if the partial goal of this debate was to get younger voters involved, then treating it a bit immaturely might have been the best way. I think maybe you’re looking at it from the point of a hard-core politics buff who wants to get something substantial from every question. The truth is, most of the population (and I don’t just mean the young crowd) are probably more likely to tune in and participate with this format, and therefore come out on the other end with more knowledge than before.
Say what you will about it being a slippery slope to the dumbing down of debates, but you might want to wait for the Nielson ratings and polls before you condemn it. I don’t believe your criticism is valid unless there’s evidence that it failed to change perception and action, which you can’t know yet.
Thank you for telling me that the YouTube debates misrepresented American Youth.
Pat, I think you’re right, but I really feel this is about respect. There were many questions submitted that deserved air time much more than some that were chosen. Why represent the youth in America by their worst qualities? If you are going to hype this debate as youth centered, as CNN and YouTube has done, don’t you have a responsibility to pick the best that you get back? I think people tuned in because they were engaged and excited by the format. I don’t think putting in silly videos helped the ratings, even if that is what some older people might have expected.
Unfortunately until young people vote in mass numbers America will not take them seriously. Their issues are hardly ever discussed.
I thought the debate in this fashion was a good step in the right direction. But, we are not there yet.
What’s so surprising here? They took the soft questions from soft intellects. How was that not obvious that would happen?
I guess I was just hoping for more. So many people, myself included, were excited about this format, and CNN and YouTube looked like they were giving it a real shot. Maybe I was a bit to optimistic…
If questions on serious issues were asked, no one would have watched. CNN only aired what they deemed fit for their audience. Unfortunately your intellect is reflected by your media. The rest of the world is laughing.
Are you still watching CNN?
Because you are just kids. Some of you are smart and make good points. But the vast majority of you are idiot children, and I speak of anyone under 25. You have very limited life experience and limited knowledge of history. You’ve been spoon-fed political correctness, and have yet to have a chance to experience how the world really works and to learn just how shitty and nasty people are. Old folks aren’t bitter and pessimistic, they’re just wiser. But to my original point, while some of you are smart and well spoken, the vast majority of you are not. It’s a factor of being young, it’s how your brain works. It’s why the young get recruited for the military, because they think they can’t die. It’s why the you are always so rebellious, they think protesting in the streets is actually going to do anything. The old guard simply don’t give a shit if you’re out protesting or what you’re protesting about. That is why they treat you like children. Because, when it comes right down to it, you are. You don’t have to like what I’m saying, and there is much more I would say to make my case but it will probably fall on deaf ears, but fact is - it’s true. Life sucks that way.
One more thing. The youth of 40 years ago did the same thing you folks are all doing today. They are now the people in charge, and you think anything has changed? A few things, maybe. But in the end, everything old is new again.
When I saw last night what the questions were - I got sick to my stomach. These were no different that the questions they get asked every day at little town-hall meetings. The answers have been calculated in advance and the politicians have scripted answers ready for each one of them.
No 9/11 truth questions, no serious questions about the fabricated war on terror or the broken economic system destroying the US.
Clearly CNN was partially trying to maintain their control of the media, not giving the extreme questions a voice. This wasn’t an internet debate so much as a scripted, pre-selected call-in show using videos.
America is broke people, wake up.
America has always been broke… We have been in debt trillions of dollars for years now, but seriously, who is going to come over and try to make us pay them back…
In this case, a reddit-type interface, where people could up-vote important questions and down-mod dumb questions, seems beneficial. Politicians would probably start answering the down-modded ones just to be clever, but hten that would be a great reason not to vote for them.
I think CNN screwed up. TV companies are used to editing content to show the message they want. The next debate should be entirely on the web and the questions chosen by a a) the people or b) a panel chosen by the people. I’m sad that YouTube (Google) was hijacked by the people who want to control the media.
Well darn, I guess the media really isn’t the message after all, is it, McLuhan?
I would say most in congress are your grandparents generation. Maybe your generation can figure out how to get rid of this bunch.
Great - now the so-called “leaders,” “media,” and other sources of obfuscation in Amerika are using the young people as the new form of distraction. Wake-up FUTURE and realize that this fight is indeed about the Constitution of the United States and NOT the UNITED STATES OF AMERIKA. This is the problem, the corporations ARE RUNNING THE WESTERN CIVILIZATION and it is to these soul-less entities that the youth of the U.S. must bow … as proven by CNN’s worthless presentation of worthless candidates for President. Study Ron Paul because he is one of the ONLY honest politicians and he is a Constitutional Republican. “Herein lies the rub.”
It was all a bunch of crap! At least now we know why elderly hate us younglings! We are shown as a bunch of idiots. I was hoping it would have turned out better myself, alas, I was wrong.
Well sure, you are right here, but I feel youth wasn’t even treated to that low level of respect. Sure, there are plenty of softball questions in “adult debates,” but there were none as idiotic as “Who was your favorite teacher?”
