It isn’t just newspapers discovering it’s a brand new media world out there. Look at what happened with the Komen foundation’s clumsy decision to yank funding funding from Planned Parenthood. While the CEO of Komen was idiotically tweeting that the decision was “not about politics” and putting out her own doublespeak on YouTube, the transparency and hyper-speed of the Internet was telling the world that it was all about politics.
Here’s Komen CEO Nancy Brinker’s tweet yesterday:
Before Komen and it’s leadership could breathe, a storm errupted on Twitter.
By Friday morning, Komen was learning the power of the new media – and money. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg promised a $250,000 contribution to Planned Parenthood and Komen affiliates around the country were fighting back. Messages from Facebook and Twitter deluged the Komen offices, threatening to stop their financial support.
None of this would have happened as quickly before the instant communication of social media.
“It was a big misstep,” said Anne Morris, executive director of Susan G. Komen Foundation affiliate in Connecticut. The fast response “is a new phenomenom. It’s like nothing we saw 10 years ago. We used to have phone trees to do advocacy work when we wanted to move an issue. Now you can click a mouse button and reach thousands of people.”
For the record, here are Nancy Brinker’s tweets today:
The Linda McMahon campaign WWE executives have responded to wiseguy columnist Chris Powell for suggesting that pornography and mock violence have something to do with their product.
From Komen CEO Nancy Brinker. It’s all about doing a better job, she says. This is a hilarious, textbook example of corporate doublespeak. I’ve never donated to Planned Parenthood. This phony convinces me to write a check.
Little donuts from Tastease on New Park. Go there. Still a few left here in the newsroom if Logan Byrnes doesn’t eat them all.
I missed this last week. The idea is to force a little more truth out of our colleges and universities so a prospective student might actually have some useful information before deciding whether to attend. Here’s a prototype of the proposed College Scorecard. I like the last item.
Earlier this week when I met a campaign insider for a cup of coffee, we talked about how it looked like Chris Donovan was going to cruise to the Democrat nomination in the 5th District. The House Speaker, backed by influential unions and prominent Democrats, is very likely the next Congressman from the 5th. Except …
This hasn’t been such a hot half-week for the apparent frontrunner. A key legislative proposal (designed to attract working class and liberal votes) met with a tepid response from Gov. Malloy, who isn’t wild about annoying business leaders any more than he has already. Malloy then flew to Washington where he attended a fundraiser for his political action committee — at the offices of the father of one of Donovan’s Democratic opponents, according to blogger Kevin Rennie. Do you suppose Vincent Roberti, a Democratic rainmaker, had anything to say Malloy, who has shown a penchant for making endorsements?
The fundraising reports demonstrated Donovan’s strength, but they also revealed that his opponents, both Democrats and Republicans, have piles of money they plan to spend fighting him. While Democrats Elizabeth Esty and Dan Roberti (part of the Walking Dead of the 5th) show only faint glimmers of life, each has more than $500,000 to spend fighting the Donovan Express. And that’s before Donovan has to face the likely Republican nominee, Andrew Roraback, a moderate who is expected to be a formidable candidate in the centrist 5th District.
On Wednesday, a slam-dunk endorsement by two prominent and popular liberal Democrats – Secretary of the State Denise Merrill and Comptroller Kevin Lembo – was overshadowed by a Donovan staffer who stole the show by blocking an Esty campaign worker’s attempt to film the event. Donovan campaign staff apologized, but the clumsy display was the sort of thing one expects at a Newt Gingrich rally, and certainly not at the people’s candidate of the 5th.
Things could grow dicier once the General Assembly begins a session devoted to reforming public education. Donovan is closely aligned with the state’s two large teacher unions. Both groups show signs of resisting some of the reforms the Malloy administration plans to propose. All of this may send exactly the wrong message to 5th District voters just as they are starting to pay attention to the campaign.
There’s no reason to think this aren’t just a few potholes on the road to Congress. On the other hand, there are still two more days to go this week.
Sam Manzo, the Southington caretaker on the old Smoron farm, is still without his inheritance and still living in probate hell.
I stopped by to talk with Manzo on Tuesday because it’s been two years since I first heard about the elaborate scheme that sought to disinherit Manzo and take the broken down old Smoron farm from him.
The place remains a wreck — a ramshackle collection of old machines, broken equipment, wandering cows and other debris – just off the Queen Street exit off busy I-84. With the massive old dairy barn and crumbling farmhouse, the farm is a beautiful, anachronistic mess. Amid the neighboring big box stores, it is a living link to what once was.
The penalty for getting caught with small amounts pot is now the same as it is for underage drinking at the University of Connecticut. Which I guess means that a lot of kids are smoking marijuana in Storrs.
A UConn student leader made the announcement this afternoon, saying that the change was just made. A university spokesman said the policy has been in play since last summer, when it equalized penalties for underage drinking and new marijuana law.
University spokesman Michael Kirk reports that under the new policy ”students can face a range of sanctions, including everything from a warning to expulsion, for marijuana possession. And the police are still called when marijuana (or any drug) is the issue.” Typically, getting caught with booze or Mary Jane can means a warning, he said, although that depends on the circumstances.
Under state law, the penalty for possession of under half an ounce of marijuana is a fine of $150 and a 60-day license suspension for those under 21. The penalty for underage alcohol possession is a fine of $181 and a 150-day license suspension.
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