Monday, March 10, 2008

OBAMA WATCHDOGS is MOVING!!

HELLO WATCHDOGS! I'm proud to say we now have SEVENTY-ONE volunteers and counting!
Unfortunately, because of the size and organization we are going to need to be most efficient, this blog site isn't going to be adequate enough to be our Homebase. We've been working the last few days to set up something better and...

Today, we’re opening it up! Our brand new Obama WATCHDOGS Forum! Please go ahead and check it out!

http://obamawatchdogs.proboards53.com/

This is going to be our NEW Obama WATCHDOGS Homebase, where we can all gather and bring our news findings to one place. There's a forum for each media group, with threads for news shows and contact info. MSNBC, CNN, and ABC News watchdogs can post in the necessary show threads, while Newspaper and Blog watchdogs can create new threads for any distorting articles found. Then contact people can respond directly to the media source!

To join us, you can start by heading to the HELP GUIDE on SETTING UP YOUR ACCOUNT.

Once you have an account, go INTRODUCE YOURSELF TO THE TROOPS!

I've tried to make the forum as user-friendly as possible for those among who aren’t as tech-saavy, so hopefully *fingers crossed* it's not too confusing. Things might look a little intimidating at first, but I PROMISE, if you figured out barackobama.com, you'll have no trouble learning how to navigate this forum.

Remember, we are all here under the inspiration of Senator Obama’s words: “Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.” Not even the Media!

Hope to see you over there soon!

- Kristin
Posted by at No comments:

Friday, March 7, 2008

SPREAD THE NEWS: OBAMA WON TEXAS!!

Caucus results are finally being determined and it has been revealed:
OBAMA WON TEXAS!!

PRIMARY: 51-47 so 65 for Clinton, 61 for Obama
CAUCUS: 37 for Obama, 30 for Clinton

Clinton: 65 + 30 = 95
Obama: 61 + 37 = 98
=======================
Obama WINS by 3 delegates!

FOR POPULAR VOTE:
Let's do a little math (Primary vote totals from ABC News):
PRIMARY: Clinton 1,459,814 Obama 1,358,785
CAUCUS: Clinton 440,000 Obama 560,000 (so far)
Grand Popular Vote Totals (Primary + Caucus)
Clinton 1,469,814 + 440,000 = 1,909,814
Obama 1,358,785 + 560,000 = 1,918,785

Obama WINS the popular vote as well!
Posted by at 1 comment:

STRIKING BACK ON POWERS RESIGNATION DRAMA

For those who are battling striking back on blogs ridicule concerning the Samantha Power's incident, here's some helpful links to share:



  • 'Different Standard for Clinton campaign' on personal attacks
    He continued though to say that there “seems to be a different standard in the Clinton campaign” [on personal attacks]. He cited supporter Bob Johnson, who alluded to Obama’s drug use in South Carolina; Tom Buffenbarger, president of the machinists' union, who vitriolically trashed Obama in Ohio; and Tom Vilsack, who attacked Rudy Giuliani on the number of his marriages and the relationship with his children.

    “It took them days to admit they were offensive comments,” Plouffe said of Johnson’s comments. And on Vilsack’s comments on Giuliani, there was “no action there,” Plouffe said. Clinton, Plouffe points out, never apologized for Buffenbarger’s remarks -- calling Obama “Janus, the two-faced Roman god of ancient times” and attacking his supporters as “latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies” -- at an event she was at and later followed him on stage.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE USING THIS TO QUESTIONING OBAMA'S LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES:

  • WP: Even in Victory, Clinton Team is Battling Itself
    The depth of hostility toward Penn even in a time of triumph illustrates the combustible environment within the Clinton campaign, an operation where internal strife and warring camps have undercut a candidate once seemingly destined for the Democratic nomination. Clinton now faces the challenge of exploiting this moment of opportunity while at the same time deciding whether the squabbling at her Arlington headquarters has become a distraction that requires her intervention.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE USING THIS TO QUESTION OBAMA CAMPAIGN ADVISORS' EXPERIENCE:

  • OBAMA ADVISORS:

Posted by at 4 comments:

Thursday, March 6, 2008

ARTICLES TO SHARE WITH MEDIA

Clinton's national co-chair received donations from RezkoThree of the co-defendants at Rezko trial contributed to Clintons and campaign supporters. Obama didn't receive any donations from Rezko.

Mr. Brodie, apparently seeking to play down the potential impact on Canada, told the reporters the threat was not serious, and that someone from Ms. Clinton's campaign had even contacted Canadian diplomats to tell them not to worry because the NAFTA threats were mostly political posturing.

