techPresident - MoveOn - Comments

Guilty as charged! It just

joelb28 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:41:03 -0400

Guilty as charged! It just struck me as a condescending set of interviews, more akin to "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" than serious journalism.

But I guess this is how mainstream media shows it's still relevant in the age of Stewart and Colbert. The follow-up to Heavy Metal Parking Lot, by the way, was called "Neil Diamond Parking Lot." I expect to see Hockenberry reporting from outside a Whole Foods store later this summer.

I happen to live in PA but have friends in DC who have expressed an interest in Cabela's. Some urbanites, apparently, like to hunt, fish and/or go outside.

Ignorance

Joshua Levy — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:04:00 -0400

Clearly, I don't live in PA, so my bad about the "randomness" of the Cabela's. But while it's possible that these could be suburban Philly-ites or folks from inside the Beltway (really?), they're still shopping at a hunting/fishing/outdoor goods store.

"random" cabela's?

joelb28 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:07:40 -0400

I don't mean to nitpick but there's only one Cabela's store in all of PA, so it isn't exactly random. Meanwhile, none of the people interviewed give a hometown, so they may not even be rural Pennsylvanians, given the distance people usually travel to get to a Cabela's. They could be from suburban Philly -- or, god help us, from inside the Beltway.

MySpace and NBC?

bhschenker — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:26:46 -0400

Have to say I'm a little confused as to why MySpace would team up with NBC when it's owned by NewsCorp. To me this is a lost opportunity to expand the Fox News brand online and bring some sort of corporate online synergy (cue scenes from In Good Company). I'd think it'd be a good idea to push the Fox brand to the MySpace audience and attempt to shrug off the negative perception it has by some.

Brett Schenker
5B Consulting

Obama Pizza Rap feat. Obama Girl!!

Crunchy — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:07:23 -0500

EVERYONE’s got a crush on Obama… presenting the brand new Obama Pizza Rap featuring Obama Girl:

http://digitalfuntown.squarespace.com/dft-blog/2008/2/4/obama-pizza-rap-...

Excuse me, he's a good

Matt Kent — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:35:37 -0500

Excuse me, he's a good target for assassination?

Feeling sorry for Obama supporters.....

Freedomfighter — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:40:33 -0500

Been there, done that. That is what I want to say to Obama supporters but they just do not get it. Obama is a grand speaker but that is also the skill which gives him the ability to lie and over promise. When it comes to actually delivering what he has advocated, he will throw many of his supporters "under the bus", and will do what most Democrats do: change your positions constantly to please everyone to maintain a grip on power. If not, the Democrats fall on their face.

Think of the last two Democratic Presidents who had a Democratic Congress and Senate. Johnson had Vietnam and poverty. Carter had the hostage crisis and double digit inflation. Horrible presidents indeed. Makes you wonder what Obama will do with Democrats in charge of the House and Senate.

Sorry, but when he is compared to John F. Kennedy, I fail to see the comparison, unless they are suggesting Obama is a good target for assasination.

The emo movement

Freedomfighter — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:38:50 -0500

I wonder when people are going to wake up to the unethical tactics used by Moveon. They are a movement of angst and anger. They are emo. My first exposure to Moveon was from a guy who sold magnets claiming the magnets could cure most illnesses! I also doubt the claim of 3.2 members. Oh, I am certain they have about that many email addresses, but how many contacts are duplicated and are outdated but still part of the count? However, Moveon can not be underestimated. They have easy access to the media and are skilled at exploiting an issue to get the greatest emotional impact out of it. You can only carry out such tactics against people for only so long before they figure out your scam. However, more experienced people are going to be turned off by their questionable tactics. Others, such as myself, find their choice of issues to be uncompelling and unworthy of attention.

I ought to mention that Mike

thegreathal — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:31:31 -0500

I ought to mention that Mike Gravel is sorely missing from this poll, although MoveOn did poll for him before.

Ethics

Fred Stutzman — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 22:36:14 -0500

Freedomfighter, Again I disagree. MoveOn clearly has multiple agendas, but we deceive ourselves if we think that other NGO/Advocacy/Etc. groups are singular in purpose. Perhaps all organizations are non-ethical, but I see MoveOn as acting within norms.

That said, we must understand the role of privacy policies not as discourse between companies and users, but actually as devices that prevent discourse. What agency does a Facebook user have? We kid ourselves if we think these policies are meaningful for anything other than shutting down communication.

John Edwards should give his list to LabourStart

Eric Lee — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:02:08 -0500

Edwards is the closest thing to a labor candidate in this race, so if we're talking about giving away tens of thousands of email addresses, LabourStart would be happy to receive them. (LabourStart is the news and campaigning website of the international trade union movement.)

LabourStart: Where trade unionists start their day on the net.
http://www.labourstart.org

Hear hear! You should rant

Zephyr Teachout — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:51:01 -0500

Hear hear!

You should rant more. Great stuff.

thanks for the respone

Freedomfighter — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:39:12 -0500

Fred,
What MoveOn is doing, is quite unethical although I understand why many may miss it. They are NOT pushing this issue to advance privacy rights.

Any good ecommerce site has a privacy policy AND a third party to dispute privacy issues. Facebook has Truste.org at the link below:

http://www.truste.org/ivalidate.php?url=www.facebook.com&sealid=101

Also note, other privacy organizations did NOT join in this protest. In fact, Scott Rafer quit MoveOn over this very campaign. See his site below:

http://rafer.wirelessink.com/

The whole use of the petition, through facebook, lacks integrity and is the very sort of thing which causes people to leave political organizations. I think many political activists miss this point because the political process is so corrupt in the first place.

I agree, to an extent

Fred Stutzman — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:25:55 -0500

Freedomfighter, while I wouldn't call this immoral or unethical, I do agree that this is a membership-driving tactic. I covered it because it is interesting to see the third-party advocacy groups taking Facebook on, but I do question the value or potential outcomes.

MoveOn is exploiting naive Facebook users

Freedomfighter — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:49:42 -0500

Fred,
I am concerned about privacy just as much as anyone else. I also think the Beacon program is annoying but to say it violates privacy is a bit off base considering the numerous options to stop it.

Facebook users do not need MoveOn's help in defending privacy. Facebook users already have Facebook working on protecting privacy and brought changes to how Facebook does news feeds.

What MoveOn is doing is immoral and unethical tactic. Instead of helping people learn to protect their privacy and to complain directly to facebook, they are given links to sign up for MoveOn.org. MoveOn is trying to recruit paranoid ignorant people.

This is not an issue of MoveOn politics but of their highly questionable tactics. People responding to MoveOn's campaign should be wary.