The Web on the Candidates

Ben Smith has a biting piece in the Politico exploring YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook's growing role as arbiters of political speech. "As political communication moves online, a new group of corporate executives and their customer service agents have gained control of the censor's pen - in a forum where the First Amendment does not apply," Smith writes. YouTube in particular has attracted criticism from the left and the right for it's policy of removing "inappropriate" content. However, the expansiveness of the web means that other sites will pop to show content banned on the biggies. "A video posted on a small site might not access the giant communities of YouTube or MySpace, but political bloggers and campaigns could easily direct the members of their own communities to a video posted anywhere.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo has been producing some great online video under the name TPM TV, producing videos that give his insistent investigative reporting more room to breath. He's been extending his coverage of the Alberto Gonzales controversy with new videos that quickly react to new developments, and his team produces great videos essays that pull together news coverage and commentary. While the actual content of the reporting isn't that different from Marshall's blog posts, it's refreshing to see him in front of the camera interacting with televised news reports or even interviewing people like John Kerry. We look forward to seeing how Marshall uses video to cover the presidential race.