Posted on 01/06/2004 11:11:17 AM PST by ArcLight
Dear MoveOn member, As the New Year begins, we'd rather be talking about positive things, and there are plenty of good things happening. But MoveOn.org has come under attack from the Republican National Committee (RNC), which has launched a campaign of malicious misinformation to divert attention from the creativity and power of the Bush in 30 Seconds contest. We need your help to make sure the media don't fall for it.
RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie launched the attack on "Fox News Sunday," and the RNC followed it with press releases and calls to reporters. The charges centered on two ads posted on the Bush in 30 Seconds website which compared President Bush's tactis with those of Adolf Hitler. Mr. Gillespie repeatedly referred to the ads as 'the MoveOn ad' or 'MoveOn's ad,' implying that we had sponsored or perhaps even commissioned the ad. And he also claimed that we might spend $7 million to run it on TV.
This is a lie. MoveOn.org hasn't sponsored such an ad, and we never would -- we regret the appearance of these ads on the Bush In 30 Seconds site. The two ads in question are from more than a thousand posted by members of the public, and they were voted on by MoveOn members through December 31st. Obviously the few hundred of you who viewed these ads agreed that they were not worthy of further broadcast or recognition, because they got low ratings. Yesterday we announced the 15 finalists -- all good, hard-hitting and fair appraisals of the Bush record, in the judgment of the members and others who rated them. The two offending ads can only be found one place now -- on the RNC website!
When we've explained this to journalists, most have understood that this is a game of gotcha politics, not news. But even our statement for the press below, which goes through the entire process in detail, hasn't stopped the right wing from working this angle as hard as they can.
That's why we're asking you to please watch for stories on this as they appear, and let us know. Call the news outlet yourself and give them hell for falling victim to such political baloney. I've attached our statement, which fully explains the situation, below. Then please let us know so we can contact the outlets directly.
You can help us track inaccurate reporting on this story at: http://moveon.org/smear/?id=2234-398683-BhZHt_KT6kuS2Drs3SNhFA
Second, we need you to get the press back on the right track. After you've corrected the negative accounts, write an upbeat letter to your local paper about the exciting and positive aspects of the contest and the finalists. These ads reflect the courage, hope, and deep patriotism of our membership. They're creative, passionate, and totally unlike most of the political ads that are out there. And perhaps most importantly, they were picked in a democratic way. Now that's a story.
The finalists are online at: http://www.bushin30seconds.org/
By sharing that URL with your friends, family, and colleagues, you can help to make sure that the RNC isn't successful in stealing our finalists' glory.
Not only is the RNC campaign deceptive, it's also totally disingenuous. Yesterday, the New York Post ran a long opinion column focusing exclusively on how much Presidential Candidate Howard Dean resembles Hitler, even calling him "Herr Howie." Of course, the RNC hasn't issued a condemnation of that. When close RNC ally Grover Norquist repeatedly compared taxing the wealthy with the Holocaust in an interview on NPR, the RNC was muted. And in 2002, the RNC and its allies were silent when supporters of President Bush actually aired TV ads morphing the face of Senator Max Cleland, a triple amputee as a result of wounds sustained in Vietnam, into Osama bin Laden. Given such a transparently partisan track record, the RNC's moral outrage doesn't mean a whole lot.
Obviously, MoveOn.org and its 1.7 million members are now on the right-wing radar. They are going to do everything they can do to silence us, and we simply won't let it happen. Smear tactics and campaigns of misinformation have no place in American democracy.
Sincerely, --Adam, Carrie, Eli, James, Joan, Noah, Peter, Wes, and Zack The MoveOn.org Team January 6th, 2003
P.S. Here's the statement we released to the press yesterday, which explains the whole situation.
ADS ATTACKED BY RNC CHAIRMAN ARE NOT MOVEON.ORG VOTER FUND ADS MoveOn.org Voter Fund Regrets Screening Process Allowed Ads to Slip Through Statement by Wes Boyd, Founder of MoveOn.org Voter Fund:
The Republican National Committee and its chairman have falsely accused MoveOn.org of sponsoring ads on its website which compare President Bush to Adolf Hitler. The claim is deliberately and maliciously misleading.
