Posts filed under 'TV'
Newsweek’s current story on the Obama campaign’s internal dynamics contains this warning (via Mike Allen) for anyone who values civility and honesty in politics:
Another McCain adviser, who asked for anonymity discussing internal campaign strategy, bluntly warned: “It’s going to be Swift Boat times five on both sides — The candidates will both do their best publicly to mute it. But in a close race, I don’t see how to shut that down.”
For all of our sakes, let’s hope that some kind of rationality survives. No doubt much of the smearing will happen online, in websites, videos and the kind of behind-the-scenes emails that have already dogged “Manchurian Muslim” Obama. Bloggers will both help AND hurt, helping by researching and puncturing lies, hurting by spreading them. Ultimately, though, the onus is on mainstream journalists to try to separate truth from fiction. Print and online reporters have a far better record on this front so far this year; cable news has been a hellhole of unrepentant rumormongering and idle speculation. Don’t we deserve better?
– cpd
May 11th, 2008
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You wouldn’t know it from watching most television news outlets, but a major story has been brewing behind the scenes since it originally broke in the Times Magazine on April 20th: many of the seemingly objective former military officers appearing on TV as analysts in the run-up to the Iraq war actually had financial ties to military contractors — and spent plenty of time being spun by the Pentagon, including by officials with a role in military procurement.
As discussed in Politico today (via Media Bistro), the news outlets in question have resolutely refused to address the issue in public, in several cases even ignoring letters on the subject from members of Congress. But the story has been kept alive in part by the pajama-clad warriors of the blogosphere, some of whom have followed it with bulldog intensity. A classic function of blogs:
“We are in a time when stories can have a second life,” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. A few years ago, if a story did not generate attention after a week, it could be considered dead, said Rosenstiel, who cited the instance of how bloggers revived the U.S. attorney firings story.
Of course, members of Congress have been involved, including John Kerry, whose online petition hit such a nerve with grassroots Democrats that their response apparently overwhelmed the his online advocacy system’s servers. And of course the story originally ran in the Times Magazine and has been covered on PBS’s News Hour, so bloggers aren’t alone in being on the side of the angels. But we’ve often heard mainstream journalists bemoan the standard of conversation common on blogs, and this incident serves as a perfect example of one reason that citizen journalism matters — the amateurs help keep the professionals honest. That couldn’t happen in anywhere near the same kind of way in the information oligopoly that existed before the internet democratized publishing.
– cpd
May 8th, 2008
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- Update: The Obama Camp Dials It Forward. Post-primary conference call plays it subtle, while all is well in ClintonLand.
- McCain Launches Spanish-Language Website. Wonder how the Minutemen (no, not THE Minutemen) will feel about THAT one?
- Bury bad news with online press releases. Somebody forward this to Hillary Clinton. C.f. Craigslist Ad Of The Day.
- The critical technology, for the early phase of the industrial revolution, was gin. From gin to sitcoms to lolcats, via Henry Copeland.
- Bunches o’ Studies and Stats on Nonprofit Marketing.
- How-To: 10 Tips for Launching a Solid Podcast.
- Two new guides to presidential online advertising from Clickz, Online Presidential Display Ads Leading to the 2008 Primaries and All Primaries Are Local: 2008 Presidential Campaigns Buy Local Online.
- The Tale of the E-mail. Hillary and Barack’s constrasting post-Indiana/NC notes. C.f. She’s Still In, And She’s Still In To Win.
- Pew Study Confirms Cell Phones Rule.
- Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize and Engage Youth.
- Right now, I’m watching the President of the Utah State Senate on my desktop. Julie, you had me at “desktop.”
- Google Reader is becoming more of a social networking application.
- Twitter Post Rescues Jailed Journalist, but Egyptians ignore Facebook call.
- How the White House lost 5 million e-mails.
- Jailed Chinese Journalist Shi Tao’s Poem Follows Olympic Torch’s Route Online.
- Matt Stoller on how liberals rule the web, and The Baltimore Sun on how Matt and friends raised 400K for Donna Edwards. Via tPrez.
- Phantom Obama Vote Appears on NJ Voting Machine.
- Web Ads from Left and Right Advocacy Groups Signal More to Come.
- Media criticism in context: “Yes, it would be nice if the press spent less time on inanities and more time on how candidates planned to actually run the country. But this view of the media is just too simplistic.” Via Salon.
