The “gotcha” interview Sarah Palin popularized (if not imagined) is pretty much dead. Every appearance a politician makes is a potential “gotcha” because virtually everyone owns a video camera, carries it everywhere, and puts what they capture on YouTube. More important, as this article in ReelSEO details, camera-toting minions are spending all that hard-earned campaign money traveling around the country following their candidate’s opponents, hoping to cause and/or catch that “gotcha” moment for political posterity and character assassination.
Perhaps more significantly, the YouTube phenomenon is making political TV ads obsolete. Without the massive infusion of political money every two years, America’s TV industry would be almost broke. Certainly, a lot of TV stations who’ve failed to serve their communities by not keeping local ad prices affordable would be out of business- deservedly. With the First Amendment under attack from all quarters, it’s strangely comforting that a legion of video goons is busy holding, albeit ironically, our public servants accountable for their actions. We sure know the corporate media isn’t doing it.
