The tone of this article suggested to me that some people are crying foul about political video clips on YouTube but frankly, I think it might be a good thing. Possibly even a very good thing.
In order to vote properly, we need to be educated. Watching an actual speech on C-SPAN gives a very different impression and understanding from watching a 15-second clip on FOX. Similarly, it is informative to see Senator Allen make racists comments at a rally and to see a Senator sleeping through a hearing.
This kind of reality video might also make it harder to politicians to control the message with spin which would hopefully let us voters get closer to the truth.
Whether the videos are put out by the opposing candidate or not seems to be missing the point. These video's capture what the candidate did or said and they do so in an unbiased way (hopefully).
They certainly cant be any worse than most of the videos on YouTube.
In Clips on YouTube, Politicians Reveal Their Unscripted Side
Rival Posts 'Gotcha' Videos In Tight Montana Race; Kevin O'Brien's Vigils
October 9, 2006
HELENA, Mont. -- One after another, embarrassing videos of U.S. senator for Montana, Conrad Burns, have been posted in recent months on YouTube.com by somebody identified only as "Arrowhead77." There was the one of the 71-year-old Republican lawmaker nodding off at a farm hearing. Another where he warned constituents about people who "drive taxicabs in the daytime and kill at night." A third showing Mr. Burns joking about the immigration status of the "nice little Guatemalan man" who works at his Virginia house. ( See videos posted by Arrowhead 771)
The tapes are hampering Mr. Burns's bid to win a fourth term in November. They're getting widespread attention in the local press, feeding his reputation as gaffe-prone, and helping his opponent for the seat -- Democratic state senator Jon Tester -- run even, if not a bit ahead, in recent polls.
That's exactly the point. "Arrowhead77" is a 23-year-old staffer on Mr. Tester's campaign named Andy Tweeten, who posts the videos from his iBook notebook, having mixed them with music and added titles. Mr. Tweeten gets his raw footage from a fellow Tester aide, 24-year-old Kevin O'Brien. Since April, Mr. O'Brien has put 16,000 miles on his gold Nissan Sentra stalking Montana's folksy senior senator with a Sony camcorder in hopes of capturing embarrassing moments on tape.
It's an increasingly used tactic in the 2006 campaign, the first election in the age of easily accessible Internet video.
Campaigns have sent staffers to spy on each other for years. But in the YouTube era, young operatives like Mr. O'Brien are enjoying unprecedented importance and, in some cases, celebrity. They post their embarrassing snippets on the Web, where some of the clips can become instant sensations, spread by bloggers and political junkies.
...
Their most famous piece -- "Conrad Burns's Naptime," a one-minute video of Mr. Burns nodding off during a farm hearing in Montana this summer -- has been seen more than 75,000 times on YouTube, five times as often as any official campaign commercial posted by either Burns or Tester on the site. (See the Naptime video2.) The Tester campaign considers a posting successful if it is mentioned in Montana newspapers, on radio or on television.
The nap video was picked up by newspapers in Great Falls and Missoula and also was seen on CNBC's "Hardball" and on CNN. The video of Mr. Burns's joking comments about Hugo, the "nice little Guatemalan man," was picked up by several national media outlets, including the Associated Press in Washington. That story was carried in several Montana papers, including the Great Falls Tribune.