- North Carolina Radio Host Reports Anti-Obama Chain E-Mail Distortion As Fact. C.f. Pennebaker: Clip Doctored, about the Mickey Kantor video distortion. (also via tPrez).
- Union-organizing emails get employees of a social networking site fired! Sent around by Michael Whitney.
- Clinton’s and McCain’s Gasoline Tax Holiday Reimagined as a Phishing Scam.
- National Intelligence Agency Breaks Out RSS Feed.
- 6% are Natural Born Clickers.
- Twitter frenzy! Using Twitter for Your Organization, Use TwitterFone For Easy Voice-To-Text On Twitter, and Political Junkies Congregate and Comment on Election Results Through Twitter. Plus, 5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence and The Bivings Group Does Twitter.
- Yes, a Montana cattle ranch is using banner ads combined with search ads to sell their premium beef via the internet.
- 10 Valuable Tips for Shooting Web Video. Via Frogloop.
- Google, YouTube and the city of New Orleans try to host their own presidential forum. Via Mike Allen.
- Video: how primary-season attacks have been amplified in the general election.
- FBI Targets Internet Archive With Secret ‘National Security Letter,’ Loses.
- Harold vs. Markos. Not everyone wants a unified Dem ticket.
- META Keywords are Legally Dead.
- Be very afraid: Engineers find ‘missing link’ of electronics. Robots take next step toward world domination.
- A minute and a half with Shana Glickfield…is enough to spark any man’s dreams.
- Clone-tool war on nipples continues. Complete with tragic casualty figures.
– cpd
May 7th, 2008
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So, if the Indiana and North Carolina results mean that the Democratic primary process is truly almost over, how will we spend our time? And more importantly, how with the cable news people spend their time? The networks have created enormous structures based around breathless coverage of developments ranging from the mundane to the trivial, and now there will be a distinct shortage of grist for the mill. These folks will now have all kinds of time to make mischief, i.e., elevate things even MORE meaningless into the heights of the public discourse. Cable news too often illustrates the truism that more is not always better…better shoot your television now.
– cpd
May 7th, 2008
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Yesterday, e.politics saw by far the most articles read via RSS on a single day ever, according to Feedburner. Analysis: sounds like everybody else was up late waiting for Lake County, Indiana, too. At least you guys could kill time better than the poor bastards stuck on camera — hours of nothing were a cable news producer’s nightmare. Though I gotta get me one those wall-sized touchscreen video displays with a Google Earth overlay like John King was using on CNN — that’ll impress the chicks, buh-lieve you me.
– cpd
May 7th, 2008
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- Adding Video to Turn Dead-End ‘Thank You’ Pages Into Viral Marketing Campaigns. The Obama campaign finds yet another sweet spot for online recruiting.
- The Post Is Having A Rough Day. Spam attack!
- Reluctantly, a Daily Stops Its Presses, Living Online.
- Rev. Wright Baits the Soundbiters.
- The Internet Goes Green. The growth of the envirosphere, via Micropersuasion.
- Space war would leave destructive legacy.
- McCain: It’s “clear who Hamas wants to be the next president.” Fruits of a blogger conference call.
- Google Earth Outreach Aides U.N. Track Refugees and Save Lives.
- Beyond Bittergate, Barack Yields Success to His Supporters.
- Obama’s Database Will Make Him the Power Broker. Another persistent political following! “Like Mussolini/ And Kennedy…”
- The chummy relationship of campaign professionals and journalists in Washington. Or, getting scolded for making fun of McCain on Facebook.
- Schism Grows Between Obama and Liberal Bloggers.
- Were Mesopotamians the first brand addicts?
- Subject Line, ‘From’ Address Crucial to Email Marketing.
- Who Stole the Plans for iRobot’s Battle Bots?
- YouTube vid inspires Obamacrombie t-shirts.
- Facebook as Weekly Evil.
- McCain on FriendFeed: “Considering the McCain campaign’s sometimes uneven online strategy, this is a step in the right direction.”
- Social Applications Dominate the Web.
- Gays, Lesbians More Receptive to Blog Ads than Heterosexuals.
- An overview of web mining in societal benefit areas.
- Top 10 Wireless Marketing Mistakes.
- 3 Top Tips to Improve Your Online Writing.
- Henry Copeland of Blogads: “As the social media winter looms, the winners will be the folks with strong relationships, low overheads, a strong commitment on innovation rather than coat-tail riding, and, most of all, a indelible passion for the business. We’re looking forward to seeing you after the bust.”
