Comment on Article in The Politico
I would agree that YouTube’s airing of comments by other politicians, in particular, those of George Allen, had much more impact than those mentioned in the article. I would add that in some cases, this phenomenon is not merely the result of having a camera in the room where otherwise the comments would have gone unrecorded. Sometimes in fact, a reporter from the mainstream media might be present, but because of time or space restraints or indeed the lack of a good reportorial instinct, he or she doesn’t mention the sideshow or little detail that turns out to be a big deal. As a former reporter for CNN, I understand how that can happen. But one has only to remember the aforementioned Strom Thurmond’s birthday party. The media was there, but it was the blogging community that saw first that Trent Lott’s racist reference was a story. So “viral video” is simply the latest manifestation or tool of the user-generated content that is changing politics.