When we were working to schedule our U.S. Senate debate, we were thrilled that both candidates were making Springfield a priority. But trying to pick a day, time and week to get the biggest viewership was extremely difficult.
Our big fear? The St. Louis Cardinals will be in a critical post-season playoff game on the same night and time of our debate. Now we'd never publicly root against the Cards, but it is a real worry. We know if it's us versus the Cardinals, we'll lose.
Our executive producer and my fellow blogger Brad Belote, expressed that exact worry to the Wall Street Journal . . . but also offered a possible solution. It just shows how the media will have to continue to adapt to fight for people's time and eyeballs.
Below is the beginning of the Journal's piece. Heck, Belote made the lede. In fact, his name is the first words in the lede. Kudos to our tireless executive producer!
BRAD BELOTE, executive producer of KYTV in Springfield, Mo., worries the NBC affiliate won't attract much attention on Oct. 16 when it hosts a debate in the U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Jim Talent and Democrat Claire McCaskill. The problem: the St. Louis Cardinals are headed for the postseason. "We're a little nervous going up against a potential playoff game," he says.
But this year voters can still see the full debate even if they're watching baseball when it's aired. That's because for the first time KYTV will make a streaming version of the debate available on its Web site. "There's an appetite there for folks who want to see it when they can," Mr. Belote says.
The technology that's been flooding the Internet with videos produced by everyone from teenage skateboarders to major entertainment companies also is beginning to affect the political process. Sites like YouTube.com, Google Video and Blinkx.com already are filling up with candidate commercials, news clips, interviews and even amateur satirical videos.
This new medium naturally opens up new possibilities for negative campaigning and for gaffes to be magnified into major campaign issues. For example, an amateur video on YouTube.com about Montana Sen. Conrad Burns shows him falling asleep at a hearing. Numerous Web sites carried footage of Sen. George Allen, of Virginia, calling an aide to his Democratic challenger "macaca," considered by some to be a racial slur.
But video on the Web is going beyond mudslinging. It's also beginning to help inform voters. Numerous TV stations that televise debates are for the first time posting them on their Web sites so they can be watched at any time. Some civic groups are putting short video interviews with candidates on the Internet so voters can make side-by-side comparisons. Startup sites like thepeoplechoose2006.org and election.tv are trying to create video-rich sites that provide information on races throughout the country.
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