Presidential candidates to face MTV/MySpace grilling

Dandelion Salad

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:31:08 GMT
Author: DPA

Los Angeles – All of the major Republican and Democratic candidates have agreed to participate in one-on-one dialogues with MTV and MySpace users in a major coup for the two youth-oriented media channels. The events will be staged on college campuses around the US, and will be aired on MTV stations and over social networking site MySpace, according to an announcement Thursday. The first hour-long, townhall-style dialogue will take place on September 27 with former Senator John Edwards facing viewer questions in New Hampshire. The questions will be sent via MySpace Instant Messenger or through email while Edwards, a Democratic candidate, is on the air. At the same time, online viewer reaction will be monitored through live polling on both MTV.com and MySpace.com. “For years, young people have trusted MTV to inform and engage them on the issues that matter most, from politics to sexual health to the environment,” said MTV President Christina Norman. “We are extremely proud to partner with MySpace … to connect with presidential candidates in a much more meaningful way.”“These presidential dialogues will bring individual candidates directly to voters – one at a time,” said Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and CEO of MySpace. “We are setting a high-water mark for direct engagement between presidential candidates and average Americans.”Thousands of MySpace and MTV.com users will have the opportunity to attend the dialogues from September to December of this year, some of them by “friending” the candidate’s official profile on MySpace.com, adding them to their “Top 8” and then being one of the first to arrive when a new campus location is revealed. Candidates confirmed to participate in the series include Democrats Edwards, Senator Chris Dodd, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama and Governor Bill Richardson. Among the Republicans scheduled to appear are Senator Sam Brownback, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Representative Duncan Hunter, Senator John McCain, Representative Ron Paul and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
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h/t: Malcolm

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