July 26, 2007

GOP Candidates Can’t Chicken Out on YouTube Debate

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Joe Klein makes an interesting point about the Republican YouTube debate that’s scheduled for September: why would they do it? YouTube appears to lean left (otherwise, why would conservatives need to start a right-wing version?), and when you let everyday people ask the questions, instead of professional journalists, the questions are bound to be more raw and biting. And from Iraq, to their flip-flopping, to their various party apostasies, the Republican candidates have a lot of material for angry YouTubers to work with.

Also, speculates Klein, FOX might be whispering to the GOP canidates, “The Dems bailed on our debate, you can bail on CNN’s.”

But CNN anticipated the problem and Klein reports its solution:

CNN has taken the clever step of getting the Florida Republican Party and Governor Charlie Crist to co-sponsor the CNN/YouTube Republican debate…Which will make it hard for the candidates to chicken out. Can’t wait.

Neither can I. As you can tell from my massive live blog from the Democrats’ YouTube debate a few days back, I love this format. It’s going to be awesome.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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