The Courant talks about "Nedheads" at Youtube

By now, anyone who reads this blog knows how important Youtube is in getting videos posted and seen. Today's Hartford Courant has a story about the impact of Youtube on the Lamont-Lieberman contest.

Shooting From The Clip
Nedheads' Videos Mock Lieberman
July 19, 2006
By JANE PORTER, Courant Staff Writer

In the past week, nearly 700 people have watched a video lampooning ads from U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman's campaign.

"Ned Lamont wears pants," intones a gravelly voiced announcer. His tone becomes more challenging as he says: "What does he wear under those pants? Boxers? Briefs? Even a thong? What is he hiding?"

Hey, I'm gravelly voiced! Leonard Cohen, eat your heart out! Tom Waits, look out!

The 28-second video, posted on the Nedheads website from blogger ctbob on July 9, parodies a Lieberman campaign ad and can be seen at the popular video sharing website YouTube.com. As it ends, with the well-known photo of Lynndie England pointing at the genitals of a naked Abu Ghraib prisoner, the announcer says: "Demand that Ned Lamont drop his drawers and let the voters decide."

The short clip is one of hundreds posted on Nedheads, the third most popular stop in the "News and Blogs" group of YouTube.com, right behind first-place "Bush Sucks" and then "Indyvideo."

"The visual medium has a greater impact than the printed word," said Bob Adams, known online as ctbob or Connecticut Bob. "The fact that we can now put video up on the Internet ... allows more ... access to sharing ... views about what's happening in the world."

I don't remember pausing that much when I spoke to her, so those are probably the places where she took out the stupid things I said. (thanks Jane!)

Adams said he doesn't volunteer for the Lamont campaign, which gives him editorial freedom in what he posts on the Internet. And people are watching. His video "Joe & George ... (a love story)" has close to 7,000 hits on the Nedhead site.

Nedheads was created March 26 by a man who goes by the alias "Scarce." In a telephone interview last week - to a Prince Edward Island phone number - Scarce said he lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Nedheads has a core group of two dozen to three dozen Connecticut-based bloggers who send their video footage to Scarce for approval and posting, he said. CTBlogger, Connecticut Bob and Spazeboy are three local bloggers who create many of the group's videos.

Scarce obviously cannot vote in the Aug. 8 primary (or any U.S. election), but he says he has keen interest in the race because of his opposition to the Iraq war, which Lieberman has been criticized for supporting. "This race has taken on national, international implications," said Scarce, who estimates that he spends 20 to 40 hours a week on Nedheads. He declined to share his name, his occupation or much else about his personal life.

A majority of the videos posted at Nedheads, which had 1,000 members at the end of last week, are clips from national and local television news programs, local video of Lamont and Lieberman campaign appearances, amateur political parodies and segments pertaining to the Connecticut primary from Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show."

[...]

"I do consider myself sort of a member of the media," said Adams (Connecticut Bob), a Milford resident. "If Fox News has free rein to put idiots like Hannity, Limba (sic) and Coulter on there, I have the right to voice my opinion."

You can't imagine how happy it makes me to see that sentence appear in a major newspaper. But Jane, it's spelled L-I-M-B-A-U-G-H; I'd hate for some guy named Joe Limba to think I'm calling him an idiot.

Beau Anderson, known online as Spazeboy, regularly contributes to Nedheads. Anderson, 25, a college student from New Britain, was introduced to video-making by CTBlogger, whom he identified as Al from Danbury. The writer of ConnecticutBlog declined to be interviewed, saying in an e-mail that he did not want to detract attention from the Lamont campaign itself.

CTBlogger is responsible for 118 of the 228 videos on Nedheads. Anderson first met CTBlogger on April 5 at a Lamont event at Naples Pizza in New Haven, where CTBlogger asked him to operate his video camera. Though he had no prior video production experience, Anderson has since purchased a camera of his own. He videotapes Lamont events around the state and posts them on Nedheads.

Anderson has contributed 76 videos to the group, including recent footage he shot of a potbellied Republican at the Willimantic Boom Box parade, toting a Lieberman sign and announcing his allegiance to the candidate.

"Sometimes you'll tell your neighbors about something you've heard of and missed on television. ... This is like the next generation of that," said Anderson of the short videos. "It's kind of an evolution of the word of mouth, except more accurate, because you don't get that telephone message deterioration."

Communication directors for both campaigns denied any affiliation with Nedheads.

"We don't want to control what they say," said Liz Dupont-Diehl, Lamont's communications director. She said the campaign does keep bloggers, including those posting on Nedheads, informed of campaign events, as they do with the mainstream media.

Marion Steinfels, Lieberman's communications director, said that on Tuesday she watched a YouTube video about Lamont and tax cuts forwarded to her by e-mail. But when asked what she knows about Nedheads, Steinfels said she has seen the term before but knows little about the group.

Yeah, like anyone believes THAT. I'd bet that Marion has spent plenty of time checking out our videos; it must be annoying to see how easy it is to poke fun at her bitter and sanctimonious boss.

All it all, I'm content with the article. There could be actual links posted in it, but what the hell, ya can't have everything (I put those links in myself). Nice article, Jane.