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1. Transparency at the CNN/YouTube Democratic Debate » The Bivings Report
   

   July 25th, 2007 at 1:40 pm

Comments

1. Micah Sifry
   

   July 23rd, 2007 at 2:00 pm

   Steve–

   Congrats on getting picked. And I’m glad you do disclose your connection to Bivings, and through them to Thompson, here. However, I’m not entirely sure it’s fair for you to be describing yourself this way to the media [http://www.kcpw.org/article/4006]: “We’re not journalists or professional media people, and we’re younger - so we have different questions,” says Petersen. “I think the debate will be different just by the nature of the people asking the questions.” Or just as a “political blogger”? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ame.....912406.stm

   I’m not disparaging the quality of the question you posted, but to the degree that CNN or YouTube thinks you’re just an “average Joe” and puts that out there, rather than a guy working for a web-savvy internet consulting firm (one that I admire greatly)…that’s not good.

   Micah Sifry
   TechPresident.com

2. Steve Petersen
   

   July 23rd, 2007 at 3:34 pm

   Micah,

   You make a great point. Not every YouTube user is an “average Joe.” However, the point that I was trying to get across is that more and more people are gaining the savvy to participate in the process. By opening up the debate to YouTube users, a more reprsentative cross section is getting to directly participate in this process. It is certainly better than just having journos run the show.

   Further, working for Bivings had nothing to with YouTube selecting me; CNN was not behind this invitation. It agreed to it, but Google people have run my day — not CNN. Google selected me since they liked my question, and that’s the case with several other of the people they invited. The others are here since they’re active on YouTube’s political venues. I think that they’re aware that the group of 15-20 that I’m with are average voters, but the many, many others who submitted questions do represent a better cross section of American. It is those whom I am referring to. However, you should see some of my solo camera work; I’m definitely not a professional broadcast media person.

3. David All
   

   July 24th, 2007 at 8:49 pm

   Good question Micah and a solid follow-up answer Steve.

4. Steve Petersen
   

   July 25th, 2007 at 7:52 am

   Micah,

   Also, both of those reporters I talked to are aware of what I do and whom I work for. I don’t know why they identified me like they did; you could ask them.