.....

The news agency quoted that source as saying that Mr. Brodie said that someone from Ms. Clinton's campaign called and was "telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt."


[VIDEO: Olbermann reports that It was Clinton who had made the promises & Canadian Government in upset over leak, identifies it as a smear
Hillary Rodham Clinton won three out of four last night, but the results did not shrink the delegate gap between Clinton and frontrunner Barack Obama . Before Tuesday's election, Obama led with 1,386 delegates, but Clinton was not far behind with 1,276 delegates, according to the Associated Press, which includes surveys on the preferences of unpledged "superdelegates." Obama's new total is 1,562 and Clinton's is 1,461, as of Wednesday at noon according to the AP. So the difference between them is virtually unchanged. A total of 2,025 delegates are necessary to secure the Democratic nomination.


An extensive SurveyUSA poll released today shows Barack Obama defeating John McCain in a hypothetical match-up by a margin of 280 electoral votes to 256. Obama carries 24 states plus the District of Columbia. In Nebraska, which divides its electoral votes based on congressional districts, McCain wins three electoral votes while Obama wins two.

Of the states which McCain is currently predicted to carry, the race is extremely close in Texas (47%-46%), Florida (47%-45%), North Carolina (47%-45%) and South Carolina (48%-45%). And with Barack as the Democratic candidate, nearly every state west of the Mississippi could be in play.

The campaign said 727,972 donors contributed to the campaign in February. More than half of them were first-time contributors.

A majority of the money, $45 million, was raised online, the campaign said. More than 90 percent of the donations were under $100, and more than half were under $25.

Less than $1 million of the funds raised in February can only be used if Obama receives his party's nomination, the campaign said. All the rest may go toward campaigning in the primary season.
[cnn.com report]

Posted by at 3 comments:

MEDIA CONTACTS

A huge thanks goes out to annie for this fabulous list:


CABLE TELEVISION NEWS CHANNELS:


MSNBC
One MSNBC Plaza
Secaucus, NJ 07094
Phone: (201) 583-5000
Fax: (201) 583-5453


Hardball with Chris Matthews: hardball@msnbc.com
Dan Abrams: ABRAMS@MSNBC.com
Rachel Maddow: rachelmaddow.com
Ed Shultz: bigeddieradio.com
Saturday Night Live (This is not technically a NEWS source, so I don't recommend contacting them to change things. But the site itself has comments on clips people can patrol.)




CNN
One CNN Center, Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30303-5366
Phone: 404-827-1500
Fax: 404-827-1906

FOX News Channel
1211 Ave. of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Phone: (212) 301-3000
Fax: (212) 301-4229
comments@foxnews.com
Special Report with Brit Hume: Special@foxnews.com
FOX Report with Shepard Smith: Foxreport@foxnews.com
The O'Reilly Factor: Oreilly@foxnews.com
Hannity & Colmes: Hannity@foxnews.com , Colmes@foxnews.com
On the Record with Greta: Ontherecord@foxnews.com

BASIC TELEVISION NEWS BROADCASTS:



ABC News
77 W. 66 St., New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212-456-7777
General e-mail: netaudr@abc.com

Nightline: nightline@abcnews.com
20/20: 2020@abc.com

CBS News
524 W. 57 St., New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-975-4321
Fax: 212-975-1893

CBS Evening News: evening@cbsnews.com
The Early Show: earlyshow@cbs.com
60 Minutes II: 60II@cbsnews.com
48 Hours: 48hours@cbsnews.com
Face The Nation: ftn@cbsnews.com

NBC
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112
Phone: 212-664-4444
Fax: 212-664-4426

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams: nightly@nbc.com
NBC News Today: today@nbc.com
Dateline NBC: dateline@nbc.com

CNBC
2200 Fletcher Ave.
Fort Lee, NJ 07024
Phone: (201) 585-2622
Fax: (201) 583-5453

PBS
1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone: 703-739-5000
Fax: 703-739-8458

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: newshour@pbs.org

NATIONAL RADIO PROGRAMS

National Public Radio
635 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001-3753
Phone: 202-513-2000
Fax: 202-513-3329
E-mail: Chantal de la Rionda, assistant to the Ombudsman ombudsman@npr.org

All Things Considered: atc@npr.org
Morning Edition: morning@npr.org
Talk Of The Nation: totn@npr.org



