“The Time Warner Summit: Politics 2008,” held at the Time Warner headquarters in New York City and co-sponsored with CNN, was a corporate branded event with big name heavy-hitters taking on questions about media, news, and the election. After attending both days of the conference, it reinforced my belief that digital media was the future for pushing out women’s stories, concerns, and dialogues.
There were many prominent women featured. Campbell Brown, CNN Anchor, moderated the opening keynote roundtable comprised of four men. Candy Crowley, senior political correspondent at CNN, spoke during the Media Power vs. Political Power session. One of the most dynamic speakers over the two days was Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent for CNN. Her persona and delivery style popped during the discussion with colleagues that included Wolf Blitzer and Fareed Zakaria and former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke.
Whether you consider women and minorities successfully enmeshed in the total media picture
or their specificity overlooked, depends upon your point of view. But the conference was a definitive contrast to presentation I recently attended at St. John’s University, which totally focused on the intersectionality of race and gender with the election story. There, a majority of the speakers were law professors presenting academic work.
The Time Warner symposium included one panel entitled Women and the 2008 Election: Playing Politics with Gender–Media, Candidates and the Majority Vote. Led by Lisa Witter, Fenton Communications COO and co-founder of SheSource — a “brain trust” of female experts — six women explored women as swing voters and the cultural phenomenon of Sarah Palin’s candidacy. In reference to Michelle Obama, they also discussed whether you could be an outspoken black woman without being described as “angry” by media pundits.
As Witter pointed out while speaking to a full room of women — “Wish there were more you!” she joked to the sprinkling of men — 59 percent of primary voters were women. At the end of the discussion, Carol Jenkins, Women’s Media Center president, posed questions going forward for the media. She called for continued examination of “who is calling the shots, who is making the decisions, and who is missing from the picture.”
With the understanding that women do not getting their narratives adequately told — if told at all — the need for a fresh playing field is palpable. In the new media, women have an opportunity to create their own communities and their own brands. Whether on the left or right of the political spectrum, a mommy blogger or a political blogger, women are flooding the Internet. This was borne out by a BlogHer/Compass Partners survey found 36.2 million women were actively participating in blogs. Of women online, 53 percent were reading blogs, 37 percent were posting comments, and 28 percent were writing or updating blogs.
In recent weeks, the McCain campaign has been attacking ACORN, a widely respected voter registration organization, claiming ACORN knowingly participated in “voter fraud.” In reality, this is just another calculated attempt by the McCain campaign and the RNC to suppress new and marginalized voters.
* On a side note…There are already problems in Florida with voter suppression. I just heard this on our 11 o’clock news…
Because foreclosures are so high here, if your home has been foreclosed on, you can not use that address to vote. You must file papers with a new address, or not vote. The news report stressed, that anyone caught voting using an address from their foreclosed home, will be subject to arrest (3rd degree felony), and a $5,000 fine. The report is not mentioning that this form of intimidation is considered voter suppression, on the contrary, it is warning anyone who has not had their address changed, they better not attempt to vote. I was shocked, the news stations in Florida, are actually aiding in voter suppression.
Hi everybody. GREAT NEWS! Me and my daughter are going to the Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton Rally, in Orlando tomorrow. We both have press passes to cover the rally. Woo-hoo! How cool is that?
We will be live blogging and hopefully getting some video interviews from the press room.
The rally doesn’t start until 6pm, but, I plan on posting some of the “behind the scenes” stuff, throughout the day. This is the first time I am doing anything like this, so I’m not 100% sure what to expect.
Oh, and even though I’m somewhat new to the Twittering thing, I’ll be doing that too. You can tweet me at…
Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll get a chance to meet Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Either way, it’s gonna be quite the mother/daughter adventure. Well…That’s it for now, come back tomorrow and see how we’re making out.
Colin Powell Endorsing Barack Obama. See full video from Sunday’s Meet The Press…
What do you think? Are you influenced by Colin Powell’s endorsement? Do you think this endorsement will have an effect on the outcome of Election? Let me know what you think in comments.
It was inevitable that online political organizers would find innovative ways to use social media during this election season, but I am part of a project that’s got me incredibly excited about the organizing potential of Twitter. If you haven’t heard about the election cycle’s most controversial issue–voter suppression–you’ve been spending too much time reading Mashable and not enough time following the news. I’m not talking about the Republicans’ tarted up ACORN voter registration fraud “controversy” (something altogether different and much less serious than voter fraud), I’m talking about tactics deployed by political operatives to keep people from exercising their right and responsibility to vote.