Adults are just as disengaged, but the youth still don’t get treated fairly. If you are going to center your debate around youth culture, then don’t you at least have a duty to present the best of what you get back?
CNN’s motivations should be obvious. They selected the dumb questions so that their own reporters don’t look dumber than the youth of America by comparison. I imagine this was no easy task, but it seems they succeeded as planned (and as should’ve been expected).
Scathing and petty as this may sound, it’s important to note that I really do suspect this line of thinking played heavily into CNN’s thought process. I’m not just being obnoxious; I’m also being honest.
Politics is entertainment. We’d have record voter turnout if we could conduct elections in an “American Idol” type format.
B.L. Says:
Politics is entertainment. We’d have record voter turnout if we could conduct elections in an “American Idol†type format.
Yea, but then the real talent would never get recognized.
Besides that , enough polticians get eleted for superficial reason as it is.
It is a sad state of affairs we are living through. Right now, our best hope for a change and ending the “Reign of Idiocy” is electing Ron Paul as president. Please look him up, study his message, read and reread the Constitution of the United States of America, and generally push yourself to be a true RESPONSIBLE CITIZEN. The Reign of Idiocy must come to an end by our own will or it will come to an end via its own weight.
Sincerely,
Kemp
I’m a Canadian and therefore these political debates do not affect me as directly as Americans, but I still feel that my opinion matters. I agree with J-Ro that more hardball questions should have been asked. The fact is that Republican controlled “News” stations do not ask the hard questions (and no, O’Reiley’s method of bashing the question over the persons head doesn’t count). Republicans cannot clean up the social and economic clusterfuck that Bush has driven your country into because Americans on a general level cannot stand the very idea of raising taxes to pay off debts. Believe me I’m not satisfied with the way my country’s being run either. I would personally pick the lesser of four evils and go for Hillary Clinton.
Kemp said;
“The Reign of Idiocy must come to an end by our own will or it will come to an end via its own weight.”
Is this meant to say that I or anyone that doesn’t agree with Ron Paul is included in the “Reign of Idiocy”?
In my opinion what the real “Reign of Idiocy” lies with those that blame America for 911.
Ron Paul lost any bit of credibility I had for him when he stated in the first CNN debate that we as a country are somehow responsable for 911.
I’ll give you an example of this warped thinking that comes from Evan Sayet, who is of course undoubtedly conservative.
“My freind has always told me that he hated his wife. Of course I never took him seriously. I figured this was just an emotional statement stemming from the rigors of marriage.As we sat in a coffe shop discussing this we saw his wife outside getting beaten and robbed. I asked him, I said; “Arent you going to do anything “? He said; ” No, she probably deserved it “. It was then that I realized he truly did hate her.”
To say what Ron Paul said takes away from everything that makes this country great.
We are constantly reminded that radical Islam hates us, but do not understand the depth of the hatred. Some people don’t understand that there is “uncurable hatred”
Anybody that thinks there is anything we can do to get along with a bunch of mindless evil killers, who’s only mission is to kill Americans, is truly dreaming and wishing.
Radical Islam is not a to be bargained with on any terms of treatment. It is a vile progressive cancer that must be irradicated.
Ron Paul seams to think that if America conciedes to any wrong doing, these assholes will leave us alone.
Does any sane educated person believe this ?
one word - goatse!
In a ward, yes. You’ve got to dig a little deeper before you say we are “blaming America for 9/11.” What does that mean? Does blaming America mean we are forgiving the terrorists? I don’t think so. To me, that statements means we acknowledge that what we’ve done in the past has influenced current events, and that we’ve had a hand at making the terrorists angy. That doesn’t mean that what they have done isn’t wrong, or that they shouldn’t be held fully responsible. But I think it is a prudent thing to say, because if we are more concerned with our security than with getting back at those who wronged us, we’d learn a lesson from history and be careful about how we treat people in the future. I think it is the only intelligent thing to do. Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.
Either way, perhaps this is a discussion for another thread. I’d love to keep this one centered on the media.
I’m sorry, but this appeasment crap has got to stop.
No country or person is perfect.
If America has somehow done something wrong enough to deserve the satanic evil that has been imposed upon us by an element of Islam that see’s things “only one way”
,then other sane elements of Islam should speak out and look for a solution that is based on the diplomacy so that many of us wish for.
Moderate Islam should step up to plate and deal with the monster that is defiling the image of Islam. And voice their concerns with America if they truly believe that somehow our intervention in the world has truly made terrorism plausable. The problem is that the killers will target them for voicing against them. And mainstream Muslims are only too aware of this.
The left STILL wants to afford diplomacy to a group that has no room for such a concept in their ideoligic twisted interpretation of Islam.
