Sunday, August 20, 2017

Worse than Fox News

I'm Anne Thompson, MoveOn's Video Lab Director. I don't write you very often, because I'm usually behind-the-scenes producing videos. But I'm writing you today to talk about what we've accomplished so far, what we're planning next, and how you can help. I'm Anne Thompson, MoveOn's Video Lab Director. I don't write you very often, because I'm usually behind-the-scenes producing videos. But I'm writing you today to talk about what we've accomplished so far, what we're planning next, and how you can help.

Hi MoveOn member,

I'm Anne Thompson, MoveOn's Video Lab Director. I don't write you very often because I'm usually behind the scenes, producing videos. But I'm writing you today to talk about what Video Lab is; two big new challenges that we're facing right now and how we're planning to deal with them; and how you can help.

What MoveOn's Video Lab is:

MoveOn launched Video Lab in June 2016. Since then—in just over a year—we've had more than 300 million views on Facebook alone, with viewers having spent 139 million minutes (or a grand total of 264 years) absorbing MoveOn's fact-based stories, context, and timely information. 

In this new media environment where roughly half of American adults get their news from social media, video is playing a key role in our priority campaigns.1 In the fight to stop Trumpcare—which we won(!)—we created 142 videos that were viewed 40 million times and shared over 900,000 times. Our videos also generated 37,000 calls to members of Congress. 

Two big, new challenges that we're facing:

We've had breakout successes over the past year. But now, there are two big, new challenges that we're facing in the right-wing, fake-news space:

1. Donald Trump has launched a new project, which some reporters are calling "Trump TV."2 Trump TV is an attempt to deliver fake news and "alternative facts" directly to the American people.

2. For years, Fox News has pumped right-wing propaganda into millions of homes. Now, the right-wing media giant Sinclair Broadcast Group is trying to do to local TV news what Fox has done to cable news. Sinclair is forcing their local TV stations to run over-the-top pro-Trump commentaries by Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn during their news broadcasts, and after a proposed mega-merger with Tribune Media, Sinclair would reach 72 percent of households in America.3

How we're fighting back against right-wing, pro-Trump media:

We have an enormous opportunity to respond to these big new challenges and get the truth out—tens of millions of times—by doubling down on what's worked over the past year, continuing to innovate, and growing our team. And it's critical that we make big investments right now, to make sure that we're prepared to respond to an unprecedented assault on the truth going into the 2018 election season.

So here's my simple request: Can you join the fight against right-wing pro-Trump media by chipping in $5 a month to help MoveOn expand our Video Lab team?

Yes, I'll chip in monthly.

No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.

It has never been harder for the American people to hear through the noise and learn the facts about what's happening in our country. And I don't need to tell you how extremely dangerous these new developments are to our already teetering democracy. 

We've got to counter the right-wing media takeover and tell the truth. Over the past year, we've proven that what Video Lab does really makes a difference. Now, I'm asking for your help to take Video Lab to the next level.

Please, click here to chip in $5—or whatever you can afford—each month, and help us stand up for the truth.

Or if you can't chip in monthly, click here.

Thanks for all you do.

–Anne, Elsie, Sara, Seth, and the rest of the MoveOn Video Lab team

P.S. Here's why Video Lab works so well:

  • We're fast. MoveOn's Video Lab team uses cutting-edge production techniques to create powerful, Facebook-optimized videos within the fast-paced news cycle. This ability to move from inception to posting in a few hours means that we're shaping the political conversation as news breaks, providing our audience with independent, carefully sourced, progressive content and analysis that they can share with others. Video Lab releases five to ten videos per week, with a typical viewership of 100,000 per video. At the same time, Video Lab also produces signature pieces with breakout success, such as our Trump's tax returns video created in partnership with Senator Elizabeth Warren—that has received more than 37 million views to date.
  • We have a huge reach. Even the best, most timely content has no impact if it doesn't reach viewers. That's why MoveOn's 1.4 million Facebook followers, 264,000 Twitter followers, 45,000 YouTube followers, 24,000 Instagram followers, and millions of members who receive videos over email are so important—along with our team's relationships with some of the internet's biggest social media publishers and networkers, who serve as crucial amplifiers for our messages, helping MoveOn's Facebook posts reach 5-10 million people in a typical week. Video Lab's compelling, shareable storytelling carries widely and quickly, reaching a broad audience at a fraction of the cost of TV ads and other forms of paid media.
  • We're an independent, trusted voice. We aren't beholden to any politician, party, corporation, or foundation. We are accountable only to MoveOn members! We fight Trump's lies with the truth, and we stand for core progressive values, including economic and racial justice, healing the planet, and a democracy that belongs to the people instead of to billionaires and corporations. That spirit of independence and our core values come through in our videos.

Convinced? Good! We need your help! Can you chip in $5 a month to help expand MoveOn's Video Lab?

Yes, I'll chip in monthly.

No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.

P.P.S. You can check out more than 500 videos from MoveOn's Video Lab here.

Sources:

1. "Nearly half of U.S. adults get news on Facebook, Pew says," Nieman Journalism Lab, May 26, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/12767?t=21&akid=188528%2E10220574%2EfenXZp

2. "Trump TV's 'real news' sounds more like real propaganda," The Washington Post, August 7, 2017
https://act.moveon.org/go/12525?t=23&akid=188528%2E10220574%2EfenXZp

3. "How Trump's FCC aided Sinclair's expansion," Politico, August 6, 2017
http://act.moveon.org/go/12806?t=25&akid=188528%2E10220574%2EfenXZp

Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your ongoing support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?

Yes, I'll chip in $5 a month.

No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.

Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. This email was sent to Eddie Alfaro on August 21st, 2017. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

1 comment:

  1. I signed up to get your newsletters and emails so that I could better understand your organization and your politics. I truly believe that when it comes to the challenges that face our great nation, you are either part of the problem or part of the solution.

    Apparently MoveOn.org is nothing more than the very thing they claimed they were the tractors to be. Thank you for pointing it out so poignantly in your email today; discussing your video production lab and how it's going to help defeat your detractors because all they do is spew hatred, produce fake news, spread propaganda, lie about everything and promote conspiracy theories in order to confuse Americans into believing them.

    Everything that the left cleans the right is doing the left is doing everything that the right claims the left is doing the right is doing. Or, better yet watching both sides go at each other reminds me of arguments we used to have on the playground in elementary school:

    You're a liar

    No you are

    No you are

    No you are

    No you are

    No you are

    No you are

    And on and on it will go until the American people start doing their own investigations and research claims made by both sides of the political debate. When this happens and the folks begin to recognize that they've been lied to for a long time, they will no longer take news reports at face value and will begin to hold our news media accountable for their actions.

    I do have a question for you though in case you're willing to reply, and that is:

    Do you believe that the only way things get better is if your side is correct and the other side of the debate is proven wrong?

    I guess another way to ask that would be, do you believe that conservatives and liberals need to work together, re-learn how to compromise and help each other keep America going strong so many more generations can live in a Republic that ensures its citizens freedom and the right to pursue their dreams?

    I do. I truly believe the only way forward is together, and as long as there are groups like MoveOn.org who don't rally their people to teach and compromise through reason and logic, but instead continually attack anyone who would disagree with any aspect of their ideology and call on their members to do the same.

    ReplyDelete