The big political story in the US election campaign right now is the video of Mitt Romney describing 47% of his fellow citizens as people 'who are dependent upon government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them, who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.'
What's also now emerging is the story behind the story; how Mother Jones reporter David Corn got hold of this video. This looks to be a tale of persistent work by an experienced journalist combined with some new media tools: the footage seems to have been recorded by a small, discretely placed device, and journalists first discovered it through short excerpts uploaded on YouTube.
It's exactly the sort of issue that will make for fascinating conversation with one of America's most respected journalists, The Atlantic's James Fallows. Readers will recall that I did an extended email interview with James about his new book, China Airborne, back in June, and he's also been kind enough to agree to an 'In Conversation' event at the Lowy Institute on Friday week.
This event will mark the fifth anniversary of The Interpreter, so the topic will be political media, old and new. You can buy tickets here, but if you'd like to attend for free, email me your questions about politics and media (blogeditor@lowyinstitute.org) or drop your questions on our Facebook page. If yours is one of three questions I select, you'll get free entry to the event.
Note that you don't need to confine your questions to US politics and media. James has spent a lot of time in China and that will definitely be on the agenda too.