Open Letter to Mandate Media
Mandate Media is a political consultancy in Oregon whose slogan is "Internet Strategy for People Changing the World". They have done work for the Oregon AFL-CIO, NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon, Western Democrats, and oregon Working Families. Unfortunately, they are also the people doing the work for Fix City Hall.
I was curious how they justified this, so today I sent them this open letter:
Update: Why am I going after the web-design people of all things? Two reasons: First of all, they are a business who claims to work for progressive causes. Organizations presumably hire them at least in part for their shared values. They are betraying those supposed values here.
Secondly, the Fix City Hall site is intentionally opaque. There is no indication of who's paying for it, or any way to contact the people behind it without supporting their petition. I am pretty confident it's a Committee on Jobs operation, but if Robert hadn't tipped me off to this campaign a few months ago, I would have no idea. The only organization identifiably associated with this anonymous operation is Mandate Media. So they can either let us know who is actually behind this, or they'll take the flack (such as it is). And after all, aren't openness and honesty progressive values?
I was curious how they justified this, so today I sent them this open letter:
Why is Mandate Media supporting union bashing?We'll see what they have to say for themselves.
Hi,
I was disappointed to see that Mandate Media, which seems to be a responsible and progressive company, is doing web work for FixCityHall.com, which is an attempt to attack the civil service protections that keep San Francisco's government relatively free of political influence and cronyism.
It seems ironic that as you work to create a web site for the Oregon AFL-CIO , you are creating a site for what appears to be the same big businesses in San Francisco who fought against raising the minimum wage, against union protections and who sued the city of San Francisco, resulting in public health clinics closing, reduced public transit, and less affordable housing.
Your website states "We help progressives integrate their strategy with technology." How does creating web sites for union-bashing big-business groups "help progressives?"
Please help us understand,
Sasha Magee,
San Franciscan
For background: http://www.leftinsf.com/blog/2005/06/fix-at-city-hall.html
Update: Why am I going after the web-design people of all things? Two reasons: First of all, they are a business who claims to work for progressive causes. Organizations presumably hire them at least in part for their shared values. They are betraying those supposed values here.
Secondly, the Fix City Hall site is intentionally opaque. There is no indication of who's paying for it, or any way to contact the people behind it without supporting their petition. I am pretty confident it's a Committee on Jobs operation, but if Robert hadn't tipped me off to this campaign a few months ago, I would have no idea. The only organization identifiably associated with this anonymous operation is Mandate Media. So they can either let us know who is actually behind this, or they'll take the flack (such as it is). And after all, aren't openness and honesty progressive values?
5 Comments:
Sasha - thanks for asking. I don't support union bashing. As you've noticed, I'm a strong supporter of the union movement. For example, one of my clients (Yes on 25), raised the Oregon minimum wage to the highest in the nation.
We are committed to working for good clients who are doing good in the world. Without getting into the specific details of the policy questions, I think it's fair to say that reasonable people - heck, good and passionate liberals - can disagree about the specific means to achieve common goals.
Someday, I hope we'll get a chance to work together on something. Thank you.
Onward,
-kari.
p.s. Should have given you my sig file:
--
Kari Chisholm
President
Mandate Media
Portland, Oregon
http://www.mandatemedia.com
I agree that we don't all use the same methods to reach our goals. But I also think that this specific issue stinks. I also think that the web site itself shows the sketchiness behind this campaign. Who's funding it? Who is behind it? The fact that there is no indication seems dishonest and frankly pretty sleazy to me.
I guess you have another view on the rightness of this issue, and I understand how you could, although I thinkyou;re mistaken, but I'd certainly have doubts about any client who insists on being anonymous.
In their defense, Kari & Co. do do a lot of good work, including the excellent Western Democrat, and frankly, work like this pays the bills. Anyone working professionally in the political sphere walks a fine line.
That being said - the first time I stumbled across a "Fix City Hall" ad (I think it was at SFist), I IM-ed a friend who would know, asking him who the hell they were, and why they were hiding. There's something unsettling about their anonymity - even though there probably are things on which they and I agree.
Well, yeah they do seem like generally good people, and actually I have a friend in common with Kari. But if you're going to cross the line (and I would argue, perhaps vainly, that this does cross the line), then you should be as clean about it as possible. And, as you say, there's something a bit creepy about these guys.
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