MoveOn.org Hits a Health Care Nerve
BY Micah L. Sifry | Wednesday, September 23 2009
The problem with this video is that it's far too late to be publicizing with jokes and sarcasm. I understand the value of rallying the troops, but enlisting Will Ferrell (whom I love!) and other celebrities at a time when so much of the country has been seriously, *seriously* lied to, to then in many ways reinforce those terrible frames... It's just sort of dumbfounding to me. I love a good joke (see Billionaires for Wealthcare, for example--Rachel Maddow covered them last week) but this is just not MoveOn's role at this extraordinary juncture. It's indulgent of their role in progressive activism-- they are hugely influential for many people, and they are wasting their social capital on sarcasm.But Hogue insists that the video is doing what it is supposed to do. "I don't think we meant it to move people in the middle," she told me. "It's meant to raise the profile of the insurance companies and the execs." In that respect, it's clearly working. News coverage from mainstream outlets like the New York Times and NPR definitely played up that angle. "Hollywoood Reaches Out to Insurance Executives, and Slaps Them," headlined the Times.