- Sorry Disney, But You’re Kind of a Skank Factory.
- DNC’s national cable ad buy. The RNC’s not so hot about it.
- Web Site Blames Sen. McConnell for Quorum-less FEC.
- The Twitter Disconnect. An introduction and how-to. Also, glimpse a hardcore Twitter-using life.
- Things Really Were Different Before Clinton-Obama. Time keeps on slippin’ slippin’ slippin…into the future.
- Which Government Agency Should Be Your Computer’s Firewall? HAL 9000 or black squirrels?
– cpd
April 28th, 2008
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Quick news from the world of pro wrestling: my near-namesake Colin Delaney has weighed in on the Democratic primary, and the results may be a surprise. On the eve of the Pennsylvania primary, Clinton, Obama and McCain will ALL appear on World Wrestling Entertainment’s RAW to make their cases before an audience of five million sports/entertainment fans. Alas, they’ll be on tape, so we won’t see a tag-team deathmatch (which would no doubt be less painful than much of the campaign so far), but that didn’t stop young Mr. Delaney from giving his estimate of the winner: “I don’t even want to venture a guess who would come out on top, probably Hillary. She seems like a scrapper. Yeah, definitely Hillary. She’d probably kick my ass, that’s not saying much, but I’m sure she could.” Watch out, my friend — Obama’s got reach (as long as he doesn’t roll a gutter ball) and I guarantee that John McCain can take a hit and keep on going.
All jokes aside, it’s fascinating to see politics get nichier and nichier. Though as the WWE article points out, RAW is the “number one weekly year round show on cable.” Media fragmentation, anyone?
Update: The Times has the candidates’ wresting videos and other details.
– cpd
April 21st, 2008
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Greetings from New Orleans and the Nonprofit Technology Conference, where e.politics is bearing up nobly under the strain of going to fantastic cities and hanging out with bright and interesting people. Rough life, I know
As a takeaway for the participants in our online advocacy panel on Friday, below are a ton of articles on various aspects of the question of spreading a message and working to change politics and policy online.
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March 20th, 2008
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Post-Politics Online/pre-SXSW Quick Hits extravaganza.
- Does Good Design Matter? Todd Zeigler’s excellent follow-on to our Politics Online panel. C.f. lots of POLC coverage at Capitol Valley and Tech Daily Dose.
- Trusting Politics 2.0 Can be Difficult in Local Elections.
- Getting Duped: How the Media Messes with Your Mind.
- Online Video Audience to Hit Critical Mass in ‘08. “Nearly 80 percent of US internet users will watch online video at least once a month in 2008.”
- News and Media US Website Visits Up Sharply. Lindsey Lohan softcore locked in deathmatch with political coverage. C.f. Obama: Bigger than Britney.
- How-To: 6 Tips on Writing an Actionable Press Release. Basic but useful.
- Historically, Most Online Communities Haven’t Stuck. Facebook and MySpace: do not forget the lesson of Ozymandias.
- Crowd Enabling, the Obama way. A mighty bold claim: “Even if Obama fails to achieve his goal of becoming President of the United States, I predict he will have a deeper and more powerful understanding of the American people than anyone in the history of politics.”
- Did the Clinton Campaign Doctor Obama Footage to Make Him ‘Blacker’?
- Spying Fight about Emails, Not Phone Calls, DOJ Reveals.
- McCain’s Unfiltered Blog. Straight conversation.
- Hillary’s pop culture problem vs. Did SNL Save Clinton’s Campaign?
- Is the Obama Campaign Really Different?. Or is he the new New Coke?
- ObamaCycle: A Craigslist for Obama Campaigners.
- Hillary’s Classy Tweets to Ohio and Rhode Island. Not sure “Tweet” and “Classy” belong in the same sentence.
- Air Force Launches Recruitment Campaign Touting Cyber Command. Check out the gee-whiz landing page, and also the fact that the Air Force has blocked access to many (most?) blogs.
- Obama Reaches 1 Million Donor Mark. Check out the comments on Micah Sifry’s article about it.
- Obama does not read blogs. No wonder he has time to run for president.
- Quote of the week: “‘It’s a love tap compared to the Wu-Tang fist of fury that’s coming at this guy in the fall,’ said Rick Wilson, a Republican media consultant.”
- Heather Havriskey interview with George Carlin. A must-read for anyone interested in writing or the creative process.
- Facebook Launches Band Pages. “MySpace also might start to get worried — I’m sure I’m not the only one who uses that site solely for auditioning bands.”
