Tonko/Dieterich Twitter debate

posted Oct 19, 2012

daily gazette ny20 twitter debate screengrabThe Daily Gazette's David Lombardo hosted a Twitter debate for the 20th Congressional District race between incumbent Paul Tonko (D) and challenger Bob Dieterich (R) yesterday -- it's embedded (with free access) at that link.

How was it? Not bad!

Sure, the candidates weren't able to go on at length about their positions -- though that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Most debates are relatively high in "blah blah blah" content. But on Twitter the candidates had to get right to the point. Considering the way a lot of these sorts of discussions go off the rails because of the candidates and/or moderators, some built-in constraints can be helpful (up next: dueling political haiku).

Of course, a Twitter debate by itself would be insufficient -- but part of a broader mix of live debates, interviews, exchanges, it's a good changeup. So +1 for trying something new. We'd like to see it again.

tags: media, politics

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