Debate Video

The following video was shot by me and with the help of my classmate Ariel Gove. We had a hard time getting most of video recorded and due to time constraints there isn’t a lot of footage about the behind the scenes tour. Also, you will notice that the video is a little bit shaky, that is because we were not able to carry a tripod with us.

Debate Experience

This is a short video on my experience during the Debate that took place at UNLV and the two days before.

“Diamonds or Pearls” questioner says CNN deceived her

In her first in-person interview, the UNLV student who asked the now infamous “diamonds vs. pearls” question at last week’s Democratic presidential debate said that she felt “deceived” by CNN.

Maria Parra-Sandoval said CNN representatives told her what questions to ask and in what order. She said she was told she would get to ask two questions of the presidential candidates — including a substantive question about the proposed nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain. But the network ended the debate seconds after telling her to ask Hillary Clinton the first question – the lighthearted question for which she is now being ridiculed.

She said she feels deceived. “I was supposed to go twice,” she said in an interview this week. She said she would have rather asked a serious question about Yucca mountain, but CNN told her which question to ask, and when.

The controversy over the question began mere moments after the debate ended Thursday night, when, according to Parra, fellow UNLV students criticized her as they left the Cox Pavilion auditorium.

Parra said she wanted an opportunity to explain what happened, because she is concerned with serious issues.

As a member of the Political Science Honors Society, which got her the admission ticket, Parra keeps current on all political issues. (Click here for a large PDF filethat includes her bio from City of Las Vegas Leadership Academy 2005 Yearbook, and go here for an April, 2006 profile of herin the Las Vegas Sun).

She said that in the days leading up to the debate, she submitted several questions via email for CNN’s consideration. She said Bridget Sharp, a CNN editorial producer, turned down some serious questions. “I submitted others on Iraq, and another on healthcare … which were rejected,” she said.

According to her emails with CNN, here are the questions she proposed:

1) “Despite significant efforts at reforming health care for children, millions are
still uninsured. Moreover, the federal government spends a lot more dollars on the elderly than in children. Compared to other industrialized nations, we lag behind in providing adequate care for our children. Additionally, our children are the poorest segment of our population.

“Under your tenure as President, please name details as to what plan you have for extending children’s health reform. Will your plan favor decreasing spending (What will you cut?) or will your plan favor more taxes to subsidize health care.

2) “Bringing our troops home from Iraq is what many Americans want. I know I do. However, we cannot take them out so abruptly while the region is experiencing a civil war. What plan do you believe is the best option to start bringing our troops home while providing stability to the area? How long do you believe it will take to implement your plan?

3) “Yucca Mountain, NV is the proposed site for the country’s nuclear repository. Despite scientific evidence that it is a vulnerable site, the federal
government continues to push for the plan to move forward. The evidence relied on is unsound and the risks involved in transporting high-level radioactive waste across the country are high. What will you do to ensure that the best site is chosen for the storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel?”

On Wednesday morning before the debate, CNN representatives insisted that she propose a “lighthearted” question by noon. “They gave me a deadline of noon to submit optional questions, because the other ones were rejected.”

That’s when Parra submitted the diamonds or pearls question. “It was a last minute thing, I just sent it in,” she said. “I did that right at the end … seconds before submitting it.”

This time her question was not rejected. “They actually called me right away. Not a minute passed by,” she said. “They must have loved the pearls or diamonds question, because the people on the phone seemed excited about it. It was sort of like they really meant to do it — to make that be the last question.”

The producers later assured her she would be allowed to ask two questions. She said a CNN representative told her: “We have your two questions approved. You are question No. 15 and question No. 18.”

Parra also said, “I was supposed to go twice. Question No. 15 was the diamonds or pearls question, and No. 18 was the Yucca mountain question.”

In an interview with Talking Points Memo, CNN representatives have acknowledged that they told her which question to ask, and in what order, although they said Parra wrote the questions herself.

Parra said other UNLV students in the audience said CNN did not tell them to memorize their questions, which suggests to her that CNN never planned to use their questions.

“In some sort of way I felt deceived” she said, “Because right after the pearls or diamonds question — which I didn’t know was the end of the debate — that’s when it was ended, completely.”

Here is the video, courtesy of Youtube and Talking Points Memo:

Not even a Thank You

The run up to the presidential debate left me wary of how volunteering for the actually event would turn out. I was right to be wary.

I arrived on campus at 2:00 p.m. to get my credentials. After walking to three different security checkpoints I was told to go back to the first one and they would let me in. I got my credentials and then was told to meet in the spin room in an hour. The spin room is basically a media room where candidates and their reps come after the debate to answer media’s questions. The room gets so crazy that our job is to literally hold signs over the reps heads so that the media can find them. I had the chance to hold a sign over Howard Dean. He was a pretty neat guy. Nice for the most part and his handlers are top notch. They even had him sign my sign as he was leaving.

He did an interview for CNN.com and if you watch it I am in the background.
http://www.cnn.com/video//video/politics/2007/11/15/long.howard.dean.interview.cnn?iref=videosearch

I also got to meet Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich and Joe Biden. All were very personable. It was an experience of a lifetime!

However CNN were complete jerks. I was stuck in that room for almost 8.5 hours and there was no food, no water and I never even got a thank you! What the heck!! Our “boss” Priscilla told us no one could leave until the cleanup was done and just kept ordering us to do random things. After an hour and a half of cleaning up and being the only student to still stick around I took off, still without even a thanks.

Thanks CNN. For performing exactly as I had expected you to. For showing us that you could care less about those who wanted to help.

Not all journalists are like CNN

Now that it is a few days after the debate and I have had time to sit and think about the events of that day, I realized two things.  Number one is that CNN was generous enough to give a few press passes to students, but then showed no professional courtesy once we were in there.  And number two is that the way CNN treated the future reporters of America is not at all how other journalists acted toward us. 