Enter Twitter. Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that limits you to individual entries of 140 characters or less. Individuals use Twitter to share short messages with friends and family and whoever else they give permission to “follow” them. Now marketers and businesses are using Twitter to network and communicate with their customers and political organizers have begun using Twitter to spread important messages throughout their activist base. I wrote about the #dontgo movement, the first large-scale Twitter political activist campaign earlier this year, and it was only a matter of time before someone found a way to turn Twitter into a critical online political organizing tool for elections.
First, Comedian, activist, Obama supporter, and Jack & Jill Politics blogger Baratunde Thurston launched the Voter Suppression Wiki. Next, a series of discussionson and off blogsabout how Twitter could be used to fight voter suppression ended with the formation of a group of political organizers and advocacy organizations collaborating on the ultimate democratic use for Twitter–tracking and notification of voter suppression across the country. How will it work? People on the ground will send coded “tweets” (messages) through Twitter. Anyone who is a victim or witness of voter suppression can send a tweet using the following simple hashtags to make sure that it’s received by volunteers who can coordinate the appropriate response. The hashtags to be used to report voter supression are:
#votereport
#EP{two-letter state code} – e.g. EPNY for New York, EPOH for Ohio (for serious legal issues only)
#machine – use this tag to signal a problem with a voting machine
#registration – use this tag to signal problems with the registration process, people being turned away for paperwok reasons
#wait:time – use this tag to signal a long wait. Add a colon and the wait time in minutes – e.g. #wait:30 for half an hour, #wait:120 for two hours
The tagged Twitter data will be parsed and distributed through feeds to several of the partners working on the project who will then be able to determine the needed response in each voting location reporting trouble. You can read more about the details on the Twitter Vote Report wiki.
Voter suppression and the Twitter Voter Report project is going to be a huge story on election day and all of you can be a part of it. Visit the Twitter Voter Report and find out how. Developers can join the nationwide Jelly network jam session and anyone can can share their experiences with other people in real-time using Twitter. You can help other voters not to show up when the lines are too long, and let the media and watchdog groups know that there are machinery problems or that voters are being asked for identification unnecessarily (or necessarily if they are first-time voters) in certain precincts.
You can be part of the most revolutionary use of social media yet. Stay tuned for more updates.
Last November 26 as the race for nomination began in earnest I posted an Open Letter to the Candidates. I think it relevant that I now post it again with a few additions highlighted in bold.
Well, since it is here and easy to step onto, I am pulling out the soapbox this morning. This is an open letter to all the presidential candidates about what I want from my next president. Here it is not in priority order since I don’t want to make this too hard:
Have you heard the latest phrase from the McCain-Palin stomp speech? It consists of two very powerful words. “I’m angry.” To place the statement in context, Palin has said, “There is anger about the dealings of insider lobbyists, anger about the greed of Wall Street, and there’s anger about the arrogance of the Washington elite, and there is anger about voter fraud.” McCain has himself said, “You’re angry and I’m angry too.”
However, the issue I have with the “angry” statement is this: What are all these angry people supposed to do with their anger? The election is not until November 4th. Until then, are folks to let their anger simmer until it boils over into something ugly? God forbid McCain actually loses the election— then what are they to do with their anger? Are they to do as some extremists in the McCain-Palin crowd have suggests when they shouted “Off with his head,” Kill him! Get him!?”
McCain may want to say that he is utterly appalled, and state that he totally rejects Congressman John Lewis’ reference to John Wallace, in his condemnation of McCain’s campaign rally etiquette. However, the fact is, if McCain refuses to fiercely and immediately— on-the-spot—denounce such statements that come from the crowd at his campaign rallies, he is inadvertently condoning them.
I believe that that Congressman John Lewis—in his statement that “McCain and Palin were sowing seeds of hatred and division”— was simply saying that to allow such unbridled anger and hatred to bubble up and fester is dangerous, and has the potential—if unchecked—to lead to violent acts on the part of some. The campaign has a responsibility to not incite it, allow it or condone it.
Like everyone else in America, I was waiting to see how the match up between Palin and Biden would transpire. Beyond the giddy atmosphere that was building (somewhat between a sporting event and a game show), was a deeper, darker space. It was a low, wide valley occupied by symbols and ambiguities of murky distinctions — the roles of gender and race in the 2008 election.