- New Source for News Vetted by Scientists. A peer-reviewed take on social news.
- The Charms of Wikipedia.
- Are Liberals and Conservatives Different Species? The Answer is Yes.
- Extended rant against microsites. Not sure if I agree, but it’s worth reading.
- A Whole Toolbox of Contention.
- ETech: Lessig Calls for Geeks to Code Money Out of Politics.
- Wanted: A More Digital Congress.
- Inside Obama’s Ground Game.
- Hillary’s Rapid Responders.
- Obama Lawyer Crashes Clinton Call. With audio!
- Politico 2.0: Ruffini Blogs, Twitters, Crowdsources Obama Donations. Via tPrez. C.f. Josh’s take on the candidates’ post-Tuesday splash pages
- Flickr and TechSoup to hand out free Flickr Pro accounts to nonprofits.
- Facebook changes political affiliation choices. Michael Whitney and Nancy Scola are not impressed.
- Over 1 million people have seen Robert Greenwald’s anti-McCain online videos.
- Geeking out before checking out: Spacecraft photographs avalanches on Mars. Don’t miss the accompanying Earth/Moon family portrait, taken from Mars orbit — such a cute couple. And, dig the new European automatic robotic space truck. Finally, some good advice for the Coast Guard, and a Farewell to the Dungeon Master.
– cpd
March 6th, 2008
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Maybe nobody else thinks this is interesting, but to me it’s fun to realize that as I write this, I’m mixing the oldest and newest widely adopted wireless communications media: radio and wifi. I’m a-sittin’ in my chair, pulling the ‘net from a wireless hub hooked to a cable modem while also listening to WAMU radio’s live election coverage. I could stream the NPR station over the ‘net, but it’s easier to listen to if it’s on in the background. And for live local coverage, Kojo, Jonetta and the gang are fun as hell and also happen know a whole lot about local politics, so you can learn a ton. I’m going to check out the Post’s live online coverage in a bit; they seem to have poured a lot of resources into it. Anyway, thanks Mr. Marconi, for the wireless. Update: The Post thing is basically TV on the web; if you like TV news coverage hosted by print journalists, you’re their demographic.
– cpd
February 12th, 2008
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At Thursday’s IPDI-sponsored Super Tuesday postmortem, John McCain consultant and former Bushie Mark McKinnon talked quite a bit about how the web has changed the the business of video advertising, particularly the explosion of online-only video. After the event, I asked him whether McCain’s much-noted online-only video ad strategy had been intentional or was a reaction to circumstances. He replied that the campaign had had a “robust” multi-channel video strategy at the beginning of the campaign, but that McCain’s implosion over the summer had forced them to focus on the web over TV because it was free. During the full panel discussion, McKinnon also made the point that the online video ads haven’t been intended for a mass audience as much as for journalists, leading to free exposure on TV news and helping to shape reporters’ opinions about the race.
McKinnon said something else about digital video that I hadn’t considered before: until 2004, if you wanted to show the candidate or other staff member a TV ad that was still under construction, you’d need to ship a tape and put it in front of him. In 2004, easy video compression made it possible to send over that same ad via email, vastly speeding up the editing and approval process. He noted that McCain’s web and television commercials this cycle have been the product of a team of four people, shooting video themselves and editing it on their own computers. Full studio rigs? Apparently no longer required.
Also on the subject of video, Ana Marie Cox pointed to citizen-generated YouTube clips as driving the campaigns to improve their own ads, since they’re now competing with a vast number of talented amateurs. The unintended consequences of social media! McKinnon agreed with her and said that campaigns now also have a harder and harder time breaking through to reach increasingly skeptical voters — we can add voter cynicism to the list of reasons that political television advertising is steadily declining in effectiveness.
– cpd
February 7th, 2008
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Yay, Super Tuesday, the most wonderful time of the year. The following Hits will be updated throughout the day. See also yesterday’s list.
- Update: Just got a Drudge Siren email alert, and apparently Obama is “large” in the exit polls. It’s gonna be an interesting night; I’m off to the parties.
- Update: The Inside Story of Obama’s Online Music Video.
- Update: In an Internet First, Americans Abroad Cast E-Votes in Democratic Primary.
- Update: Barack Obama’s Web Site Overwhelmed During (Last Night’s) Clinton Appearance.
- Update: US Voters Using Google to Find Polling Places.
