Last week, I pointed to news reports that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was "annoyed" by Katie Couric's questions during their now somewhat infamous interviews. One such exchange included Couric asking Palin what she read every day; Palin did not answer at the time, but subsequently said the New York Times and the Economist.
Now, Politicoreports this: Katie Couric, ambushed by TMZ on a New York street, mimics Sarah Palin's answer to the question of what she reads, and borrows a dig from Politico Playbook: Unlike others, she says, she actually reads the Economist.
This just in from ABC News' James Gerber: MoveOn.org is releasing a new television ad aimed at increasing youth turnout and mobilizing young voters around the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.
The pro-Obama spot, titled "It Could Happen To You," was named the funniest video in the organization's recent "Obama in 30 Seconds" ad contest and will air for a week starting Wednesday, July 30 on MTV and Comedy Central, according to ABC's "The Note."
The ad, produced by former "Boy Meets World" star Rider Strong, is styled like a public health spot. "I never thought it could happen to me," begins a young man. "This could happen to anybody," relates another. What, exactly, have these young adults contracted? "Hope."
Check the ad out here:
MoveOn will spend $150,000 to run the ad on the two cable stations. The ad is in part a response to the airing of an anti-Obama ad by conservative group Let Freedom Ring on MTV last week. Titled "Both Ways Barack," the attack ad accused Obama of what it calls a history of taking opposing positions on the same issue. It was the first the political ad to air on MTV in the station's 27-year history, running for three days on MTV, as well as VH1, MSNBC, CNN and Fox News, according to ABC.
NDN and it's San Francisco affiliate, the New Politics Institute, are strong advocates of using cable television as a way to reach different audiences than those reached by traditional broadcast channels. Buying cable, in this case, spots on MTV and Comedy Central, is one in our series of eight New Tools we strongly recommend to communicate with the changing audiences of 21st century politics. To learn more about why you should buy cable, click here.
According to the Washington Post, Congress is moving deeper into the world of web video, a tact the New Politics Institute has long advocated, but House member Kevin McCarthy has found that, in some cases, doing so breaks House rules.
More than 100 House members have multimedia pages and YouTube links on their Web sites -- all in violation of House rules that date to when lawmakers communicated with voters through snail mail and newsletters.
Amazingly, Rep. McCarthy and others have worked out a deal with YouTube whereby the tech giant will establish a commercial free section that Congress can use, which would put Congressional YouTube users back on the right side of this particular rule.
It's encouraging to see elected officials push further into the content creation side of web video. As George Allen and others have learned, it's probably better than solely being on the side where content is created against you.
Thoughts about our content? Suggestions for how we can improve our blog? Anything else on your mind that you want to share with us? Please, send it our way - shoot me an e-mail at dboscov-ellen@ndn.org. Thanks, and hope to hear from you!
