A hilarious new generation of talking heads is analyzing the debate from their dorm rooms and parents’ basements.
As John McCain might put it: My friends, you can’t trust the networks to spin last night’s debate. But how to reconcile your craving for analysis with your loathing of the media elite? Behold the YouTube pundits, a ragtag gang of David Gergen wannabes. Today, they’re hashing out whether Barack Obama flubbed his chance to close the deal, why McCain bolted the stage moments after his closing remarks, and how Tom Brokaw is more obsessed with clock-watching than actual back-and-forth. Not all of these pundits have posted since last night’s debate, but they’re likely to weigh in soon.
Here are five self-made bloviators whom you may see sparring with George Stephanopoulos (online, of course) in 2012.
Click To View Video
1) Emergency Cheese
James Kotecki is living proof that anyone with a webcam, a blazer, and a tiny room can become a star pundit. The former congressional page started out making videos while studying at Georgetown, and found infamy when he coaxed Ron Paul up to his dorm room for an on-camera interview. He parlayed his cyberfame into a sweet gig doing video commentary for Politico. He’s also kind of a nerd dreamboat, but he’s not afraid to mix it up—after a recent feud with MSNBC’s David Shuster, he says he learned the key to punditry success: “People don’t care so much about politics. What they want is a good fight.”
Click To View Video
2) Political Lunch
For poll-watchers who spend their four-minute lunch breaks surfing the net, Will Coghlan and Robert Millis broadcast Snack Pack-sized commentaries on the day’s news with an arid-dry wit that smacks of Chevy Chase’s Weekend Update. And they believe they can reach that same level of fame, even online: “People who learn to use this medium will be ten steps ahead of those who don’t,” they say. Already, their professionalism far outshines most YouTube offerings—logo’d coffee mugs! A greenscreen!
Click To View Video
3) The Hermit with Davis Fleetwood
Fleetwood, the LonelyGirl15 of YouTube punditry, is a self-proclaimed recluse with a rabid fan base, broadcasting from a dungeon-like basement in suburban Massachusetts. He gained notoriety for his crusade against superdelegates during the Democratic primaries and is known for his tirades against the two-party system. He surprised his fans by “retiring” in April, but America loves a comeback—by July, Fleetwood was back on the air with an armful of fresh axes to grind.
Click To View Video
4) The Young Turks
Billing itself as the first live daily Internet TV show, The Young Turks has hosted nearly every member of the liberal glitterati, from John Kerry to Nancy Pelosi. Yet the feisty pundits remain unknown to all but the most plugged-in of political junkies, despite their show’s considerable ambition: While the typical vlogger logs a few minutes a day, The Young Turks clocks an impressive three hours of daily airtime.
Click To View Videos
5) Red State Update
From “a bunker deep beneath Jackie’s Market in Murfreesboro, Tenn.,” two Joe Sixpacks whose taste in politics is more PBR than PBS serve as “Tennessee’s only online political pundits.” Except that Travis Harmon and Jonathan Shockley actually broadcast from Los Angeles, and their good ol’ boy political show is a popular satire that appears weekly on Salon.com. Their big break came earlier this year, when they appeared on CNN’s YouTube Democratic debate to ask the candidates if the attention being lavished on Al Gore “hurts y’alls feelings.”
Tracy Quan's latest novel is Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl, set in Provence and praised in The Nation as a "deft account of occupational rigors and anxieties before the crash." Tracy's debut, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, and the sequel, Diary of a Married Call Girl, are international bestsellers. A regular columnist for The Guardian, she has written for many publications including Cosmopolitan, The Financial Times, and The New York Times.
Joe Mathews is a journalist, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as Justice Department reporter for the Wall Street Journal and as a city desk reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy.
Gerald Posner is the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism (www.posner.com). Posner lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Renata Espinosa is the New York editor of Fashion Wire Daily. She is also the co-founder of impressionistic fashion and art blog TheNuNu and a sometimes backup dancer for "The Anna Copa Cabanna Show."
Amanda Fortini has written for The New Yorker, Slate, Elle, and New York, among other publications. She lives in Los Angeles.
Randi Zuckerberg works in marketing at Facebook, where she leads the company’s election strategy and has pioneered several large media partnerships. Included in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2008 Digital Power List, she is also a founder of The Dot Comix, an online video troupe that creates satirical videos about technology and geek culture.
Randi Zuckerberg works in marketing at Facebook, where she leads the company’s election strategy and has pioneered several large media partnerships. Included in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2008 Digital Power List, she is also a founder of The Dot Comix, an online video troupe that creates satirical videos about technology and geek culture.
Randi Zuckerberg works in marketing at Facebook, where she leads the company’s election strategy and has pioneered several large media partnerships. Included in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2008 Digital Power List, she is also a founder of The Dot Comix, an online video troupe that creates satirical videos about technology and geek culture.
Randi Zuckerberg works in marketing at Facebook, where she leads the company’s election strategy and has pioneered several large media partnerships. Included in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2008 Digital Power List, she is also a founder of The Dot Comix, an online video troupe that creates satirical videos about technology and geek culture.
Randi Zuckerberg works in marketing at Facebook, where she leads the company’s election strategy and has pioneered several large media partnerships. Included in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2008 Digital Power List, she is also a founder of The Dot Comix, an online video troupe that creates satirical videos about technology and geek culture.
Randi Zuckerberg works in marketing at Facebook, where she leads the company’s election strategy and has pioneered several large media partnerships. Included in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2008 Digital Power List, she is also a founder of The Dot Comix, an online video troupe that creates satirical videos about technology and geek culture.
Randi Zuckerberg works in marketing at Facebook, where she leads the company’s election strategy and has pioneered several large media partnerships. Included in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2008 Digital Power List, she is also a founder of The Dot Comix, an online video troupe that creates satirical videos about technology and geek culture.
great to see your point of view on online video having followed your video parodies so far. great guide to the blow-viators! fun picks.
Hello! get a clue...
http://www.citizenkate.tv/Site/Welcome.html
Hey Markfraz, thanks for noticing - I've been on the trail filing my reports since Feb, 2007! I helped Barack win Iowa with my butter head that made international news. David Axelrod said "it was the secret to his success". I did make a difference America.
Peace and Hugs
Kate
Great pics.
Good selections! These are some that are at the top of the game.
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.