- Update: The Rationality Gap: Campaigns Way Behind the Online Advertising Curve. Alan Rosenblatt: “For 10% of their ad budgets they could dominate the web.”
- A brief distraction: Venn diagram of the British Islands. Thanks to Chris Cosart for a helpful find.
- Update: A Clinton campaign conference call is a study in spin. Check out the ending — a Fox debate?
- Update: I Hope It’s a Hoax. The (politically) provocative e-mail that “Chelsea Clinton” is sending around.
- Update: Obama Leads in Online Buzz, Favorite Sites by Visitors’ Party Affiliation Issued. Which candidates are dominating the online discussion?
- Update: Does web traffic tell us that Obama and Huckabee will win big today? Josh is skeptical, and for good reason. More from the tPrez Daily Digest, including lots of nonrepresentative online polls and a look at Barack Obama’s hockey stick.
- Update: AZ Robocall Hits Obama On Social Security.
- Update: Primary Jam. Excellent WSJ interactive guide to this year’s primary election pile-up, and a good demonstration of how to present information with technology.
- Update: The E-War: Dems: All Hillary Wire, All the Time. Hillary’s election-day email blitz. More on the expectations battle from Slate.
- Update: McCain Tops the Democrats in Media Coverage.
- The Early Word: Super Fat Tuesday. Good overview of what’s ahead.
- The Opposite of Interactivity. Zephyr Teachout’s not so impressed with Hillary’s online/offline national town hall, but PoliticsTV’s Dan Manatt likes it better. C.f. Checking in With the Politically-Active Social Networking Generation and Clinton On Message, and On Television. Update: Also, Creating Those Hallmark Moments.
- Romney Internet-Only Ad Ties McCain to Clinton. See also McCain, Romney Unveil New Attack Ads.
- New HRC Mailer Hits Obama On Economy. Direct mail = probably the oldest form of database-driven politics.
- Push Polling, Robo Calls and Other Telephonic Shenanigans.
- Obama’s $28M Online. Patrick Ruffini on the death of offline fundraising. Update: That $32 million total for January turns out to be more than twice that of the Clinton campaign.
- Students On How Social Networking Is Transforming Politics.
- Web Graphics and Social Media Bring A Bird’s Eye View of Celebrity Presidential Endorsements.
- The Web and the Race For the White House. Overview of online support.
- Ron Paul’s candidacy shows the potential (and limits) of online politics. A short email interview with the candidate.
- In Election of Change, TV Gives Voice to Insiders. No insurgency on the airwaves.
- On The Road Again, And Again, And Again. Life of an embedded political journalist.
- Shifting Loyalties: Obama Winning Big Edwards Backers.
- Bill Clinton on Hillary Clinton’s Web 2.0 presidency.
- Facebook Used to Mobilize Against FARC. “In Colombia, a Facebook page dedicated to protesting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, that country’s largest rebel group, is helping organize thousands of people in cities around the world for demonstrations.”
- Lots of Super Tuesday cell phone sounds at RingTones08.
- Super Tuesday Gladiators. “Billy, do you like movies about gladiators and Hillary Clinton?”
– cpd
February 5th, 2008
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Cross-posted on techPresident
Political campaigns typically use search advertising primarily for long-term list-building, but with a big chunk of February 5th voters apparently still undecided, shouldn’t targeted search ads be an effective way to reach people who are still making up their minds?
Here’s why: if X percentage of primary voters in a given state haven’t picked a candidate three days out, you can bet that a good chunk of them are naturally going to turn to the internet for information to help make a decision. And since most online quests start at a search engine, search advertising would seem to be a natural way to get to those potential supporters directly and at the moment they’re thinking about voting. Geo-targeting, keyword-targeting and the fact that search ads are pay-per-click makes this strategy cost-attractive — you can concentrate resources on voters in particular states or metropolitan areas, and you only pay when you actually get a voter contact (i.e., when someone clicks).
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January 25th, 2008
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Cross-posted on techPresident
A new site announcement arrived in my inbox today, courtesy of an aggressive Waggener Edstrom outreach campaign (two separate emails came — here and here — plus an extra copy of the second; the PDFs unfortunately don’t fully capture the complexity of the messages’ layout). LeftvsRight.com is a strange mix of targeted political search engine and political entertainment, and as someone who helped start a targeted political search engine in 1999, I feel a unique obligation to take a good look at it. Particularly since a LeftvsRight.com visitor’s first impression is likely going to be to wonder what the hell is going on.
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January 23rd, 2008
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