Posts Tagged ‘The Webby Debates’

Part two of The Webby Debates, hosted on CNNMoney.com and moderated by that site’s Laurie Segall, featured TechCrunch columnist Paul Carr — who quit Facebook and Twitter in August — discussing the future of social media with Wine Library TV host Gary Vaynerchuk.

At one point in the conversation, they debated how easy or difficult it is to refute a lie once it is shared via social media and blogs, leading to this exchange (video below):

Carr: No, it becomes Obama says that the trip to India didn’t cost $200 million, but …

Vaynerchuk: Well, why do lies … come on.

Carr: … but all these people do say. It’s opinion.

Vaynerchuk: Hold on a minute. If there’s too much noise, why can a lie itself not have … get more attention than the rebuttal itself?

Carr: Because if a lie is seductive enough, and the lie is sordid enough, then that’s much more interesting than someone saying …

Vaynerchuk: I promise you if someone tries to smear the shit out of me that I will fully use social 24, 7, 365, to rebuttal, and it will work.

Carr: But people trust you. People come to it with an idea of what Gary Vaynerchuk is.

Vaynerchuk: They trust me because I … and by the way …

Carr: If you become known as the guy who was accused of a crime on Twitter, and that’s all people know of you, good luck rebutting it, because you’re that guy.

Now that the midterm elections are over, prepare for The Webby Debates, a five-part online video series from The Webby Awards focusing on Internet-industry issues including paywalls, privacy, and the value of social media.

The initial installment of The Webby Debates will debut Nov. 10 from The Hospital Club in London as part of Internet Week Europe, and it will feature Milo Yiannopoulos from The Telegraph moderating a discussion on the pros and cons of paywalls, with The Guardian editor Janine Gibson and Financial Times managing editor Robert Shrimsley.

Debate No. 2, to be filmed at CNN’s studios in New York and featured on CNNMoney.com in late November, will focus on whether social media is overrated. CNN Money’s Laurie Segall will moderate, and it will feature Wine Library TV’s Gary Vaynerchuk and TechCrunch columnist Paul Carr.

The Webby Debates are being sponsored by global marketing and design staffing company Aquent.

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