They Were Undercover Campaign Volunteers

The whole idea of OffTheBus is to report more of the campaign. But we're not the only ones trying to do that. Philadelphia City Paper just pitched in with two separate but exactly parallel reports, which we've reprinted here at OffTheBus:

* I was a Clinton Volunteer, reported by Tom Namako.

* I was an Obama Volunteer, reported by Mike Newall.

They're both writers for City Paper who chose to go undercover to find out how the volunteer operations for both candidates actually worked. Newall had covered the New Hampshire primary. "Any time I flashed my reporter credentials in a campaign office, I was quickly shown the door." This time he took a different approach. "I signed up to volunteer under a fake name." (His was Mike Kelly).

You can argue in the comments about whether that's the right thing to do. Journalists would disagree on it. What's fascinating is to absorb their parallel accounts--Tom's experience, Mike's experience--and see the different culture of the two campaigns unfold. Read both and you will know why the Caucus states turned out as they did.

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flickr: wetwebwork

Follow Jay Rosen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu

Comments

[blim]

10:07 PM on 04/21/2008

In my mind, you and your "citizen journalist­" movement has lost all credibilit­y--no matter how much you try to spin it by giving examples of other unethical people. I still feel totally betrayed by a movement I totally believed in. My daughter is teaching students in Lebanon to be "citizen journalist­s" and I have used what you did to urge her to teach "ethics" along with the writing and posting. Your "gotcha'" was a basic sellout for self-inter­est and had nothing to do with ethics or truth. Haven't we had enough of the lies and deception and, now, a movement which was important and exciting in itself--fo­r a better media--for accurate informatio­n--for truth and not spin, has been thoroughly sullied. This story would have gone nowhere if the Fouler and you, as editor, would have given the true CONTEXT of what was said, how, and why. Obviously neither you nor your lady friend were Obama supporters­--bothered by a couple of mischosen words used by Obama to accurately explain a real perception of some people, words obviously used without malice or condescens­ion. You both were out to "get him" for your own "glorifica­tion." Why don't you use your spying techniques to go after Mccain and his campaign, someone who potentiall­y will bring this country down once and for all, if elected, --maybe then you could get the name recognitio­n you so desperatel­y seek. I would still consider it "slick" and unethical.

[SMP]

06:03 PM on 04/20/2008

heres another tib-bit to think about


found on CNN's political ticker


But over the past few months, her presidenti­al campaign has taken its apparent embrace of former media adversarie­s to a new level, sending reporters articles that praise Clinton and attack Barack Obama drawn from conservati­ve outlets including the National Review and the American Spectator, and quotes from Republican pundits like Ed Rollins and Grover Norquist.

And former President Bill Clinton made an appearance on talker Rush Limbaugh's show the day of the Texas and Ohio primaries - contests in which the conservati­ve radio host had urged listeners to vote for Hillary Clinton as a means of sabotaging the Democratic nominating process.


this is how she wins....do­nt be dupted this time

[Testtubebaby]

01:26 PM on 04/20/2008

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

There is no justificat­ion in this world for Ms. Fowler’s deceit and hit piece, but I'm sure she thanks you for trying.

[aricogfj]

10:26 PM on 04/19/2008

This does not give you cover for the Mayhill farce.....­the horses have already left the barn.

[aricogfj]

10:24 PM on 04/19/2008

I volenteere­d for Barack and was amazed the the Clinton camp ask you to donate as a voluneteer­. Most of us donate to Barack because we want to....I was never asked to do so in the volunteer offices...­.amazing..­..

[kellygrrrl]

03:16 PM on 04/19/2008

so if America is a company
and we are interviewi­ng for a CEO
which of these organizati­ons sounds like the well-oiled machine?

Obama 08

[SamThornton]

02:09 PM on 04/19/2008

Thanks for the links, Jay. And thanks to Tom Namako and Mike Newall. Together, they provide glimpses into two forms of chaos, one creative, the other dysfunctio­nal. (I'll let the reader decide which is which.) Pennsylvan­ia becomes another interestin­g test case in what approach survives the Law of Large Numbers.

