Comments on: Idiocy du jour: CNN’s debate EKG

By: Christina

Christina — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:39:41 +0000

Sounds like another device to tell American viewers what they should be thinking (and distracting them fro mthe actual thing going on) instead of just letting them form an opinion for themselves. Assuming of course that most American TV viewers still can do that for themselves…

By: Jayson

Jayson — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:02:39 +0000

I think its an interesting idea but it doesn’t really tell me anything useful about what they are saying. Now, if they could somehow make that EKG thing come from thousands or millions of people then that data would be interesting but as it is now, not really.

By: Matt Deaton

Matt Deaton — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:04:10 +0000

Yep, that thing’s definitely a bad idea, mainly because it shapes viewers’ reactions in real time. Before we at least had until the end of the debate to analyze responses by our own lights, but now we’re subconsciously steered one way or the other immediately. For the last debate, I just switched over to CBS.

Nice blog, Jamahl. FYI, I wrote a similar article on the EKG here, though I’m apparently off a little on the dial (for some reason thought it was a button): http://socratesvotes.com/2008/09/28/cnns-debate-ekg-bad-idea/

—Matt—

By: Guest

Guest — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:55:05 +0000

Did you ever see The West Wing? They actually showed the EKG as you call it in use in State the Union speeches and debate episodes. The pundits dissected the results by the millisecond.

It would be useful for non-obvious groups like Democrats/Republican and men/women.

By: Tim Carroll

Tim Carroll — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:41:19 +0000

The ‘worm’ (as we know it here in Australia, anyway) is more effective when they use only undecided voters. As you say, there’s not much point in including partisan folks….

By: Eduardo

Eduardo — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:00:57 +0000

So THAT’S what that monitor was meant for! It really looked like an EKG, and it was indeed distracting. And it looks like a monitor that would work perfectly with the likes of Wii Fit and other such games.

The image of a crazed lunatic invading the set and stabbing Wolf Blitzer with a screwdriver is truly priceless. I can only wonder how funny that would look.

The best political team on television indeed. If I earned a dime fot every time he said that, I wouldn’t worty about the stock market any longer.

By: Thomasj

Thomasj — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:18:01 +0000

Well… I agree that this EKG monitor thingy is dumb, but I applaud CNN for trying to do something new and different. Honestly the discussion is really boring a lot of the time, so I like having something else to pay attention to. But hopefully someone at CNN is noticing that it doesn’t really work too well, and they’ll try something different in the future.

And I agree with Sarah, I like the fly-on-the wall feel of CSPAN too.

By: Sarah M

Sarah M — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:30:22 +0000

There’s a joke about John McCain’s age and the utility of that debate-heart-monitor begging to be made here. But I’m an Arizonan and have some fondness for McCain (though I’m pretty firmly geared Obama at this point) so I’ll restrain myself from making it.

The gimmicks are why I prefer to stick to CSPAN during the debates. No pundits, no weird EKG-thingies. And before and after the action, you get to watch people milling around. Unfiltered CSPAN wandering!

By: Donald

Donald — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:24:49 +0000

It is also remarkably distracting while you are trying to watch the debate as the line keeps catching your eye.