During December the MoveOn.org Voter Fund invited members of the public to submit ads that purported to tell the truth about the President and his policies. More than 1,500 submissions from ordinary Americans came in and were posted on a web site, bushin30seconds.org, for the public to review.
None of these was our ad, nor did their appearance constitute endorsement or sponsorship by MoveOn.org Voter Fund. They will not appear on TV. We do not support the sentiment expressed in the two Hitler submissions. They were voted down by our members and the public, who reviewed the ads and submitted nearly 3 million critiques in the process of choosing the 15 finalist entries.
We agree that the two ads in question were in poor taste and deeply regret that they slipped through our screening process. In the future, if we publish or broadcast raw material, we will create a more effective filtering system.
Contrast this with the behavior of the RNC and its allies when supporters of President Bush used TV ads morphing the face of Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) into that of Osama Bin Laden during the 2002 Senate race.
MoveOn.org and the MoveOn.org Voter Fund exist to bring the public into the political process and produce a more fact-based election process. We regret that the RNC doesn't seem to embrace the same goals.
I guess they think bowing down to the Gods of Socialism, is deeply patriotic.
That last is REAL easy. Just tell 'em it's made with dolphin-safe veal.
Yer right, it's soooooo baaaaaad, I shoulda. Cough, Choke, Spit.....splat.
You believe that? I got some prime property on the Isle of Lewis to sell you if you think that's true. You know why those ads got pulled? Because either Dean or Gore (both of whom have endorsed MoveOn and vice versa) made panicky phone calls to MoveOn and told them to yank those ads. Go over to du and check out their reactions to the ads. They think they were hunky dory. They're like "So what, Bush is a Nazi".
I guarantee you if they had left those ads in there the idiotic judges they have (Garofolo, Moore, Franken, Moby, Stipe, Vetter and co) would've picked that one. Soros- the billionaire patron of Moveon- thinks Bush is Hitler. Since he's signing the checks over there it's a safe bet the Hitler ad would've been picked.
That's the state of your party today guy. You've all gone insane and you don't have a shot in hell of getting in the White House.
Funny, isn't it? The educational background of an individual reveals itself, especially through written words.
I do not believe that those lacking verbal and written skills are any less intelligent. I do believe that a lack of those skills shows a lack of overall education, and knowledge of HISTORY.
This lack is what makes that part of our society easy to fool, easy to manipulate, and that seems to be the current mainstream of Democratic supporters.
For the most part, the Democratic Politicians (and their bards, the media) have to appeal to emotion to get votes, as appealing to logic would fail with many of their supporters.
I am curious to know how many such finalists out of how many submissions. Could you give us a source for this?
These MoveOn.org ads "ran" every time they were downloaded. There were mirror sites set up (and if I search DU I could probably find some Rats who got a chuckle out of this ad and "hoped" it would run on tv).
This trash was propagated under the name of MoveOn. They did not have the sensitivity to delete these. What would have been beyond the pale? A web cartoon of President Bush throwing Palestinians in ovens?
As will this: HILLARY CLINTON REGRETS GHANDI JOKE (she won't be going the way of Trent Lott).
You and the MoveOn.org people both seem to be disconnected from the assertion that these adds were finalists (I say assertion because I have not verified this). Being that this has been mentioned in the post you are responding to, why are you ignoring such a relevant detail?
OK, now I see you responded to this point, but your assertion is different then the ones others are making. Can you give us a source?
The party faithful do love the ad even if MoveOn.Org feels the need for damage control (notice they lash out at the RNC, not the ADL and other Jewish organizations).
Just as JimRob and the moderators delete offensive posts here, MoveOn.org could have deleted the ads there.
The question is whether MoveOn.org allows others to use their webspace to post 30-second .mov files without their prior approval as posters at FR can post things without JimRob's prior approval.
I'd find it odd that MoveOn.org would grant others the right to do that but perhaps they do. Maybe they see the ad contest as no different than a bulletin board or forum.
However, if they have control over what gets posted at their site, they should admit that they themselves are at fault for putting the ads on their site instead of playing "blame the victim".
If some automated script allowed people to put up ads on their site without MoveOn.org screening them, I would agree they should not be blamed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.