My ten-year-old daughter loves “So You Think You Can Dance.” I suspect most eight to eighteen-year-old girls do. So, my question to the producers of this hit show is: “Why are you pointing my daughter to a web page asking her to work at Planned Parenthood?” Next week the networks will coordinate their shows’ story-lines to promote volunteerism. At the September 10 press conference in New York announcing this unprecedented message coordination, Ashton Kutcher got his famous Twitter feed displayed on the Times Square jumbo screen. It said: “2Day, I activate my citizenship by participating. I Participate! Do u? www.iparticipate.org.” (Damn he’s good at this whole “Under 14o characters” thing.)
In the press release announcing the initiative, all four network execs were positively boastful about their ability to inspire their viewers to ask “How high” when told to jump:
“The ability to both entertain and inform is one of the hallmarks of a broadcast network,” says Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment. ”Integrating messages of volunteerism and service into America’s favorite television shows can have a powerful and lasting impact that benefits both the audience and the country at large.”
NBC president Angela Bromstad agrees. ”The week of volunteer-themed programming in October provides an opportunity for the networks to tap the power of television,” she says.
The ultimate goal, says Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment is “to get people thinking about what they can do in terms of volunteering, and then to act on that.”
“The most satisfying result for us is when our programs entertain viewers as well as inform them—and maybe even call them to action,” FOX Entertainment president Kevin Reilly points out.
You know how folks always say: “If you don’t like what you see, just change the channel.” Well, clearly next week that won’t be an option. It’s going to be a full-court press… nowhere to hide.
The plan is to weave volunteerism and service into the plots of their shows and then, ultimately, encourage viewers to get up off their sofas and go to a handful of web pages that are meant to provide opportunities for service. As we saw in the previous stories at Big Hollywood and Big Government, these seemingly benign volunteer search engines often seem to be Trojan Horses for controversial, left-wing causes.
The October 19-25 “I Participate” campaign broadcast on all four major television networks for a full week of programming will point viewers to www.iparticipate.org(as mentioned in Ashton’s tweet) and the AARP’s www.createthegood.com web sites.
If your 12 year-old hears about this volunteer initiative and follows the lead of her favorite TV star, she will go to www.createthegood.com and type in her favorite cause. If she’s been paying attention to the news these days (or listening to the lectures from most public school teachers) she will know that “Health Care” is a big deal these days. All she has to do is type “Health Care” into the search engine with her zip code (let’s say 90210 cause we love those adorable Beverly Hills high school kids) and she’ll get a whole host of opportunities to serve.
Go ahead… open that link and you’ll see twelve opportunities to serve. Look at items “H”, “I” and “L.” All are from Planned Parenthood:
“With President Obama’s focus on health-care reform, now is an exciting and crucial time for us to broaden our support and make sure that the new health-care plan includes women’s health. We’re holding a series of phone banks to identify new people who share our commitment to reproductive freedom.”
When I clicked for more info I found out that the phone bank listing was a month old, but there was a handy link for other opportunities to serve Planned Parenthood, like this one:
“Planned Parenthood Los Angeles is currently seeking adults to volunteer as our High School Speakers.”
(Make this reason #724 why I home school my kids).
While we’re looking at all those volunteer options on www.createthegood.org, we should also take a look at that really nifty video listed second from the top. No matter where you are in the country, if you type “health care” as the subject you want to volunteer for, this video called: “How To Spread The Truth About Health Care Reform” pops up for your viewing pleasure:
(video can be found here
This nifty bit of propaganda encourages you to troll on blogs and leave comments, call in to talk radio shows and generally be annoying when people discuss ObamaCare by injecting Administration talking points found on AARP’s web page under the Orwellian header ”Myths vs. Facts.” A sample of the health care “facts”:
“Health reform isn’t about rationing; it’s about giving people the peace of mind of knowing that they will be able to keep their doctors and that they will always have a choice of affordable health plans.”
Uh, huh, that doesn’t sound like a partisan talking point or anything.
Back over at www.iparticpate.org (that’s the one our pal Ashton tweeted about), if you are in, say, Virginia and want to volunteer on an environmental project, the very first opportunity you get is to volunteer as a Global Warming Ambassador.
