John Edwards' presidential campaign enlisted (micro) celebrity vloggers like Robert Scoble and the Rocketboom crew to help him with his official announcement of his candidacy in New Orleans. The big day was supposed to be tomorrow, but, ironically, his campaign made a boo boo and launched his campaign Web site a day early. Whoops. Live by HTML, die....
So, Edwards didn't wait for Scoble to make his connecting flight from California and announced his intentions to launch the "Tomorrow Begins Today" campaign a day earlier than planned. (Today Begins What Was Going to Be Tomorrow Beginning Tomorrow Begins Today?)
Anyway, Rocketboom was there and Andrew Baron penned the note after the jump and sent it to a big vlogger email list... I ask some questions about it....Others do, too....
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andrew michael baron <andrew@...>
Today Joanne, Chuck and I are out in New Orleans.
We just filmed John Edwards' first announcement that he is running
for president.
I just uploaded the video to John Edwards' YouTube account.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1etlZaf6zUw
(BTW, it may look like a photo op, but Edwards has been working out
here all day and has been providing major support since last year
when Katrina hit).
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Hey, it's great that new media folks got to connect with Edwards on his big day (albeit one day early). It's very savvy of the Edwards' team to invite them. Let's see more of this as the campaign unfolds....
But, why is a producer to a news outlet (Rocketboom) helping the Edwards campaign by not only filming Edwards' first YouTube advertisement** but is also posting it to the Web under the official Edwards' YouTube account?
After all...
A) It's pretty damn easy to upload a video to YouTube. Consider. Did Edwards' fire their only Web person when they launched the campaign site early?
B) Asking a journalist to do it for you is pretty odd (albeit nicely helpful on several levels).
C) Baron then actually doing it for Edwards and telling people he did is very, uh, transparent. That's one way to look at it. Another way is that the door has already been opened in 2006 to people asking questions bloggers and vloggers "naively" being tools of 2008 candidates. (As NewTeeVee already did tonight).
BTW, Baron also notes on his blog..
Joanne and I are heading back to NYC and Chuck will follow Edwards around the US till Friday to shoot footage which we'll edit for the official John Edwards website.
Um? Again, three cheers for the transparency, but....
On the hand, since Robert Scoble had such a long trip out to New Orleans, there was ample time for bloggers to debate his trip and Edward's "use" of him. Scoble even had time to respond along the way and noted that he wasn't for sale (yet) and that his employer was paying his way out there....
PodTech will pick up my travel expenses to and from, and my hotel and meal expenses. At least that’s the current plan. If that changes, I will let you know. Again, if I sell my soul, I’ll do it in full public view so you know all my biases and conflicts of interest.
I am covering this trip as a journalist for ScobleShow.com. I am not being paid or compensated by the Edwards’ campaign. They are paying for a plane to fly us around, though, and I’m not sure if that’s something that PodTech can compensate for, so let’s just say that’s being covered by the Edwards’ campaign....
Are there any restrictions as to what I can write or shoot? Not that I know of. None have been communicated yet.
**By advertisement, I mean unfettered soliloquy packaged to sell a candidate. And, by advertisement, I mean that the same hard hitting video is currently on the front page of Edwards' official site.
-S. Garrett
Are there any restrictions as to what I can write or shoot? Not that I know of. None have been communicated yet.
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