– I wouldn’t have pegged Steve Jobs as quasi-besties with Rupert Murdoch, but I didn’t think he was anti-union, either.
– When the White House isn’t investigating reporters for asking questions the Vice-President doesn’t like, it’s pushing around the Washington Post for daring to write an objective, not adulatory, piece on Obama.
– Any press not hand-selected by the White House is shut out of Obama’s fancy fundraiser in San Francisco:
President Obama is scheduled to appear before hundreds of donors at a $7,500-a-plate noontime fundraiser today at San Francisco’s W Hotel – but not a single local reporter will be allowed inside to cover his only stop in the area, the White House said Monday.
Coverage instead is being restricted to a small pool of Washington-based reporters – a move that is a sharp departure from the practices of past administrations, political observers said.
Three former top White House press aides called the move insular and politically short-sighted. And some press watchers said it is hypocritical for an administration that Obama promised would be “the most transparent in history.”
– Romney attempts to recreate the MyMitt version of MyBarackObama:
Called MyMitt, the platform is tucked away on MittRomney.com, accessible only if you choose to register on the Action page and unadvertised in any proactive way. There’s no button pointing to it from the homepage, and the MyMitt Action Center looks like it’s only partially finished.
Nevertheless, close to 100,000 Romney supporters have created an account on MyMitt, a substantial number at this stage in the race. Here’s why this could be a big deal.
In 2008, Barack Obama’s campaign built its own social network at My.BarackObama.com. Known as myBO for short, the platform made it easy for Obama supporters to create their own profiles on the campaign website, to write their own blog posts, start or join interest groups, organize their own house parties and, most important, initiate and track their own fundraisers.
Two million people eventually joined, and 35,000 generated more than $70 million in campaign contributions from their own personal networks. Enabling your supporters to visible share their enthusiasm with each other is a powerful way to grow a political network. Even more useful: The myBO platform also allowed the campaign to figure out which supporters were the most passionate activists and to concentrate attention on these “super-volunteers” for a variety of vital tasks.
While Obama’s re-election campaign brags about getting its millionth individual donor, basks in its 23 million-strong Facebook following and spends millions on building a sophisticated online campaign operation, it might be tempting to write off the Republican presidential candidates as hopelessly behind in the chase for support on the Web.
– The NYT and Huffington Post fight over the name of an insipid mom blog no one cares about. Meanwhile, Fast and Furious.
– Bloomberg Media hit with anti-gay discrimination suit. Bloomberg fights back, calling the suit “ludicrous.”
– Big Government was quick to report developments at the Occupy Oakland protest. The major networks? Not so much….
The morning shows of ABC, CBS, and NBC on Tuesday devoted just 19 seconds to the arrests of 75 people in northern California, after police evicted Occupy Oakland from their encampment in front of city hall there. The Early Show devoted a news brief to the story during its last half hour, noting the violent reaction from some of the protesters. Good Morning America and the Today show both punted.
– Whatever happened to that whole Worst Person of the Week deal? Here are two nominees, Olbermann on with Letterman, assuming hypocrisy is part of the judging criteria.
Two extremely wealthy white American comedians, both who “earn” in excess of $10 million a year, gaggled last night CBS’s The Late Show with David Letterman about the “two or three percent of the people [who] have all the money” in this country, while expressing their solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement.
– Will the media point out the similarities between the Occupy crowd and some of Obama’s past actions? Don’t hold your breath.
In fact, Obama personally helped plan one of UNO’s most confrontational actions of the eighties [in 1988]: a break-in meant to intimidate a coalition of local business and neighborhood leaders into dropping a landfill expansion deal.
– It’s as if the media isn’t interested in knowing what’s actually going on at these various protest sites. The more they occupy, the less they and the media surprise.
The Washington Post’s Richard Cohen puts on his blinders and takes a look at the Occupy Wall Street movement, concluding there is nothing to the many reports of antisemitism among participants, while also suggesting any outrage should be directed at those leveling the charge.
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