“As an Ambassador, you will introduce NWF and global warming concepts, how it affects wildlife habitat our country as well as your state, and what persons can do on an individual level …”
And who or what is “NWF”? NWF is National Wildlife Federation and they have a lot to say about the President’s Cap and Trade proposals.
If you are in, say, Massachusetts and are interested in Iraq, The top response you get is an opportunity to volunteer for “The Crane Project.” What is “The Crane Project?” It seems to be a pacifist-Christo-wannabe trying to get people to fold origami cranes to represent the casualties of the Iraq War. They are claiming deaths of over 100,000 so far.
But these two search engines are the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s and the AARP’s websites. Surely our government search engine will be less partisan, less controversial. Surely we will only see genuine service and volunteer opportunities over at www.serve.gov.
Here is the top result I got using a Kansas zip code as my location and “Iraq” as my search word:
“Explain to the President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, National Security Advisor, Special Envoy, CENTCOM Commander and Ambassador the foundations of Arab society, the values of Arab people, how and why the current approach is injuring US national security, and what should be done instead. Most of the effort of this project will be aimed at getting face time with the identified individuals. Only about 45 minutes per briefing will be required to conduct actual explanations. Assume 15 hours of prep for each briefing.”
“Explain to the President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, National Security Advisor, Special Envoy, CENTCOM Commander and Ambassador the foundations of Arab society, the values of Arab people, how and why the current approach is injuring US national security, and what should be done instead. Most of the effort of this project will be aimed at getting face time with the identified individuals. Only about 45 minutes per briefing will be required to conduct actual explanations. Assume 15 hours of prep for each briefing.”
Here’s another one:
“This is an opportunity for all to learn the truth about what happened on that unfortunate day and the truth behind who is responsible. I Charlie Sheen have taken it upon myself to interview the president and this is what I have asked. I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with our 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, while he was out promoting his health care reform initiative. I requested 30 minutes given the scope and detail of my inquiry; they said I could have 20. Twenty minutes, 1200 seconds, not a lot of time to question the President about one of the most important events in our nation’s history. The following is a transcript of our remarkable discussion.”
That’s right… It’s a TRUTHER campaign message starring Charlie Sheen! Found via a government website!
And, my personal favorite (remember, you are paying for this):
“Secular Student Alliance is an educational nonprofit for students across the nation who identify as atheist, agnostic, humanist, skeptical, and nonreligious. Our mission is to organize, unite, educate, and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human based ethics. We’re looking for volunteers to create videos that will bring this message to non-theistic students, and let them know that they are not alone!…. Will YOU help us mobilize, unite, and organize freethinking students for the new Enlightenment?”
It’s a support group for atheist kids! I’m so proud to be an American.
When the NEA conference call story first broke here at Big Hollywood, the left-leaning theatre blogs were all teaming with rationalizations and sarcastic attacks claiming that the calls were innocent and benign, merely a way to encourage artists to support the www.serve.gov websites and work with the Administration in encouraging service and volunteerism.
Ashton Kutcher and his enthusiastic embrace of this week of coordinated messaging on network shows is claiming the same altruistic intent, and I have no doubt that he and most of the folks rallying behind this seemingly innocuous concept have good and even non-partisan intentions. But as we can see, they are being lazy at best and disingenuous at worst by not seeing that these volunteer search engines they point people to are teeming with pro-Obama propaganda. And in the case of the Planned Parenthood “volunteer opportunities,” viewers are being recruited to advocate for the left-wing side of our country’s most controversial issue.
Let me be clear: I am not claiming that this is the ONLY kind of content you will find on these sites. This is obvious, but I feel compelled to blunt the inevitable attacks from the left who will insist on mis-characterizing this post as claiming something to the contrary. Here is the plain truth: I sat for all of fifteen minutes entering search phrases having to do with health care, the environment, and the war and I chose zip codes from the West, East and Midwest. The results above were ALL either the first result, or found on the first page of results. No cherry-picking and no hunting expedition.
As I said, my nine-year-old daughter loves “So You Think You Can Dance.” My wife and I are very careful. We watch the show first and record it via DVR. Then, the next day, if any of the dances are a bit risqué’ we skip through them. Of course we skip through the commercials because they are often too adult for her. I suppose the week of October 19th we’re going to have to skip most of the shows lest she be encouraged to go to a website promoting an abortion clinic.
Thanks a lot, Ashton.