CNN and YouTube
will host a Democratic debate next month in which
questions for the candidates will come entirely from
citizens posting video clips, the latest sign of how
the Internet has transformed presidential politics.
The two-hour
debate, scheduled for July 23 at the Citadel in Charleston,
S.C., will be hosted by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. But in a
conference call with reporters Thursday, executives
from CNN and YouTube said the traditional debate
format, in which a panel of reporters grill the
candidates, had been scrapped in favor of a more democratic
approach.
''Journalists do
a really good job asking questions, but there is another
world of questions out there I'd like to see,'' said CNN
Washington bureau chief David Bohrman, who will
produce the broadcast. ''This is wide-open to
creativity and the use of sound and pictures. The tone and
flavor will be so different from any other debate.''
Anyone who wants
to submit a question may do so by uploading a video clip
through YouTube. All the videos that are submitted will be
posted on the site. CNN will then choose as many as 50
videos to use during the debate.
Asked for
guidelines on what kind of questions were most likely to
make it on the air, Bohrman said they should be
concise--no more than 30
seconds--provocative, and creative.
''We're not going
to have anything obscene or inappropriate, but I think
we'll get some very inventive questions,'' he said.
A similar debate
for Republican candidates will take place September 17
in Florida. (AP)