IT Leadership

Healthcare Reform Battle Takes To Social Media

President Obama is bringing out the tools that got him elected--YouTube and other social media--in an effort to win support for his proposed healthcare reforms. The White House is using <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/04/AR2009080403353_pf.html">grass-roots Internet activism</a> in an effort to gain control over the healthcare debate, as public skepticism of the plan mounts.

Mitch Wagner, California Bureau Chief, Light Reading

August 7, 2009

3 Min Read

President Obama is bringing out the tools that got him elected--YouTube and other social media--in an effort to win support for his proposed healthcare reforms. The White House is using grass-roots Internet activism in an effort to gain control over the healthcare debate, as public skepticism of the plan mounts.

White House officials have begun a two-pronged Internet campaign, geared toward reenergizing Web-savvy allies who backed Obama last year and whose support will be critical in getting the health-care initiative through Congress. Meanwhile, the president tried to rally Senate Democrats over a seafood lunch Tuesday in the State Dining Room.
The new engagement by the White House comes at a time when Democratic lawmakers are fielding attacks on talk radio, in cyberspace and at appearances in their home districts.
In a new blog and video titled "Facts Are Stubborn Things," White House aides detail "disinformation" and "very deceiving headlines out there" on health-care reform. The message, e-mailed to tens of thousands of supporters, also encourages viewers to report anything "fishy."

The White House efforts includes a series of YouTube videos on the White House Blog.

Conservatives, of course, have many objections to the Obama plan. But one in particular leaps out as appropriate for discussion here. The White House Blog writes:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to [email protected].

Texas Republican Sen. John Conryn was critical:

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn is taking issue with a Tuesday posting on the official White House blog in which the Obama administration asks supporters to report back when they receive "an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy" to an official e-mail address: [email protected].
"I am not aware of any precedent for a president asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed 'fishy' or otherwise inimical to the White House's political interests," Cornyn writes today in a harshly worded letter to President Barack Obama in which he asks the president to immediately halt the effort.

The blog adds that the White House says it's "not compiling lists or sources of information"; it just wants to know what's being said so it can refute claims it believes to be false.

What do you think? Is the White House simply trying to build support for its proposal, or have they crossed the line into intimidating political opponents? Is it appropriate for the White House to ask citizens to use social media to forward opposition arguments?

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