The Web on the Candidates

In a twist on Joe Trippi's "flood the zone" theory, Patrick Ruffini looks at the Clinton campaign's response to Bill O'Reilly's Yearly Kos attack and decides that, "when it comes to user-generated content on campaign sites, the best defense is a good offense. If you make a robust embrace of the social Web, the press and outside observers will eventually come to discount the bad stuff as a byproduct of the sheer volume of content you've made available." There's something the be said for this; despite his Joe Anthony moment, Barack Obama raised $10.3 million online last quarter...

Oh boy: MSNBC's Hardball wants a cut of the action from this online video thing. The show announced a new "campaign ad challenge," asking viewers to create their own "viral" campaign videos. "If you've got an idea for the next great viral video ad, pick up your camera! Hardball's campaign ad challenge is looking the most creative entries about your favorite presidential candidate or the candidate you like the least. Our panel of all-stars will name the winner in August." Um, okay, but since when does "viral" mean having your video chosen by a "panel of all-stars"? Viral doesn't mean "cool" or "jumping on a bandwagon" either. This new contest proves that news networks are still oblivious to the existence of something call a "community" online -- you know, the non-all-star folks who actually make something go viral and give it cultural meaning.