Big Think

Geoffrey Harriman commented on Reaching Your Audience on November 3, 2008, 8:24 PM

While I like the premise, many of the speakers, and the topics that Big Think addresses, I've noticed a recurring frustrating tendency; the captions heading various interviews often bear little or no resemblance to the substance of the interviews.Sen. McCain's "interview" consists of less than one minute of the Senator speaking. He apparently responds to just two questions, and answers one of them with a mere eight words. I do not hold Big Think responsible for the length of Senator McCain's answers, but it's misleading to post clips from an interview with Sen. McCain, to headline those clips with "John McCain on Why He Might Lose," and then to post a vanishingly short vignette consisting entirely of the words "'Cause I didn't do a good enough job." That's not a subject's answer to a serious interview question, and Big Think shouldn't bill it as such. Like the previous commenter, my reaction here is in no way a reflection of my political views or my feelings about Sen. McCain - this is about mislabeling content.Another example of the same phenomenon can be found with political writer Jeff Toobin at its center. The Big Think caption promises that Toobin will take us behind the scenes at CNN and explain John King's "magic" touch screen display. Instead, the 1-2 minute clip shows Toobin explaining how he prepares with a CNN producer before an appearance. If Big Think were selling something, I'd say these headlines border on false advertising. A well-intentioned site, but it needs more careful editing.