In the media filing room, there were five extremely long tables that sat maybe 15 or 20 people.  There were cards in front of each seat with a name or organization printed on them.  Ours said “UNLV” and right next to us sat a card that read “NewsHour.”  It was it a privilege just to sit next to these journalists, but their acceptance and kindness was unexpected.  I have to admit, after being treated the way we were by CNN, I half expected the other journalists there to look down on us and not bother with us. 

When I first walked in, a reporter from the Washington Post said hello and shook my hand.  Then, while Ben Rowley and I set up our laptops at our stations, a reporter from NewsHour made small talk with us, telling us how great he thought it was that we were there.

I really appreciated that the other reporters made me feel like I had just as much a right to be there as they did.  I felt like we were on an equal playing field and I am very gracious for their friendly and accepting attitudes.

Even the Unpopular People

Updated on 11/25/07:

Although this debate brought a lot of frustration to a lot of people, my faith in humanity was restored toward the end of the day. Not only were there a lot of students being very active, but there were also people who were working for the debate candidates who made sure they showed their opinion.

When I was photographing on the UNLV campus Thursday night, I came across these two people holding a campaign sign for Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul. They were just hanging out outside of the Cox Pavilion. I photographed them and then found out that Jimal Abukar (left) and Michelle Grigsby (right) were just a couple of regular citizens like myself.

Abukar is a limo driver and Grigsby is an aspiring photographer. It was nice to meet a couple of people that were on the same social level as myself. They were all up for seeing their picture on this website. They got the URL and thanked me. It comforted me to know that even the unpopular people made a stand and wanted the public to hear about it.

All Photos By: Sonja Corliss

Hillary Clinton gets the opening question.

The crowd went crazy Thursday night as candidate Hillary Clinton took the stage possessing confidence and poise
between the other male presidential candidates at the CNN Democratic debate at UNLV.

CNN’s Campbell Brown opened the debate, asking why Clinton has not been taking a firm position on controversial topics.

Clinton said, ” I am aware that people say that, but I have been fighting for the American people for 35 years.”

This then struck up the debate between Clinton and rival Barack Obama. Obama shot back saying, “American people are looking for straight answers and it’s not what we have seen out of Senator Clinton.”

It was clear the debate had started!

Presidential Debate pre-show

Sitting in the audience at the Presidential Debate was surreal at first, until it was announced that there would be a pre-show.

During the pre-show, the UNLV choir sang the the National Anthem and then Nevada Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley spoke. She energized the crowd by saying, “As of today, 9,000 more Democrats in the state of Nevada have registered then Republicans.” Then she introduced Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

As he made his way onto the stage, the crowd stood up giving Dean a standing ovation.

“This is a generation that truly sees themselves as a diverse community. It doesn’t matter if you are white, black, or brown, we all vote in one proportion,” Dean said.

The crowd continued to cheer until the debate started.

A busy day for the UNLV Student Union

The Democratic Presidential Debate drew about 2,000 people to the  UNLV Cox Pavilion, but this was not the only crowded place on campus.

The UNLV Student Union’s second floor was filled with students, faculty and democratic parties. Each presidential candidate’s staff members occupied one room each making a total of seven rooms on the second floor full from 7:30 a.m. – 10:30 p.m. on Thursday night. The Student Union ballrooms and balcony were also occupied by the Presidential Caucus Watch Party.

The restaurants in the student union made more revenue then usual because of the traffic coming in and out during the day. When the debate was over, the union quickly cleared leaving only empty water bottles and food wrappers.

By 10 p.m. the building fell silent as if nothing had ever happened.

Red, White and Not You

For those of us who were (un)lucky enough to get into the UNLV Student Union watch party, there are no doubts that organizers’ intentions were good. There were tons of decorations, a free CNN hat on every chair, an awesome AV setup, complete with huge screens and there were even speakers outside the doors, where the food was, so you wouldn’t miss anything if you had to get a hot dog. And yes, the food. Enough for 600 people. Unfortunately, a little more than half that number showed up.

The real problem wasn’t the fact that there was only one bomb-sniffing dog on hand, not nearly enough K-9 for all those leftovers, but the fact that even when the debate was half over, and it was clear no one else was coming, if you weren’t on the list, you weren’t getting in.

Even Jeremiah McClain, who works for the Office of Information Technology on campus, whose office is literally 25 feet from the people guarding the entrance, was turned away. Never mind that he has worked at UNLV for 10 years, and was actually doing network support for the event that night.

So, what’s with this list anyway? Well, according to the person who turned McClain away, Amy Brooks of UNLV Community and Government Relations, 400 of the spots were given to the faculty, staff and students that didn’t win one of the 450 slots at the Cox Pavilion. The other 200 were reserved by Voto Latino, an organization who works to raise the number of Latino voters, and who actually paid for half the event.

It’s not that the organizers were bad people, it’s just that, according to Brooks, “there were 500 people who didn’t get anything and desperately wanted to go,” and, “we tried so hard to make it as fair as possible.”

From his office, looking out at the forbidden zone, McClain summed up the situation best when he said, “You would think that the debate’s been on for an hour or more now. What would be the problem with letting people in? You would think that they could let people in if it were obvious that there was room for people who wanted to participate. You sent out a bunch of invitations to people who aren’t interested, so why not have people who are interested?”

Student Blues (and Not the Red, White and Blues)

Isn’t it a bit ironic that as a student, I was led out of the doors of the student union last night? I drove a hectic 30 minutes in traffic last night, fought the parking chaos, ran to the union and then…slowly (and in a horrible mood) walked back to my car to leave.

CNN should’ve just taken the debate to the convention center.