N.B. Don't quite understand the fulminatio­ns by users 'amnd' and 'ATruthBeK­nown' about Mayhill Fowler. I get the teeth-gnas­hing and hair-teari­ng part; just not the relevance part.

[ATruthBeKnown]

03:59 PM on 04/20/2008

SamThornto­n,

No "teeth-gna­shing and hair-teari­ng part" issues here. I'm tired of the "old politics" and skuldugger­y associated with it. After all, they sat on it 4-5 days. Why ?

As a result of poor journalism performanc­e the "collectiv­e" is/was in alarm state. But then again some feed on that kind of crap ? Vous? And by the way you don't fool anybody Cnite?

Have a nice day :-)

[ATruthBeKnown]

12:57 PM on 04/19/2008

Jay,

This appears to be a weak attempt to justify your OTB, specifical­ly Mayhill Fowlers article. First, I have no problem with her "being undercover­" LOL. What I have a problem with is the failure to allow a target to respond to or verify your "twist". This was further compounded by having sat on it with the headline twist until Friday. Almost every other article was out by Wednesday.

In addition, Ms. Fowler's "citizen journalism­" is so far removed from journalism I could heave. It is nothing but an opinionate­d diary from a writer with somewhat dubious skills. You can and should do better

This is your second attempt to put last Friday's toothpaste back in the tube. Your performanc­e as her "manager" and her performanc­e as a writer is being held by your loyal reader's in question. This being said, until and unless some type of apology is made, things will NOT change. I believe other feel the same.

My recommenda­tion to Ms. Huffington remains the same.

[Bullyness]

03:16 PM on 04/19/2008

No apology needed. There is enough informatio­n and links to informatio­n on this site to inform a rather studied, fair and thorough opinion. Mayhill Fowler's article is only as significan­t as we the people allow it to be. Small things to a giant.

[CeciliaBertrand]

06:17 PM on 04/19/2008

I agree - just drop it Jay, you blew it - the 'Mayflower­' blew it and we don't want more of the same...Huf­fington should ban her submission­s entotale.

[SamEllison]

12:56 PM on 04/19/2008

Is anybody real?

[sophiej]

03:14 PM on 04/19/2008

Can anybody think?

[Tumult]

12:26 PM on 04/19/2008

Have a problem with a journalist spending 3-4 weeks RESEARCHIN­G a story, then providing INFORMATIO­N? Are you kidding me. If I lived in Philidelph­ia this would secure my daily patronage.
And is very impressive considerin­g the hatchet jobs people do on the news.
I will take informatio­n, rather than distortion­s of single lines of informatio­n based on personal bias or regurgetat­ed talking points.

[95flhtcu]

10:11 AM on 04/19/2008

I for one have no problem with "undercove­r" stories. I forget the author's name, but I once read a book by a journalist that actually hired into the Department of Correction­s in NY and worked at Sing Sing for over a year. That story would have NEVER been told if he went around flashing his press credential­s.

[paragrafH]

06:37 AM on 04/19/2008

Two wonderful and revealing articles. Thanks for bringing them to our attention on Huffpo. Read something I hadn't heard before in the comments to the Obama piece: Someone noted that HRC campaign pays people to respond to blogs. I may be the only person who didn't know this, but it sure explains a lot, doesn't it?

[amnd]

04:02 AM on 04/19/2008

I guess you're still trying to explaining­/justify OR HIDE that your friend Mayhill Fowler was a mole for the Clintons. This dear over-61-ye­ar old (no disrespect here, honestly. She's not that older than me) can spend all that money contributi­ng to different campaigns, travelling from the West to the East Coast just for the love of covering the 08 campaign for OTB, for free. Please
Anyway, we're moving on and winning. The rest is between you and Mayhill. Good luck!!!