How to Break a Game-Changer: The Case of the 47 Percent
Session Type(s): Training
Starts: Thursday, Jun. 20 7:30 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Thursday, Jun. 20 8:45 PM (Eastern)
In the 2012 election, Mother Jones broke “one of the largest scoops” of the election with David Corn’s reporting of “the 47 percent” video which showed Mitt Romney making candid and damaging remarks about the American electorate at a private fundraiser. The story quickly exploded, taking the news cycle, social media, and both campaigns by storm. Many observers, including Romney himself in a post-election interview, indicated that the video had a significant and negative impact on his campaign. The story went on to win David Corn the George Polk Award for Political Reporting, as well as a National Magazine Award for video. However, the decision to release the video and the thought process behind how specifically to make it public and report the story were not taken lightly. Come hear directly from the team that broke this massive story on how they pulled it off for the next time you’re faced with your own game-changer.
Trainers
Monika Bauerlein
Monika is co-editor in chief (with Clara Jeffery) of Mother Jones, the investigative magazine and news site based in San Francisco. During their tenure, MoJo has rebooted its news operation, dramatically expanding reporting capacity and web traffic, culminating in the 47 percent story during the 2012 campaign. She lives in Oakland with her kids and her trusty old espresso maker.
Brett Brownell
Brett is the multimedia producer for Mother Jones, where he specializes in creating and editing video, audio, and motion graphic content. Prior to joining MoJo, Brett helped launch MSNBC’s Up w/ Chris Hayes as a video and web producer. He also served as new media director for the employee rights organization Workplace Fairness, as a video producer for the Obama campaign in 2008, and founded the global photography event Worldwide Moment in 2007. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-T.V. and grew up in Arlington, Texas, one of 50 states he has visited.
Clint Hendler
Before rejoining Mother Jones as managing editor in 2012, Clint was deputy editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, where he covered media law, government transparency, and the political press. Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Clint attended Dartmouth College and edited the Free Press, an alternative campus biweekly paper. After graduating, he worked at Mother Jones as an online intern and fellow, honed his paper-jam clearing skills as a desk assistant at PBS’s The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and went to Columbia’s journalism school. His writing has been published by the New York Times, the Independent, AlterNet, The Nation, and CNN. He swims year round in San Francisco’s Aquatic Park and ferments, pickles, and scratches a small patch of dirt in the city’s Bernal Heights neighborhood.
Jaeah Lee
When Jaeah’s not writing, designing, coding, or researching at Mother Jones, she’s usually looking for new recipes to cook, bake, or pickle. Prior to Mother Jones, she was a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, focusing on Asia. Her writings have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Global Post, Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, and Movements.org. She moved to San Francisco two years ago from New York City, the place she calls home.