The following press release was sent out by the co-founders of the Save The Debate Coalition:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, November 29, 2007

Save the Debate Coalition Statement on CNN's Flawed Editorial Process

"The Save the Debate coalition would like to thank the Republican candidates for participating in the YouTube debate, which reached an estimated 4.5 million Americans, a record for this primary cycle. We are hopeful that the candidates will consider future opportunities to use technology to reach new participants in the political process.

"Further, we applaud the YouTube community for the quality of the questions submitted that sparked informative and substantive exchanges among the Republican candidates. With nearly 5,000 YouTube user-submitted questions -- 2,000 more than for the Democratic debate — Americans are increasingly taking advantage of the opportunity to participate in the democratic process.

"Unfortunately, CNN's flawed editorial process in choosing the questions asked of the candidates marred an otherwise lively debate and betrayed the trust of the Republican candidates and the YouTube user community. In the most glaring example, a questioner affiliated with the Hillary Clinton campaign was given a soapbox to berate the Republican candidates at the debate -- when even a cursory web search of the individual would have revealed his clear conflict of interest.

"A YouTube debate should strive to minimize the media filter rather than highlight it. Instead the selection of questions for the Republican CNN/YouTube debate highlighted CNN's selection bias.

"We strongly encourage YouTube and other new media platforms to refrain from working with CNN on future debates."

The Save The Debate Coalition was founded earlier this year to help encourage Republican candidates to participate in the YouTube CNN Debate. Its co-founders include Patrick Ruffini of PatrickRuffini.com and Townhall.com, David All of TechRepublican.com, Soren Dayton of Redstate.com and EyeOn08.com, and Robert Bluey of RobertBluey.com and Redstate.com. For more information, visit www.savethedebate.com.

-30-

Patrick Hynes, author of Ankle Biting Pundits and John McCain's modern media guy, takes a swipe at the SaveTheDebate coalition (of which I'm a co-founder), arguing that we're letting Mitt Romney "off the hook" too easily:

...but it is terribly difficult for me to take such an effort as “Save the Debate” seriously if they continue to let former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney off the hook for blowing off the debate they endeavored to save.

If the debate were next month, Patrick may have a point to take up with me and others if Mitt had yet to accept an invitation. However, the debate is scheduled for November 28 -- more than three months from now.

I asked Kevin Madden, Mitt Romney's press secretary to comment on the upcoming YouTube/CNN debate, and he said, "We have had regular contact with CNN, we are aware of the date they have settled upon and we will, of course consider the invitation when we make decisions about our travel schedule for late November."

In other words, Mitt's not saying "no." He just isn't in a position, yet, to say "yes."

Let's give them some room to make a decision that we're all comfortable with. Fortunately, the debate's not going anywhere.

The following email was just sent out:

------ Forwarded Message
From: Save the Debate
Reply-To:
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:27:23 -0700
To:
Subject: Breaking: You saved the debate!

Dear David,

You did it!

Thanks to your efforts, the Republican YouTube debate is back on -- for Wednesday, November 28th. That's just over a month out from the Iowa Caucuses, and that means this debate will be even more important and more closely followed.

In case you're wondering whether it was you that made the difference, just read what Presidential campaign insiders told the Washington Times:

Multiple sources close to the discussions say it was pressure from conservative bloggers, not scheduling conflicts, that made the reluctant Republican candidates reconsider.

Two weeks ago, a number of prominent conservative bloggers launched an effort called "Save the Debate" that generated what one of the campaigns referred to as a "full-court press," from conservative activists.

We may have won this battle -- but our work is far from over. From now until November 28th, the online movement we have built will focus on ensuring that every Republican who wants to ask a question of our next President has the opportunity to do so.

To do this, we'll need Video Volunteers who can record questions from citizens in their community, whether it's at the county fair, at the mall, or at a local Republican Party event. We can only do it with your help. Have a camera or webcam and want to help? Just go to:

http://www.SavetheDebate.com/VideoVolunteer

The "debate about the debate" has shown us there is still a digital divide in America. Not everyone is on YouTube. But that doesn't mean they can't participate in this historic debate.

Some are concerned about a liberal tilt to the debate questions.

It's because of you that we will have this debate. Now it's on us to make sure it's successful, with substantive questions from across America:

http://www.SavetheDebate.com/VideoVolunteer

We're also calling on the Republican National Committee, state Republican parties, and conservative organizations to join us in this exciting grassroots effort to mobilize participation in this debate. And once you've collected the questions, or if you have one of your own, please submit your question(s) at:
http://www.SavetheDebate.com/submit.php

We have seen some reports that not all candidates have yet committed to the just-announced November 28th date.

We are extremely optimistic about the incredible momentum behind this debate. Save the Debate is confident that when the dust settles, every candidate will seize this historic opportunity to engage the American people. Thanks for all you've done so far. Now the real work begins.

- Patrick, David, Soren, and the entire SavetheDebate team