It is called the "Accountability Project" and its website has just been launched by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to fight "against misinformation, lies and double-speak". The idea is simple: citizens can document Republican candidates and their claims and public statements at local events, as well as their campaign tactics. They are encouraged to film with anything that can record video - from a cell phone to a video camera - what candidates say at public events, and then submit the videos to the DNC-run site. In playing a complete transparency everyday citizens can see what their Republican candidates for office are saying and candidates themselves will see that there’s a cost to their dishonest statements.
The objective is to mobilize the millions of Democratic Party activists less than five months away from the November mid-term elections to keep track of Republican candidates on every ballot nationwide, in hopes of tracking their every gaffe and slip-up, even in the smallest town in the country. Beside videos, it is possible to submit copies of candidate mailers, e-mails, attack adds or recordings as well.
The project initiators hope to create another "Macaca moment" in which, in 2006, former Senator George Allen famously doomed his reelection hopes by belittling an opposition videographer with a racial slur. The videoquickly spread across the internet (and all over the world).
For DNC Research Director Shauna Daly the project is about "taking advantage of crowdsourcing", a practice which consists in using the know-how of each individual in the service of the community. In addition, Daly rejects any idea of encouraging aggressive campaign tactics. According to the Huffington Post, the new website was written by the committee's legal team, with strict instructions for those videoing events not to misrepresent who they are, disrupt the event, attempt to get into restricted or unauthorized areas, or even ask questions. “We are explicitly telling people that if you are asked to leave an event in a private location you should absolutely do that”, Daly added.
Negative campaigning has been part of the American political landscape for a long time. All it takes to be convinced is to take a look at the campaign ads of various candidates or at the political parties’ websites. In this very moment, Democrats are encouraging their supporters to share with friends via Facebook or Twitter five facts about Carly Fiorina, former CEO of HP and Republican Senat candidate. (learn more...)
In France, videos with politicians gone wild already went out on the Internet. We remember that of Socialist party member Ségolène Royal about the teachers, in November 2006, or that of the Minister of the Interior, Brice Hortefeux, suspected of racist comments in late 2009. But we are still far from a specific strategy embraced by the political parties themselves in this domain.
• The Accountability Project website
• The definition of crowdsourcing on Wikipedia
