Yesterday, the Deval Patrick campaign sent out a press release announcing a fancy new feature on the campaign’s website: a blog (called “The Source”) featuring audio and video clips of Patrick himself and assorted boosters. Pretty nifty – it’s a great idea, especially given the fact that one of Patrick’s biggest assets is the fact that he is a very effective public speaker, which comes across much better on an audio or video clip than in print.
Unfortunately, the first “testimonial” on the site is a bit of a gaffe. The video clip in question, called “Why Amy G. supports Deval,” appears to present a regular suburban mom explaining why she thinks Deval Patrick has the best answers to the pressing issues of the day. Problem is, as today’s Herald reports, “Amy G.” is actually Amy Gorin, co-chair of the Deval Patrick for Governor campaign.
The campaign told the Herald that there’s no problem:
âWhy shouldnât the first one be one of our campaign chairs?â asked campaign spokeswoman Libby De Vecchi. âWe encourage everyone to check it out for themselves and decide what they think.â
Fine. I checked it out for myself, and I’ve decided what I think: it’s deceptive. No reasonable person viewing that clip would assume that the speaker is affiliated with, much less the co-chair of, Deval Patrick’s campaign. That, of course, is why she is identified as “Amy G.,” rather than by her full name. The campaign should just disclose the now-well-known fact that Amy G. is co-chairing the campaign right on the post. Even better, it should post video clips of voters who support Patrick who aren’t affiliated with the campaign. If the Patrick campaign wants to give the impression that lots of ordinary folks in Massachusetts are flocking to support Patrick’s run for Governor, they surely can do better than posting an interview with Amy Gorin.
It appears that Aaron Margolis over at HubPolitics first noted the “Amy G.”-Amy Gorin connection. He sensibly writes: “There is no excuse for trying to purport Amy G. as a random Deval Patrick supporter and use her for a testimonial. They would be foolish to deny that was what they were attempting to do. Why not post the video blog as ‘Why does campaign co-chair Amy Gorin supports Deval’?” His take is in general a bit harsher than mine, but overall I agree with him.
how to really incorporate a blog with a campaign. I’m not sure that anyone will.
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Deval: nice try. But astroturfing ain’t cool.
The absurd part is that The Clip, posted on 5 April, is still there two days after having been outed. How long will it take them to remove it? If I were their competitors, I would be all over this on my campaign blogs, media contact lists, etc.
I would sure love to find out what they were thinking when posting that video. It is not exactly what I would expect from his campaign at this point since they have done a remarkable job thus far. However- do they really expect that people will not recognize her? Any chance you guys could get in touch with their campaign? I’d be interested in hearing their response to the deceptive comments.
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Heres to hoping the Reilly people dont make something big out of it.
I suppose it was a “testimonial” but I don’t see anything on your link that “present[s] a regular suburban mom,” at all. In fact, the backdrop of the video is from a Deval fundraiser.
No, it was not “full disclosure,” but I don’t really think that it’s deceptive at all. There’s nothing there that even implies that she’s a “normal voter” — you’re projecting that completely. To be perfectly honost, I always assume that if you’re posting from a campaign blog, you’re affiliated with that campaign. The etiquette is fully fleshed out for blogs at all.
I guess, for me, it’s a question of where the line is drawn. If the campaign was paying staffers to appear in their testimonials, I think that would be unacceptable.
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But a campaign co-chair? Unless I’m mistaken, that’s not a paid position. In fact, ‘Amy G’ has probably spent more money on the campaign than vice versa.
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So, what’s the difference between having a co-chair and any other volunteer give a testimonial? Is it bad to have any volunteer appear on their blog? Of course not, that would be silly. If someone cares enough about the campaign to answer phones for an hour, people might be interested in finding out why.
Just Kidding.
Give me a break. I didn’t see “Amy G. Suburban Soccer Mom” under her face. The clip appears to me to be a person at a Patrick event saying what they think about Deval. Period. End of story.Fini.
But you know, come to think of it…if this is the biggest “mistake” Deval has made during the campaign, I bet his staff will take it. Compared to some of the major blunders made by AG Reilly- this is pretty small stuff in comparison. I mean it’s not like he tried to subvert the democratic primary process by picking his own LG…or went around saying the income tax should be rolled back to 5.0% Now…THOSE are REAL blunders.
Nice try in making something out of nothing though. Better luck next time.
David,
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I agree that full disclosure was called for. Why not just have put it out there as an example of what can be done with this new technology? No reason to be shy about that.
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To use the word “stumbles” is a bit too strong, however.
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Stumbles into the future? Out there first with a fresh new approach to politics? Let’s wait till the other campaigns catch up and then let’s compare. Meanwhile, my hat’s off to my candidate and his campaign for their proactive use of “new media” including this really nifty and accessible feature.
Right after the rally at Fanueil Hall on March 11th, there was a short get together upstairs at Quincy Market. A woman there was filming random people at the event. I was filmed. I wasn’t pretending to be anything but a Patrick supporter. I was asked why I supported Patrick and why I think he can win in November. That’s all. I signed a release form but I don’t think it even asked what I did for work.
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I think someone is making a mountain out of a molehill.
C’mon – if Reilly’s website had something similar – a near-anonymous testimonial that turned out to be a campaign high-up, you would all uniformly be calling for his head.
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Similar to Reilly’s call for tax return disclosure, and Deval supporters calling it a stunt, since Deval didn’t want to release his tax return, Deval supporters are let him slide on this.
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Even David here on BMG, who rightly posted about it, simply called it “a bit of a gaffe” instead of “trying to fool other voters by posing a campaign official as a regular ole’ soccer mom.”
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If Reilly’s site had this same thing, we’d be hearing about “BlogGate” but Deval is getting another softball pass from many of his supporters who feel Deval can do no wrong.
if it were on Reilly’s website, I wouldn’t have even noticed it or cared.
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In fact, I only checked the innoculous little video clip out over at The Source because of all the hoopla about it here.
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This is a tempest in a blogspot.
A few times now Reilly people have said that “if Reilly had done it you all woud…” We are not a monolithic group and often disagree on here. I don’t think this is a big deal. I think it is a stupid mistake and would think so no matter who made it. Please don’t make assumptions about the way I would react.
The Patrick campaign needs to admit the mistake and try to move on. It was a bad move. It would have been fine for Gorin to identify herself fully as Patrick’s volunteer campaign chairman, and everyone would understand. Furthermore, it shouldn’t have been hard for them to find a Deval fan somewhere without an official position in the campaign to do the spot.
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It’s not that big a deal. But let’s just stop rationalizing, and expect all our candidates and campaigns to be as straightforward as possible.
Is this a huge deal? No, but it was what I’d call a rookie mistake. Much better to deal with such things by saying “whoops, we’ll do better next time,” and move on. And I do tend to think that if Tom Reilly or Chris Gabrieli had done this, it would be seen by some in a less charitable light.
Hey, David Charley and I all agree! Terrific! Anyway, The Clip is still there, so I need to update my counter to Four Days.