MTV

Carla Babb wins MTV contest

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:25:14 -0500

Carla Babb won that MTV contest after all.

The UNC-Chapel Hill student became briefly famous back in October when staffers for Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards tried to kill a piece she produced for Carolina Week.

The reason they saw the piece in the first place was that she posted it on YouTube before it aired in order to qualify for an MTV "Choose or Lose" campaign.

Today, MTV announced that it had chosen Babb to be one of 51 "citizen journalists" to cover the presidential and Congressional races this coming year.

"We hope to find out whether or not our most important political event—the election of a president— matters to young people, and whether or not if matters more when it comes to them through the lens of their issues and the screen of their cell phone," said Eric Newton, vice president of journalism at the Knight Foundation, which is co-sponsoring the campaign.

He forgot YouTube.

MTV, YouTube led to Edwards tussle

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:30:21 -0400

An MTV news contest indirectly spurred a tussle between John Edwards and UNC-Chapel Hill's journalism school.

Carla Babb, a graduate student at UNC, posted a news segment for the student-run Carolina Week program on YouTube Tuesday in order to meet the deadline for a "Choose or Lose" contest run by the cable network.

The segment is slated to air Monday, but two Edwards staffers complained when they saw it online.

Professor C.A. Tuggle, who oversees the program and previously worked as a TV reporter in Florida, said the show is normally seen by around 2,000 people, though it airs on cable in 16 counties. He said individual segments, such as one Babb did on state troopers' misconduct, occasionally get up to 1,000 views on YouTube as well.

After they saw the piece, two top Edwards staffers called Tuggle. He said they demanded the piece be pulled and threatening to cut off access for UNC reporters and other student groups.

"My gosh, what are they thinking?" he said. "They're spending this much time and effort on a student newscast that has about 2,000 viewers? They're turning a molehill into a mountain."

UNC student's news story

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:54:40 -0400

A news segment from a UNC-Chapel Hill student that John Edwards' campaign tried to have pulled.

Edwards tussles with UNC j-school

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:51:44 -0400

A UNC-Chapel Hill professor says John Edwards' staff tried to kill a student's story.

On the journalism school's Talk Politics blog, retired political reporter Leroy Towns writes that the Edwards' campaign demanded a student journalist take down a video she had posted on YouTube about Edwards' campaign headquarters in Southern Village.

The segment had been produced for the school's Carolina Week television program, but student Carla Babb posted it online as an entry in an MTV contest.

Edwards staffers then tried to convince the professor to kill the story. He declined.

Towns writes the experience was instructive:

The Carolina Week staff learned the importance of standing their ground against a disgruntled source, even when that source is a candidate for president. PR students saw firsthand how a public relations mistake can turn a small non-story into a potential national story. Very instructive.