Talks to Watch

2004: Howard Dean's infamous yell

1.5M views · May 31, 2012 · 1:02 · 0 HN recommenders · 4 mentions · discussed 2016–2022

CNN clip of Howard Dean's loud yell at a 2004 Iowa campaign event, which gained wide notoriety.

Why Hacker News points people here: Mostly cited as an example of how a single unflattering clip can sink a campaign.

What Hacker News said 4

Cites itawbAug 2022

“Here’s the broadcast”

The full broadcast of the speech with crowd noise.

Full comment

Here’s the broadcast: this video You can hear the crowd as well (maybe through his mic?). The thing watching this live on TV wasn’t the scream, but the gyrating hand movements and the gradual decent from a politician into a WWE wrestler voice as he’s naming a long list of states. The scream was actually more of a yippee kinda sound. But the disassociating thing for me was seeing him land a disappointing finish (3rd in Iowa) and then act like he’s a rock star about to headline a huge nationwide tour. Sitting at home, it’s like yeah, why don’t you try to win one first before you go bragging about how you’re going to win the next 10. So, for me it was the content + tone, not just the tone.

in “Outdoor Sound Propagation in the U.S. Civil War (1999)” · view on HN
CriticalcookiecaperJun 2016

“all they have to do is repeatedly re-broadcast a single unflattering yelp and that person's prospects are done.”

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Although I believe there is value to the IQ metric, I agree with you that raw intelligence should not be the way we choose our governors/reps/etc. As if democracy didn't have enough struggles, telecommunications (and especially television) have forever changed the way that the people choose their representatives. Superficialities are much more important now than they were pre-1960, and everything we get is filtered through the media outlets that control the television broadcasts; if they dislike someone, all they have to do is repeatedly re-broadcast a single unflattering yelp and that person's prospects are done. [0] We need to learn to deal with that. [0] this video

in “The British are Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it” · view on HN
CriticaldevoplyNov 2016

“For instance this meme sunk Howard Dean's campaign”

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Human brain is easily hijacked by memes, propagandists have been doing it for a century, now the masses are doing it too -- and they are mad (are the masses mad? or the propagandists? why not both? what's the truth? i don't know!). Richard Dawkins on memes: link For instance this meme sunk Howard Dean's campaign: this video Dan Quayle and the potato incident: link

in “How Fake News Goes Viral: A Case Study” · view on HN
CriticalAsookaFeb 2019

“Howard Dean's presidential campaign was killed just by him yelling”

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Just remember that Howard Dean's presidential campaign was killed just by him yelling "yeah" on TV[1] . My takeaway is that most journalists are unethical vultures that will kill you and pick apart your corpse for the tiniest shred of views. I would not really blame the current year fashion of SJWism, except in so far as I disagree with their censorious attitude and virtue signalling. 1: this video