This political story is a bit like an old Beavis and Butt-head moment – “hnnnn, hnnn, he said intercourse,” … “hnnngh yeah intercourse, ehnnnn hggnnnn ghgnnngngnng….”While YouTube and CNN have been swallowing the praise for their roles in the most recent presidential debates, the real role YouTube will likely play in the political world is on display here:
Florida Senator Bill Nelson – Dem. gave a speech recently that talked about the life of soldiers returning from the Vietnam War. It was a serious speech and well intended no doubt, but during it he said this:
Certainly, all the intercourse I had as a military officer was the best, but that was not the case for a lot of our returning soldiers…
Now even in context the phrase is amusing. It wasn’t a mistake mind you, it was even one proper use of the word but still.
As of this afternoon the video has had 3,500 hits since July 13.
As usual the comments on the YouTube site have run the gamut: “That was really more information than we needed.” “Bill, I hate to break it to you, but you didn’t have a monopoly on intercourse in the 60’s.” “Someone who is ignorant of the English language might think that Nelson was speaking about sexual intercourse. That’s what happens when one is too busy learning how to put a condom on a cucumber in school instead of learning their native language. The fact is that there are numerous types of intercourse such as verbal and social intercourse. Eating dinner in a group is a social intercourse. Having a discussion is verbal intercourse.”
Nelson, a Yale graduate, hasn’t commented on the uproar. But even the editors at the Congressional Record could not bring themselves to put the sentence into the official record of what was said in the Senate. In the revised speech, the official publication replaces “intercourse” with the word “interaction.
“While Nelson’s comments were innocuous compared to Senator George Allen, a Virginia Republican who was caught on tape and plastered on YouTube an other sites calling an Indian-American man working for his opponent “macaca.” Macaca is a species of monkey, but Allen said he didn’t know that. He retired his campaign shortly after.
Smart politicians should know citizen journalists armed with video cameras or a blog will be out in the wild catching their mistakes.
Of course it’s this kind of YouTube coverage that may illicit negative feelings to YouTube as a political entity. A recent study said the next presidential election won’t be decided by bloggers and websites like MySpace or YouTube.
Few people use them an even fewer trust them according to a survey out today. Nucleus Research says traditional print media is far more trusted than any other source. According to a survey of 383 people conducted in June 2007 by Nucleus Research and KnowledgeStorm, 72% respondents report that mainstream media such as newspapers and magazines are their primary sources for political information. More than 56% of respondents also cite these mediums as the main sources political knowledge.
