A Videographer In Every Pot?
By Michael Turk, 03/26/2007 - 3:42pm

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I received an e-mail from the DNC today with a rather interesting message...

As the new Research Director at the DNC, I'm working to build a Party apparatus that can immediately respond to missteps, lies, and scandals of the 2008 election cycle, and establish a narrative that our party's nominee can use when the primary season ends.

Just as you helped put organizers on the ground in all 50 states, you can help build the Democratic Party's research shop...

Do you remember the George Allen "macaca" video?

That piece of coverage played an instrumental role in the election of Senator Jim Webb in Virginia -- and winning back the Senate in 2006. But this turning point in Senator Webb's campaign would not have been possible without his dedicated staff members following George Allen's every move -- and this costs money.

The Democratic Party needs to support that kind of diligent reporting in the new election cycle -- with video crews permanently on the ground in early primary states, for example. What did John McCain say in New Hampshire? Who did Rudy Giuliani visit in Iowa? What did Mitt Romney do in South Carolina? The DNC needs to know the answers to these questions every time a Republican makes a campaign stop, and we have to be ready to take the proper course of action. Let's set up a state-of-the-art operation to bypass the media and take the story of their lies, flip-flops, and out-of-whack priorities directly to you.

Despite the fact that this is a fundraising pitch, and may be all blow and no whistle, the thought of a 50-state videography plan should actually make Republicans nervous. The sheer volume of footage the Democrats could grab on Republican gaffes at all levels cannot be underestimated.

The presidential campaigns will have their own opposition guys tracking their foes. The real benefit from this would be to have a party sponsored videographer at every congressional event, every pancake breakfast. The number of down ballot races that could be swung by an off-the-cuff remark is greater than the less remote possibility that someone more polished will hand you the silver bullet.

While the GOP doesn't exactly have an exclusive on saying or doing stupid things, it will certainly seem that way if YouTube is flooded with DNC produced videos and our guys are putting up nothing.

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nt

I think this will happen regardless of what the DNC does, although this would be a very nice incentive to encourage more of it--I'm sure some activists will appreciate funding for their trips.

The macaca video was captured by accident and some of the other videos were captured as a result of activists following Allen around his campaign stops.

The 1984 ad that has received much press recently was created by an activist that happened to have some technical skills.

If 2004-2006 is when blogging really came into its own, then 2008 and beyond will be the time for video in my opinion. What they have in common is that the content comes from ordinary people, some with more skill than others, and the barrier to entry is almost non-existent. These people capturing video around the country will be fulfilling a need that isn't being served, much the same as their blogger counterparts are doing.

What that essentially is in my opinion is a fundamental failure of the media to do it's job. During election season that includes helping people to get to know the candidates in as impartial a manner as possible. That includes not only covering scripted events but probing for chinks in the armor and trying to find out what someone will really be like in office and what they really think, not what their communications director wants you to think they think.

Left leaning activists, campaigns, bloggers and political institutions have proven they are more receptive and adept at trying and perfecting online technologies so expect them to get on the boards first here with some major video moment in the '08 cycle.

By Raven Brooks at Mon, 03/26/2007 - 5:11pm | login or register to post comments

Smart strategy...

I had not seen this email. Great find Turk.

...This could be bad.
________________________________________
David All
The David All Group
http://davidallgroup.com
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By David All at Mon, 03/26/2007 - 5:57pm | login or register to post comments

Great idea

I agree with the comments above. Every event is most likely going to be videotaped anyway, but the fact that the DNC sees this as critical to their chances in 2008 is quite telling.

www.timfullerton.com

By timmah1 at Tue, 03/27/2007 - 12:03am | login or register to post comments

Not critical, that's the wrong impression

This is not critical for getting a Democrat in the White House in 2008, or even expanding the existing majorities. Far from it. The DNC is just once again leading the way and allowing their people to think out of the box and experiment a little bit.

Video saw some good success in 2006, so some bright spark there said "hey wouldn't our chances of having lightning strike again be much better if we paid for people to be at these events?" It is a no brainer, because if you do happen to capture one of these lightning strikes and you can take advantage of a candidate self destructing that just makes everyone's job that much easier. Money can be reallocated to other races, and maybe a lower tier race now becomes competitive.

This is along the same lines as a lot of the other projects the DNC has done including paying to put organizers on the ground in states no one thought Democrats could win to rebuild the party.

By Raven Brooks at Tue, 03/27/2007 - 1:43pm | login or register to post comments

It's no more "telling" ...

It's no more "telling" than the fact that pandering to the religious right was "critical" to GOP success in 2000.

It's no more "telling" than the fact that the gay-marriage bans all over state ballots were "critical" to GOP chances in 2004.

And it's no more "telling" than the widely held prediction that a superior GOTV operation was "critical" to GOP chances in 2006.

We're a closely divided country. You'd be accusing Democrats of hubris if they acted like it was a ready-made election based on some huge shift in the electorate. And you'd be correct in doing so. Don't act like both sides wouldn't do just about anything to pull out a W.

And I don't mind pointing out that there's nothing low-road about showing the American people the things some of these guys are willing to say when they think their words won't carry much farther than the room they're standing in.

By Encoderer at Tue, 03/27/2007 - 7:29pm | login or register to post comments

not surprising

This doesn't surprise me and I'm betting both parties end up doing this. And that could include a lot of state parties

My biggest concern will be doctored videos. Not the 1984 mashup, but those that you can't quite tell if it's actually genuine.

www.digitalstreetjournal.com

By Jonathan Trenn at Tue, 03/27/2007 - 11:03pm | login or register to post comments

Citizens are the "Big Brother" of today

I agree with one of the comments. This will happen regardless. Funny to think that citizens are actually the "Big Brother" of our country.
Marisa

By Marisa at Fri, 03/30/2007 - 2:58pm | login or register to post comments



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