Today in interesting advocacy actions, lets start with a Chuck Todd* gangbang! As in, he’s getting banged in the head by a gang (well, a couple) of prominent progressive activist communities, Daily Kos and CREDO. His crime? Saying that Republican Obamacare messaging has dominated because Democrats haven’t done a good job selling the bill. The Kos petition finds fault as follows: “Tell Chuck Todd: Journalists are not stenographers,” that “it is [his] job to report the facts, not ‘he said, she said’ lies and spin.” Similarly, the CREDO petition (started by a CREDO member, BTW, but being promoted by CREDO itself) asks activists to “Tell NBC News: Correcting Republican lies is part of your job.”
Beating up on journalists is fun! It gives people who normally just seethe at the TV at home an outlet for their annoyance — it’s been a popular tactic on the Right for decades. And while targeting our friendly neighborhood corporate-owned information filters probably won’t make any of them change tack, turning a mainstream media figure into a piñata now and then is a nice break for activists tired of emailing Congress again and again. And who knows, a liberal push on the Obamacare messaging front might take some of the edge off the issue by 2014 — it sure beats the hell out of lying down and letting the other side roll over you.
Also taking on our corporate overlords this week: video gamers! Seems that Fox News has aroused the ire of the Video Game Voters Network a game-industry-organized group that works to protect the rights of gamers and claims 500,000 members. Fox’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck apparently suggested that video gamers should submit to having their game time tracked, and the gamers’ group replied that Fox has.”exploit[ed] a tragedy to pedal [sic] baseless rumors about a made-up link between video games and violence, while ignoring the many studies that disprove their false allegations.” Go git ’em! Note: the gamer email is a “Facebook Share Ask,” i.e., it tries to convince list members to share their anti-Fox Facebook image. Fun! And as of this writing, it’s yielded 455 Shares and a bunch of Likes. (Amusingly, the graphic’s filename starts with the letters “bsd”, and the gamer network uses Blue State Digital tools…I wonder who made the image?)
Of course, the big policy/political fight this week has been the budget/debt ceiling/government shutdown madness, including today’s vote in the House to cut SNAP (food stamp) funding and Obamacare implementation. Lots of folks are fighting this particular messaging war online; check out this Ultraviolet SNAP (food stamps)-funding infographic Share ask, which has seen a good response. OFA’s entry in the genre? A list-building petition that inspires you to act by noting that “John Boehner is daring you to fight back.” It’s ON!!!
– cpd
*Full disclosure: 14 years ago I built a website for National Journal (the Hotline Scoop), and Chuck Todd was the editor who managed the project. He was good to work with, and they paid their bills.