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By David All, 08/04/2007 - 11:16am
Minutes after the Democratic YouTube/CNN debate in Charleston, S.C., I reacted to the debate for TechPresidentTV saying, "I don't think we're ever going to see another debate without a YouTube component in some way. And what I mean by that of course is user-generated content."
This Sunday's Republican debate in Iowa sponsored by ABC News and hosted by former Clinton press flack and fellow Ohioan, George Stephanopoulos, is the first debate, post-YouTube debate.
And, surprising to no one who reads this space closely, there's a user-generated component (UGC).
When you visit ABC News' political page, you see a plea for user-participation, "George Needs Your Help! Submit your questions!"
At the page, which notes that submission for questions for the Republican debate is now closed but collecting submissions for the Democratic debate, it says the following:
Here's your chance to talk back on the major campaign issues that are important to you-- from immigration to education --Iraq, Foreign Policy to healthcare. The candidates or their campaign surrogates may answer your question!
Get your video questions in early-- we will be posting debate questions on ABCNews.com-- and our audience will be able to vote for the questions they think are the best. George will put some of the questions to the candidates!
Like YouTube and CNN, George and ABC News maintain complete control of the questions being asked of the Presidential candidates. In fact, based on the sentence, "George will put some of the questions to the candidates," I doubt we'll be seeing any video questions from those that were submitted. Instead we'll likely see George saying, "One of the questions we received at ABCNews.com comes from Sarah in Tucson, AZ is _________."
So why in the world does ABC News want user-generated content if they won't actually show the videos? One word: advertising.
You can watch the video questions which have been submitted here.
Click on one video and you'll note that you're sitting through some very annoying pre-roll advertising which sponsors its web video component (and keeps me from going back for more).
In other words, it looks like I was right. UGC, from now on, will continue to play a role in Presidential debates.
After all, these guys will do anything to creatively sell advertising.

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