Especially touching: They dedicated it to "any lost love." Amazing to think that any AOL employee, at this point in the company's slow-motion implosion, still has passion for the company. (A password-protected, high-resolution version is available on Vimeo. The password is "aollover.") Note the last scene: If you're not up on your French, the giant sign on the company's office reads "For Rent."

Notorious nobody and Star magazine editor-at-large Julia Allison has swanned her way in, as has Erik Sofge of ... Popular Mechanics? So much for the event's glam factor. Silicon Alley Insider's Dan Frommer is being held at the door in, after receiving a self-righteous lecture at the hands of a very nice if overly empowered Google staffer. Also in: Sam Gustin of Portfolio.com, and vlog-hot Caroline McCarthy of News.com, who'd rate as one of the Valley foxes if she weren't based out of Gotham. Apparently, though, the business reporters who get past the gate are being told not to take pictures. Got more reports on who's in and who's out? Let us know.

Update: Google executive Marissa Mayer, another overly empowered sort, has shown up wearing what sounds like a hideous outfit: "black pants black shirt with purple and bue polka dots and black shoes that show off red toenails," according to one eyewitness. Anyone daring enough to violate Google PR's photo ban and send in a pic?

Update: Douglas Merrill, Google's VP of engineering, is wearing a "hideous red paisley shirt," our unofficial fashion correspondent reports.

The show's publicists gave the Los Angeles Times exclusive dibs on the TV-centric story. (A few goofs in the LAT's first post: Boing Boing began as a printed magazine, not a "webzine" — there was no World Wide Web in 1989 — and didn't go online until 1998. Editor David Pescovitz is based in San Francisco, not Paris. Cory Doctorow is in London rather than Tokyo. And here we thought old media factchecked.) But what Net geeks want to know is: Why does Ted Turner's TBS own the boingboing.tv domain? The show's URL will be tv.boingboing.net.

(Photo by Jacob Applebaum)

There's the fact that it's an old joke. That it's mostly humorous because Congdon is usually incapable of humor. That I laughed because she is defying her image as a vacuous, uninteresting shill attempting to make her way in the world of "legitimate journalism." That lightning doesn't strike twice. On second thought, who knows what the future will hold for Amanda Congdon? All I know is that if it looks anything like this, I'm wishing the videoblogger all the luck in the world.

The YouTube/CNN debate delivered sophomoric (but stereotypical YouTube) softballs. And any remaining hopes were dashed by the Iowa Republican debate hosted by ABC's George Stephanopoulos. The Disney-owned network, like YouTube, implemented user voting in its video-submission process. And, predictably, the result was more "America's Funniest Home Videos" than New England Town Hall. ABC adroitly crafted its call for citizen submissions to market its televised event, not raise the level of political discourse.

If you followed the marketing hype around ABC's debate, you may have believed that video questions submitted by everyday people would be central to the broadcast and that the popularly chosen submissions would be selected. Instead, only two videos were used, neither of them top-rated. Zennie Abraham accused the network of "vlogger fraud," describes one of the lucky two as "the typical, predictable, stereotypical blonde white female that a TV producer would select." (Ironically, Abraham then turned around and suggested ABC pick typical, predictable, stereotypical blonde white female Amanda Congdon to run the debate instead.)

Of course, a close reading of ABC's actual call for submissions should have warned Abraham and company of what to expect:

We encourage you, your family, colleagues & friends to vote/rate favorite questions & the highest rated videos will be a factor in George Stephanopoulos' decision and also have the opportunity to be featured in ABC News NOW's post-debate Spin room!

And why would anyone think otherwise? The networks have long known that hard-hitting questions and articulate, thoughtful responses don't make for good TV. Or, for that matter, win debates. But exploiting the vlogger community? That makes for excellent pre-debate buzz. The fact that the vlogging community was taken in, and is now up in arms, just shows how clever ABC's marketing team is.