On July 23rd (Democrats) and September 17th (Republicans), CNN and Youtube will host a brand new debate format, where 100% of the questions are fielded from YouTube videos. Youtube is currently seeing a surge in question videos, and many feel that this will help bypass the mainstream media screening of questions and the softballs given to the Benitos and Hillaries of the debates.

However, as TechPresident.com points out,

But cool technology on big screens is only half (or less) of the technological revolution — it’s really all about the people. To be sure, it’s great that YouTube and CNN are involving the YouTube community in this effort. But there’s a glaring omission: CNN will be the sole arbiters of what videos are shown and questions are asked. This format is contrary to what YouTube’s community of users — and other online communities like it at Digg, Facebook, MySpace, and elsewhere — are used to.

CNN says that they’re selecting videos so that the candidates cannot know what questions will be asked, but I don’t buy it. The real reason is to screen politically incorrect questions, like this question fo Giuliani: “If you’re the ‘hero of 9/11′, why are you so despised by the New York police and fire departments, and what did you do that was so great?” Questions like that just cannot happen, so the gatekeepers will remain in place.