What is it about the liberal mentallity that doesnt understand that their is a rock solid uncurable discrimination going on in the hearts and minds of these punks? And that no matter what we or anyone says or does they will attack us. The only thing they want is to kill “YOU” and “ME” And that the mistakes that we or anyone else makes is just an excuse to promote this one “world under a burka vision”
Here we go again. ” lets just sit dowm with them and see how we can work this out ”
Dont you guys get it ? There is only one thing to be worked out. And that is the complete extermination of these insecure little punk bully’s.
J-ro said;
“Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.”
I’m sure we have pissed off a lot of people in the past.But only this group has resorted to these tactics as a way to voice there concerns.
But by the same token America didnt learn from its past that bargaining with these monsters “DOES NOT WORK !”
And they have not learned from their very recent past that we will kill them.
What America does in this world and has done should never ever be compared to the world vision that radical Islam wants.
The two are a million miles apart.
Whatever it is that we have done and what they would like to are as far apart on any spectrum you could ever find.
Ron Paul is an embaressment and will lose MISREABLY, just watch. Of course there will be those who will attribute this anything but his ignorant and spinless philosophy.
I do believe that conversation does belong on a different thread, but I couldnt help myself when I saw Kemps post.
Matt!
I dont appreciate being related to as a “troll”
I come to this website as a conservative with the intention of having composed debates.
If you find it offending that someone else has a different point of view. Then “goatse” explains it all.
I’m pretty sure matt wasn’t referring to you. Check out http://beginnorth.com/blog/?p=93
Goatse.cx was an infamous Internet shock site that became well-known among various Internet forums because of trolls who posted links in order to shock other forum readers. Its front page featured a picture, hello.jpg, showing a naked man stretching his anus open to a diameter roughly equal to the width of his hand, with the inside of his rectum clearly visible. Below his gaping anus, his dangling, flaccid penis and scrotum were visible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goatse.cx
I might be wrong in accusing Matt of anything. But since I.m usually always the opposition I cant take it any other way.
I’m sorry if I took this thread in the wrong direction. Lets get back to the subject.
I know what goatse is, but if you read my link, you’ll realize that CNN showed an image of goatse on TV last night. It has been getting a lot of attention today, and I’m sure that’s what matt was referring to.
Your link didnt go through, so I went to Wiki.
Sorry Matt, give me a hug ?
Could CNNs format be an insight as to how ill informed most of American youth is ?
For them to feel like they have to dumb it down should be a wake up call to the whole country.
I’m sure CNN did not intentionaly set out to offend anyone.
Others may critisize me for my prejudice, but I saw and heard a lot of the questions in the week leading up to the debate and got a pretty good idea of how stupid the whole thing was going to be.
And now after reading the article and listening to the posts , I’m glad I didnt waste my time.
I found out that in two hours the question of the global war on terror was not asked, which only goes to show the magnitude of the time wasted.
I went to youtube and heard Hillary being asked if she was a liberal. She replied that she was a ” modern progressive” This was a gutless answer, which proves that she is ashamed of what she is.
I doubt it. If you look at the questions that weren’t selected, a lot of them were really quite good. Why did they pick bad ones? Some would argue that they are trying to be “representative” of what the youth is thinking about, but that is a bullshit answer. Why? Because there are just as many adults in America who are just as politically uninformed, silly, or stupid. Yet, at the “adult” debates, you don’t get these kinds of silly questions. That difference, to me, is insulting.
J-ro said;
“That difference, to me, is insulting.”
It’s also informative.
The question still remains; “Why would CNN do that, or assume that this format is applicable to todays youth.
With all the sources that CNN has this decision was made for a reason.
Older people are more involved in the workings of our goverment. And always have been because they have more at stake. Not untill I got married and bought a house and had two kids did things take on a more important perspective,and meaning.
Besides that , the levels of history taught in my generation were way more intense than the soundbites they teach today
“Why? Because there are just as many adults in America who are just as politically uninformed, silly, or stupid.”
Yes, but do we have special formats for the adult idiots ?
I mean, yes, you have a point. But here’s the deal. If you are going to make a debate centered around the youth, why deliberately make them look stupid? It doesn’t make sense. As for your last question, the answer is no, there is no adult presidential debate for idiots, so why make one for young Americans?
“why deliberately make them look stupid? It doesn’t make sense. “
It wasnt deliberate, it makes sense, especially for myself whose had many intellectually thin debates with
todays youth.
“As for your last question, the answer is no, there is no adult presidential debate for idiots, so why make one for young Americans?”
If you make yourself look stupid you more than likely will be treated accordingly.
I am 60, retired USAF. Nothing has changed in the egotistical behavior, the condescending attitudes, displayed by the powerful.
Power corrupts. The media and politicians forget who selects them to be paid the big bucks. Everything you witness is connected to the money. Follow the money trail to see where it leads.
They not only insult youth, the future of America, they insult every American who knows that the favored lobbies and pork barrel legislation has to stop, now. These are not as much to benefit America, as to line the pockets of the media, and those who win the contracts.
Nikita Khrushchev said “Politicians will build bridges where there are no rivers.” See the “Bridges to Nowhere” at CAGW.org