Expose at DailyKos about how Change.org is morphing into RW Organization.

[truedelphi]

Very important to understand what is happening over at Change.org

Like "terminal2" is explaining, this website has build up its equity on the web on account of us activists.

But now that we progressives have made the website a popular one, there is "change" a-coming down the pike, and it is not good for those in the progressive activist community.

Yes, now they want to, and plan to, sell out, in order to attract the Big Money from t he RW folks whose deep pockets will be bursting open, in order to finance the election of Republicans and more conservative Dems come 2014, and 29016.


Read this excellent piece by folowing this link:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/23/1149092/-Change-org-sells-out-progressive-movement

[Blue_Tires]

1. Sad to read...

First HuffPo sells out at the height of popularity while giving their unpaid contributors the shaft, and now this...

Not shocked in the least that Michelle Rhee's scabby claws were involved in this "transition"

[woo me with science]

2. Corporatists lie. They can't sell their ideas honestly, so they LIE

and pretend to be what they are not.

If we have not learned this by now, we will be in deep trouble in 2016, again.

[truedelphi]

16. Of course, the Corporatists would not be so fond of lying if

So many people in this country didn't refuse to investigate the headlines.

I always remember a conversation I had with a friend, who has a PhD in education, and is an administrator at a mid sized university.

Back in 2008, I had just read "The Shock Doctrine" and was pointing out the many ways that our current political situation was heading toward fascism. Her reply was, "Oh for Pete's sake, if we were headed into being a fascist state, I am sure our media would warn us about it!"

And in terms of less educated friends, they found my analysis of Obama being bought and paid for to be cruel and sometimes I was told, racist. Then after they lost their jobs and their homes, they suddenly got more curious about what had happened to them. And they started to realize how tightly controlled our elections are, and how our economy and rule of law is dictated by .17 percent of the top One Percent.

[pacalo]

3. I'm glad to know this. I just unsubscribed.

[CurtEastPoint]

4. I did, too and in the reason box I posted the Daily Kos story link.

[pacalo]

7. I thought about doing that but didn't.

pacalo.

[Laelth]

5. That is quite interesting.

Progressives at Change.org will have to train right-wingers the company plans to hire (to work with the best people around the world regardless of political orientation). They hope to take their platform global.

Might work, might not, but asking the progressive staff to train the new right-wingers ... hmm. I'd probably quit first.



-Laelth

[sabrina 1]

6. Ironic that this is on DK, they did the same thing. Went for the money after Progressives

helped build their site for them. Then thousands of Progressives were banned from the site for being Progressive.

[truedelphi]

8. No one gets banned, unless they insist on speaking the

truth even though that truth differs from certain rules imposed.

Same as it is in many other places on the web.'

And it is also quite hypocritical of Huffington to run a similar piece in the Change.org situation.

Good old Ariana built her site on the backs of writers that were never paid for their writing, and yet she considers her site so progressive. Someone needs to tell her that being progressive is not just about espousing the ideals a person has, but also their actual actions, especially those involving money.

[sabrina 1]

9. She's a 'former Republican' so is Kos. I guess the views of lifelong republicans who

couldn't take the sheer craziness of their own parties, are going to differ quite a bit from life long Democrats as to what 'progressive' means.

[bananas]

10. April: "monetizing the credibility Change.org had built up and making it available to front-groups"

Back in April, unrepentant progress linked to an article about this by Mark Ames, that phrase grabbed my attention:

"Then late last year, Change.org was furtively taken over by the PR industry, monetizing the credibility Change.org had built up and making it available to front-groups, the public relations industry and advertisers."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1016&pid=60241

Here's a direct link to the Mark Ames article:
http://seniorsforademocraticsociety.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/public-radio/


edit to add a little more:

"Benjamin is using Change.org exactly the same way his sister is using NPR: exploiting a trusted source to churn out corporate PR. Change.org used to be one of the most successful progressive grassroots organizing outfits, a site for online petitions that translate into political action. Then late last year, Change.org was furtively taken over by the PR industry, monetizing the credibility Change.org had built up and making it available to front-groups, the public relations industry and advertisers."

[truedelphi]

11. Thank you for this comment and for the links.

Excellent to get that added in to the discussion.

[bananas]

12. I'm surprised this isn't getting more attention.

Except for this thread and those few posts in April, I haven't seen much discussion about it.

[Blue_Tires]

14. A decade or more ago I'd read multiple insider allegations on another forum

that a similar "process" had infiltrated the top level of the Sierra Club...

I don't know how much truth was in it, though...

[truedelphi]

15. Sierra Club here in California was firmly inside the Big Oil camp

Nov 1998.

While other environmental organizations realized that the MTBE, the gas additive, was a big mistake, Sierra Club dug in its heels and sided with Big Oil, Big MTBE lobbyists.

They now say they got aboard the populist fever to get rid of MTBE, and did so early on, but that is a lie. As someone who repeatedly tried, back in 1998 and 1999, to get them to go to Sacramento and support the anti-MTBE activists, their answer was always "No."

They are a nice org to join if you want to go on hikes and other outings, but you have to divorce yourself from the idea that they are always on the side of the environment.
Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't.

[myrna minx]

13. K&R - Thanks for posting - I had no idea.