Wednesday, October 8, 2008

C-SPAN's Transcript And Video Of The Debate

I got this bulk email from a guy at C-SPAN sometime early this morning:

Hey Allen,
I've been monitoring your debate blogging for C-SPAN's Debate Hub tonight, and I just wanted to let you know that if you want to go back and splice together and mashup any clips from the candidate's answers that you can do so at C-SPAN. We allow you to search through the transcripts and then edit together your own clips and then embed them on your blog. So let's say McCain or Obama said an answer that you found interesting, you can go to the debate timeline, click on the blue (Obama) or red (McCain) block and that specific answer will pop up in the transcripts and you can embed just that tiny portion of video (pretty cool, right?):
http://debatehub.c-span.org/

Unfortunately, I've not yet learned how to embed just a tiny portion of video. I still have to embed fat massive chunks of video. But these smaller excerpts are better than nothing.

Also, if you scroll down to the bottom you'll see that we're live streaming twitter posts when users use the hashtags debate08 and nashdebate, and we're also constantly monitoring and linking to bloggers who are live blogging the debate.
Anyway, if you have any questions, shoot me an email.
Take care,
Simon

As if I really needed more toys to play with between now and the election....
They have a pretty good system, though.
Here's the section where Obama brings up the AIG executives going on $400,000 junkets with your bailout money:

For those of you who are fans of Advertising, Marketing, BiPartisans, Coin Flips, and False Choices, C-SPAN has already posted a searchable transcript of the entire debate.
Impressive.

Unfortunately, C-SPAN is an unnecessary government entity that nations with a 10 trillion dollar debt can't afford any longer. If the Libertarians ever come to power, it'll be shut down.
On a side note, if you want to see the resort where the AIG execs spent your money, along with some commentary by those who are SHOCKED, JUST ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED that such a thing could happen with your tax dollars, you can click here.


CORRECTION ! FROM THE COMMENT FIELD !

Leslie Bradshaw said...
Allen -- I am working with C-SPAN on this project and wanted to stop by to say: Thanks so much for posting the C-SPAN video and glad you could find it helpful in your coverage of the debates.
My colleague Simon Owens reads your blog and I believe is the one who reached out to you over email last night.
One thing that I would hope you could correct about the post is the fact that C-SPAN receives $0 from the government. Yes, you read that correctly: $0.
Your note "C-SPAN is an unnecessary government entity that nations with a 10 trillion dollar debt can't afford any longer" is misleading and I wanted to point you to this fun video that gets you the facts on C-SPAN's website.http://c-span.org/About/Default.aspx
In a nutshell, C-SPAN is funded entirely by cable companies and offered as a public service. Yes, you read that right.
Free to the government and brought to you for free by cable companies.
I would hope that you could update your readers with this information and feel free to contact me directly with any further questions :)
All the best,

Leslie A. Bradshaw

Communications ManagerPublic Affairs
New Media Strategies
www.newmediastrategies.net

Wow. They're reading my drivel at C-SPAN. And taking it seriously when I screw up.
10,000 apologies for my mistake about C-SPAN funding.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Allen --

I am working with C-SPAN on this project and wanted to stop by to say: Thanks so much for posting the C-SPAN video and glad you could find it helpful in your coverage of the debates. My colleague Simon Owens reads your blog and I believe is the one who reached out to you over email last night.

One thing that I would hope you could correct about the post is the fact that C-SPAN receives $0 from the government. Yes, you read that correctly: $0. Your note "C-SPAN is an unnecessary government entity that nations with a 10 trillion dollar debt can't afford any longer" is misleading and I wanted to point you to this fun video that gets you the facts on C-SPAN's website.

http://c-span.org/About/Default.aspx

In a nutshell, C-SPAN is funded entirely by cable companies and offered as a public service. Yes, you read that right. Free to the government and brought to you for free by cable companies.

I would hope that you could update your readers with this information and feel free to contact me directly with any further questions :)

All the best,
Leslie

Leslie A. Bradshaw
Communications Manager
Public Affairs | New Media Strategies
www.newmediastrategies.net

Sew daze said...

Free by the cable companies!! I find that more offensive than if it were free by the government. Now that explains why I have to pay $95 for 17 channels and intermittant service ....Monkey ass balls!!

TarrantLibertyGuy said...

Yep - they're right and I love that about them. No PUBLIC money - just underwritten by cable subscribers who willingly sign contracts... (Fembuttx).

So let's now do the right thing and get rid of PBS!

Dr Ralph said...

WS -- now that you find yourself under the scrutiny of an organization as respectable as C-SPAN, will the general level of discourse around here be raised?

I'm guessing the answer to that is "no."

Actually, I'm hoping the answer is "no."