CNN, YouTube and Not Asking The Right Question

America's great experiment with citizen journalism may have been an historic moment, even a fine harbinger of the future, and most certainly the most populist step forward the country has taken, but critics are saying that CNN, once itself a pivotal media development, failed to push the envelope in the YouTube Debates.

Though the cable news outfit said the most popular question submitted to the video sharing site was about whether or not Arnold Schwarzenegger was really a cyborg, a result that immediately discounts the masses as unserious at best and downright ridiculous at worst, thus making a case for the necessity and relevance of traditional media and representative government, Rory O'Connor of 
Questions from YouTubers came from a small box in the corner of a big screen, having the look of YouTube, but not the sense of scale. And, as Stewart also noted, the candidates gave the same answers they always gave, citizen journalism experiment or not.

So far, we have a nice step forward in the power and potential of citizen journalism – something has happened, at least – but old media and old politics still prevail, preventing any lack of control that might negate their goals or their relevance.