(It's this simple to skew reality to help yourself)
I am on the email list for the Obama Campaign and get emails asking for my support, donations and about recent things Barack Obama has been doing in the race for the 2012 President of the United States. This week I received an email with the subject line, “They got it wrong”. Naturally this headline drew me in. Naturally, I wanted to know who “They” were and what they got wrong. The first few lines of the email said this:
“Just six days before the last fundraising deadline, one major newspaper ran a story under the headline ‘Small donors are slow to return to the Obama fold.’ You and a whole lot of other supporters turned that headline upside down. Today we filed a report with the FEC that shows this movement isn't just as strong as ever -- it's growing.”
The email went on to talk about how the article falsely “separates the facts” from reality. It also found a way to incorporate asking me for a donation. The motive for the email was for a donation but most people including me, most likely never would have read this email if the headline was anything about donating. Their way about getting that donation was by saying that people still support them and that there is a reason to still support them. The letter wanted me to see that they are still gaining support and there is no reason to doubt them. To show that I supported the campaign and didn’t believe the newspapers the campaign wanted me to donate whatever I can, even if that is only $10.
To me this seemed like an effective way to receive a donation. The headline got me to read the letter. However, the problem with this letter was I had read the article, “Small donors are slow to return to the Obama fold”, in the New York Times, when it ran a few weeks ago.
To me this letter skewed the intent of the article from the newspaper and skewed what the article was saying.
The article was talking about previous donors from the 2008 election coming back to support the 2012 Obama campaign. Whereas, the email I received from the Obama campaign was talking about all donors for the 2012 election.
The New York Times article said, “a vast majority of Mr. Obama’s past donors who number close to four million, have not yet given him any money at all.”
While the email I received said, “right now, just shy of 1 million people like you have taken ownership of this campaign by pitching in whatever they can afford.”
The email did not talk about the amount of small donors that donated last year. The email, most likely would not have been as successful, if they had said the article was about the returning donors. By decreasing the credibility of the media in this letter, the campaign in a way made it seem like the article should be discredited and the Obama campaign deserves more donations to disprove the article.
Although the email was not completely untrue, it only told part of what the truth was. No matter what kind of media it is, all media skews different facts to make them work for what they want. Whether it is a picture of you online, a newspaper article, or in this case a campaign email asking for donations. This email may have been successful if I had not read the article and knew what they had been talking about in the first place.
Email Letter: http://www.barackobama.com/news/they-got-it-wrong
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