YouTube Has Become Indispensable in Politics

Tom Brown of the Seattle Times has noted what anyone who spends any time on YouTube has already discovered ...

That old political mantra, stay on message, may now mean posting more video clips on YouTube than the other guy.

Or, perhaps, hoping futilely that your own gaffes will be overlooked.

The post-it-yourself video site, which has only been around for a year and a half, now supports tens of millions of video downloads a day, many of them political.

Already this year, YouTube is being partially credited for businessman Ned Lamont's upset of U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in Connecticut and for the embarrassment of U.S. Sen. George Allen of Virginia, who referred to an opponent's campaign worker as "macaca" (a South Asian monkey, we're told).

Then there was the satirical takeoff on former Vice President Al Gore's global-warming movie in which Gore bores an audience of penguins to sleep. It's funny, but, the Wall Street Journal reported, was made by a PR company that numbers Exxon Mobil among its clients. So who's more embarrassed?

Here are some recent links to stories and blog entries about the YouTube political phenomenon. Many representative YouTube clips are linked from them:

Washington Post media colunist Howard Kurtz ruminates on the potential significance of YouTube in political campaigns:

While bloggers played a role in the last presidential election, most advertising and message delivery still comes from campaigns, political parties and interest groups with enough money to bankroll a television blitz. But the YouTube revolution -- which includes dozens of sites such as Google Video, Revver.com and Metacafe.com -- could turn that on its head.

If any teenager can put up a video for or against a candidate, and persuade other people to watch that video, the center of gravity could shift to masses of people with camcorders and passable computer skills. And if people increasingly distrust the mainstream media, they might be more receptive to messages created by ordinary folks.

In this blog entry, a communications company highlights some recent YouTube videos, including one from South Carolina that is straight from Jim Crow's playbook and one from San Diego that is ... well, you decide.

"When Republican Sen. Conrad Burns briefly struggled to keep his eyes open at a Montana farm bill hearing last Thursday, a state Democratic party operative was right there taping it, reports the AP's Mary Clare Jalonick Within hours, the video of Burns was on YouTube and available to viewers around the world."

Burns spokesman Jason Klindt characterized the YouTube posting as a "gotcha" video, saying Burns had gotten little sleep the night before the farm hearing because a flight had been canceled.

The Phoenix in Boston catches up with John Bonifaz, whom it describes as a voting-rights advocate who's running against Commonwealth Secretary Bill Galvin.

In California, Capitol Weekly reports, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and challenger Phil Angelides are squaring off on YouTube.

The online magazine Slate reports on how "Web videos dismantled Joe Lieberman" and features five Lamont clips.

Finally, Michelle Malkin, the columnist, last month created a new group at YouTube for those of her persuasion.

She says one video she posted "has garnered 76,000+ views and was the 5th most-watched video on Friday/98th most-watched video of the week; proving there is a market for right-leaning video at YouTube waiting to be tapped."

Many partisans see YouTube and its siblings as vessels for spreading their message "virally." Those of like mind download it and share it with people they know, who do the same and so forth. The frequently cheesy production values seem to be part of the charm, though there also are plenty of slick, professional productions as well.

Expect to hear more about all this as the campaign season proceeds.