Progressive Talk Radio
Air America
Ed Schultz
Link
Randi Rhodes
rrhodes@airamericaradio.com
Thom Hartmann
Link

[If anyone finds out any extra info to add, please feel free to comment and I'll add it to the list]

Posted by at 5 comments:

MASTER LIST of MEDIA GROUPS

03/06/08 10:49pm ET: FOURTY-SIX WATCHDOGS AND COUNTING, GUYS! EXCELLENT JOB! Let's all work to get this thing to 100 by the end of the weekend, yes?
03/07/08 11:57pm ET: FIFTY-SIX NOW! EVERYONE HELP SPREAD THE WORD!
03/09/08 11:35pm ET: SEVENTY-ONE WATCHDOGS AND COUNTING!



MASTER LIST OF WATCHDOGS IN EACH MEDIA GROUP

Posted by at 3 comments:

Welcome WATCHDOGS!: Guidelines

Welcome to WATCHDOGS Homebase!

First, thank you to EVERYONE who were so quick to volunteer! I'm amazed to see how many energized people we've got on board in only a couple hours time!

Now, some people were questioning exactly what we will be doing. Which is...definitely a good thing to question!

I'll admit, my conception of this was quite simple. Everyone gets assigned to media groups. You read/watch your media. When you see/hear any lies, spin tactics that mask the truth, or ignore a counterpoint that you feel should be raised, you contact that media by letters/email/phone. Present them with the evidence of TRUTH which they ignored.

Quite simply, we're all here for one reason: To make sure the MEDIA reports the TRUTH

Now of course, this gets alot more complicated. Basically it can get about as complicated as you want it to. There are bunches of ways we could expand this, big letter campaigns, petitions, going through the sponsors, etc. And those are all viable ideas to play with. But right now I'd like to keep it simple.

THE SIMPLE TWO-FOLD SYSTEM:
1) Holding the Media Accountable for Their Words. Like I mentioned above. Read. Find Lies. Contact.
2) Putting Out the Flames of Fires they already Started. That means moderating comments on blogs. I don't expect you to have the time to respond to every bad comment or try to argue with people. But if there is a lie being overwhelminly propagated in the comments, respond with evidence to refute it. That commentor probably won't be back, but this way we are giving other readers the truth to seek if they really want it.

In the meantime, I'll be trying to pull together posts of Common Offenses, to make responses easier for you all. For those of you who have started responding already, if you care to share, that'd be fabulous as well. I'm still trying to work out how to do this as well, so I really do welcome any and all suggestions you can give.

The key to our effectiveness is ORGANIZATION.
Now, I know I'm not going to be able to do this all by myself, I'm gonna need some help. Right now, if we could get one person from each media group to VOLUNTEER to head their group? I promise you can recruit others to help you out as well if you feel the task is too daunting. For now I just need people willing to be the major eye and contact figure.

This blog is gonna help us out immensely with organization. AmyWI was sharp enough to mention moving this outside the Obama site, and I think it will definitely be more condusive to what we'll want to do (i.e posting links, videos, etc). I believe you are able to comment on any posts as Anonymous but I'd recommend just getting an account if you don't have one already. It only took me like five seconds, definitely the easiest signup I've ever done. For those of you who would like to head a group to blog the things you find, all you have to do is give me your email address and I can add your name to the author's list for you to write posts. Scratch that. Looks like blog will not be our last stop after all. We're in the process of setting up a forum which will be MUCH more conducive to the scale we'd like this to be. You'll all be notified when we open it, but until then, I'll still be using this blog to start everyone off on small campaigns.

And lastly, but most importantly: GUIDELINES!

GUIDELINES I think we should agree to follow to maximize our efficiency:
1) Stay rational, stay reasonable.
2) Keep it civil. No press BASHING. No matter how much they might deserve it.
3) Refrain from judging or demonizing. People have a right to support any candidate they want, we just shouldn't be able to tell from their report. (i.e. Avoid saying 'oh, he's a CLINTON supporter', like it's a dirty word.)
4) No distorting, no smearing. We are only as good as how we treat our opponents. No matter how they treat us. Strike Hard, Strike Fast, With Truth.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head right now. Anything else I'm missing, feel free to shout. I'm still all sorting this one out myself, so I'm completely open to any suggestions any of you might be able to give.

I wish you all the best of luck in your watchdogging! And remember "Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change". Not EVEN the media.

ARE YOU FIRED UP? ARE YOU READY TO GO?! LET'S GO CHANGE THE WORLD!!
Posted by at 9 comments:
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