“Attack Watch”: Obama Introduces New Website For Citizens To Report Criticism Of Him, Receive Propaganda Training
Sep 13, 2011 8 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
tra
It’s still more than a year until the presidential election and Obama’s opponent is far from chosen, but that doesn’t mean the enemies haven’t already been identified. On AttackWatch.com, a new website by Obama for America, three men are presented in ominous, grainy black-and-white photos on the homepage: Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Glenn Beck. The accompanying text — white with red accents on a black background — challenges lies and flawed logic under the slogan, “Get the facts. Fight the smears.” It is on!
The website is in the style of sites like Politifact and FactCheck.org, but with a decidedly aggressive spin and noted slant. “President Obama’s opponents are still using false claims against him and his record in an attempt to derail our momentum,” says some of the site’s copy, which also includes clarifications on immigration, Israel, gun control, and the bailout. The content is relegated to a news feed, which links to sources like Media Matters and Think Progress for refutation of GOP slams.
A “support the truth” button leads to a donation page. A submissions page is boldly titled “report an attack,” keeping with the site’s rhetorical twists: It’s defense, but it’s also offense.
Bright red is sprinkled everywhere in case the seriousness of the battle wasn’t already apparent. It’s not the most pleasant design job on the web, but it certainly instills a sense of urgency.
It’s not easy being an Obama for America volunteer, especially when you feel ill-equipped to respond to the waves of attacks from his critics, says Jennifer Kickliter, a Tennessee college student who’s signed up for the 2012 campaign.
“What do I tell people who point out that the Affordable Care Act isn’t helping people, and that the ”don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal was accompanied by a court order Obama plans to fight?” she said in July during an online chat with several Obama campaign aides at Chicago headquarters.
“It’s great to say ‘talk about his accomplishments,’ but we need to be able to address people’s legitimate concerns, too,” she said.
Now, Kickliter, and other Obama supporters like her, could get some help in the new campaign-sponsored website AttackWatch.com.
Obama for America national field director Jeremy Bird said the site offers “new resources to fight back,” including policy issue pages that fact check statements by Obama’s Republican opponents with links to “evidence” to back them up. Its slogan is “Get the facts. Fight the smears.”
According to the site, Obama volunteers can also help campaign headquarters keep track of attacks on the president by submitting “reports” via mailform and tweeting about them using the Twitter hashtag #attackwatch.
The initiative is a throwback to a similar online effort launched by Team Obama during the 2008 campaign, called Fight the Smears.
“What you won’t hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon — that sees our opponents not as competitors to challenge but enemies to demonize,” Obama said in 2008, words that were posted atop FightTheSmears.com.
That quote and a similar pledge are absent from this latest incarnation of a truth-seeking website. Perhaps it’s a sign of what’s to come.
