Heads-up: There’s a response video to Hillary 1984 that’s started circulating on the web. More on that below. But first this bit of self-promotion: I’m on CNN’s “Situation Room” today at around 5:50pm eastern and on the CBS Evening News, in both cases talking about the Hillary video and what it all means, and PdF co-founder Andrew Rasiej is going on MSNBC tonight with Keith Olbermann. Set your DVRs and Tivos.
What does it all mean? I think my old friend David Corn captures it pretty well:
What happens when practically anyone can make an attack ad and place it on YouTube–and can do so anonymously? This could change the usual dialogue, as witty and engaging ads (or over-the-top screams) catch fire. The good news: here’s a role for citizen input in what has traditionally been a top-down endeavor: politicians speak, you listen. There is a down side: no accountability. Imagine Swift Boat-like ads that spread false information about a candidate that cannot be tied to a specific campaign or a political action campaign. The YouTube revolution can modernize smear campaigns. No need for whispers and faxes (Remember how the Bushies slammed John McCain in South Carolina during the 2000 campaign.) Now, high-tech means can be put to use to poison politics. So the song remains the same. A technology advance can be a force for good or bad, as the brave new world continues along.
I would add one wrinkle: Just because anyone can put a smear up on YouTube, doesn’t mean it will spread. The message has to resonate with enough people that they feel like telling their friends and helping spread it. To wit, someone has posted a response to the “Vote Different” video on YouTube that is called Barack 1984. The video is getting some attention, but mainly because it’s drafting on all the buzz generated by ParkRidge47’s work. Unfortunately, there’s very little that’s original about it, and the message it’s trying to spread, that Barack will lose just like the Bears lost, is hardly playing into any narrative about his candidacy (the way the original 1984 video critiqued Hillary’s vaunted “conversation”). This video also lacks the technical virtuosity of the one it’s trying to copy. [Hat tip to USA Today.]