Those specific issues were discussed and debated at a two-day symposium at St. John’s University. As
I sat down to watch the two Vice-Presidential contenders, the presentations of the conference’s speakers reverberated in my head.
Presented by the university’s law school, there was a heavy representation of scholars focusing on media and law, election law, and legal theory. In addition to those emanating from the academic world, there was a cross section of journalists and activists.
Perspectives on Gender in the 2008 Elections; The Role of the Media in Shaping Perceptions of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the 2008 Elections; The Intersectionality of Race, Gender, Media, and the Political Process; A Dialogue on Legal Constructions of Race, Gender, and Identity in the 2008 Elections, were some of the panels which I attended.
The concerns that had been come up earlier in the election season got turned on their heads once again with the placement of Sarah Palin onto the McCain ticket. Charges of sexism, reverse sexism, populist feminism, anti-feminism — and permutations on the theme — were doled out in abundance. Prominent in the mix was the role of the media, both amplifying and exacerbating misconceptions to the public.
What did you think when John McCain showed nothing short of total disdain for women’s rights and health, during Wednesday night’s debate? Personally, I think he may have lost many women who might have been ‘on the fence’ about a McCain/Palin ticket. Take a look at what other bloggers are saying, and let me know what you think in comments.
Clearly, in all his debate prep, no one thought to coach McCain not to go to the third rail of the abortion issue. Boy, was that an oversight. Because not only did McCain go there, he jumped right on to it. In trying to paint Obama as being for the great Republican bugaboo of late term abortions (because, you know, there are so many women running around and deciding after being pregnant for six or more months that being pregnant is no longer convenient for them), Obama replied that he didn’t vote for the late term abortion ban because it had no provision for the health or life of the mother. And that’s when McCain proved how heartless and clueless he is: Again…just again, an example of the eloquence of Senator Obama, health (indicates air quotes) of the mother. You know that’s been stretched by the pro-abortion movement to mean almost anything. Really? Not a legitimate concern?
We already knew McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, isn’t concerned about the health of mothers since she opposed a ban on abortions even in the case of rape or incest. Now we learn that McCain has contempt for women’s health issues as well and thinks concerns about their health is “extreme.” McCain can kiss the independent women’s vote good-bye after this doozy.
McCain doesn’t understand a key principle that, for many women, is central to their choice of a candidate for president. The same woman who wants a president to address the difficulty of paying to put gas in the car while other bills pile up on the kitchen counter also wants a president who respects her ability to make the personal, private medical decisions that are best for her and her family. She doesn’t want a politician like McCain mocking protections for her health or voting against birth control. As the election enters its final phase, and these key voters hear from NARAL Pro-Choice America about the stark differences between John McCain and Barack Obama about a woman’s right to choose, women will choose the candidate who will stand with them. That candidate is Barack Obama.
John McCain put women’s “health” in inverted commas during the debate last night, as though it’s a made-up phrase that represents some imaginary or laughable idea. Or alternatively, an idea that doesn’t matter very much and can be easily dismissed by a candidate who, say, had no idea that health insurance plans cover Viagra but not birth control. McCain labelled people who support the right to terminate a pregnancy when that pregnancy endangers the health of the mother “extreme” and “pro-abortion.”
In my last political post, I said I was deeply disturbed by McCain’s stance on women’s reproductive rights. Now, I’m going to say, if you are a woman of reproductive age or if you love a woman of reproductive age, you are playing with her life and health if you vote for McCain. McCain totally dismissed the fact that pregnancy ever threatens a woman’s life.
. . .
Hell, I wish we could completely ban late term abortion but I value the lives of the adult women involved more than I value their unborn babies. I am pro-choice but I am not pro-abortion. I will never presume to claim I know whats best for someone medically and that includes whether or not they should continue to carry a baby. I believe each and every woman should be able to decide what to do with their own body. With this one ignorant statement, John McCain has alienated many people who feel the way I do.
Answering the question, Where are all the women political bloggers? Well, if you are here, you have found them. We are dedicated to giving women bloggers a voice, starting with our list of over 500 women political bloggers. And now, in addition to guest bloggers, and our growing community, we will also feature regular contributing editors.
“The Time Warner Summit: Politics 2008,” held at the Time Warner headquarters in New York City and co-sponsored with CNN, was a corporate branded event with big name heavy-hitters taking on questions about media, news, and the election. After attending both days of the conference, it reinforced my belief that digital media was the future for pushing out women’s stories, concerns, and dialogues.
