All Those Anti-McCain Videos Online Are Coming From Right Here In Las Vegas
Some of the most viral anti-John McCain videos of this election season were cut right here in Las Vegas by Jed Lewison, an aspiring author and former Democratic politico.
He’s the one who edited and posted the popular video showing McCain slowly twirling his wedding band while he stares at the rear of Sarah Palin at length. That’s Lewison’s biggest, million-viewed hit. The great CNN feature reporter Jeanne Moos based an entire news piece on the video.
Lewison also edited and posted the video of McCain losing track of his thoughts, looking severely confused, during a Q&A with reporters in Panama City, Fla.
And this week, he posted a video that mashes together: A) Talking heads at Fox News defending Sarah Palin’s $150,000 wardrobe; and B) talking heads at Fox News bashing John Edwards for his $400 haircut. The video, obviously, makes Fox News types look like hypocrites.
Lewison’s work has also been picked up and run by “The Rachel Maddow Show” and Fox News, and it’s been embedded or posted online by gobs of sites beyond YouTube, including Wonkette, the Weekly Standard and Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish.
“It’s been something else,” Lewison says. “I was excited when my first video got 100 views. ... Now I’ll put [a video] on, and it’ll get 100 views in a few minutes.”
In the summer and early fall, Lewison, 35, was posting video mashups on his site, JedReport.com, and in the comments section of the liberal DailyKos.com. But just the other week, Kos officially hired Lewison to be Kos’ chief video contributor, and he edits video for the Huffington Post. He also posts other people's viral videos, like the new one from the "Wassup" guys, which is almost as powerful as the video from Ron Howard.
Where did he come from? Lewison is an ex-director of online marketing for RealNetworks, and he was communications director for Sen. Maria Cantwell in Seattle until he moved to Vegas at the end of 2004, intent on writing a thriller of a novel. He’s not rich, he’d merely saved enough money to focus on writing, he says. The book is written, and now he’s pitching it to publishers.
But in his off time, he started tinkering with a video editing tool on his computer. Then he bought Adobe Premiere Elements editing software and starting teaching himself, as he moved from rank amateur to extremely effective video editor in a very short amount of time.
His first splash was what he calls the first viral video that combined old footage of Hillary Clinton appearing on a safe tarmac in Bosnia with her news comments that she had survived sniper fire on that peaceful tarmac. The video helped expose Clinton’s false claim, which she then apologized for making.
Where did he get that video? From a Clinton supporter’s site. Sound implausible? It’s not. He also picks up video from McCain supporters’ sites that makes McCain look weak.
“You get so much stuff from people putting up stuff to promote their candidate,” Lewison says. “It’s really funny. I love McCainland for doing it.”
The strength of Lewison’s videos is he is very good at figuring out which video snippets will resonate with viewers. He’s better at this, oftentimes, than are the liberal shows, “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” and “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
You can see Lewison’s natural eye for good editing in that wedding-ring finger video of McCain’s staring at Palin’s rear. That video comes across as a comical turn-off, largely because Lewison slowly zoomed in on McCain’s wedding ring as well as his grinning, glaring face. By the end of the video, most viewers probably think, “Wow, McCain is really into Palin’s rump, and why is he so fixated on his wedding ring?”
Like most successful viral videos, Lewison’s videos fit into narratives from the campaign trail.
“I’m definitely not a fancy video editor. I just don’t have those skills,” he says. “My strength in video editing is probably figuring out what moments are good to highlight and how to create a narrative flow.”
In other words, they aren’t just hit pieces. His videos work as supporting plot shots from the trail, visually exposing McCain’s and Palin’s perceived weaknesses.
Lewison quotes to me a Steven Soderberg breakdown on narrative that he remembers as a sort of motto: “You gotta catch, hold and release.”
“You want to grab attention, keep it for a little while, but then you have to give it up. You can’t have something that’s super intense without having a period where you let go,” Lewison says.
“Also, there’s a tendency in videos to be too didactic,” he says, “especially on YouTube. So you put out point-of-view,” but it can’t be so overwhelming and obvious that viewers feel like they're being preached to. This is a classic documentarian’s approach.
He says pro-McCain videos have largely failed online and offline. He points to a recent poll that claimed 60 percent of liberals have watched political videos online this season, while only one-third of conservatives have viewed online videos this season.
Lewison says the poll suggests more liberals are watching McCain’s official attack ads than conservatives are. And that angers liberals, fuels them into action, and convinces them to donate more money to Barack Obama.
“If he [McCain] hadn’t put attacks online,” he says, “the level of anger against him would be lower.”
He also says McCain’s video makers “always pick the wrong stuff” to use in anti-Obama spots.
“On [McCain’s] YouTube page, they had Obama saying the fundamentals of the economy are strong. But what he [Obama] said was: we have to make the fundamentals of the economy strong.”
So, very easily and quickly, bloggers and some in the media figured out that pro-McCain video twisted Obama’s words. And that destroyed the video's anti-Obama credibility.
“You have to be more subtle, and not take things out of context,” Lewison says. Political videos become meaningless if “you get the reputation you’re a liar.”
Once the election ends, Lewison plans to stay engaged in online videos, to help shape public opinion, if he can, in support of policy pitches in an Obama administration.
He’s also thinking of creating videos that help poker players figure out when certain players give up their “pattern of tells.”
But for now, he’s not only shaping some public opinion with his videos, he actually got phone polled the other day. How did that go?
“I went with Obama,” he said.
He’s the one who edited and posted the popular video showing McCain slowly twirling his wedding band while he stares at the rear of Sarah Palin at length. That’s Lewison’s biggest, million-viewed hit. The great CNN feature reporter Jeanne Moos based an entire news piece on the video.
Lewison also edited and posted the video of McCain losing track of his thoughts, looking severely confused, during a Q&A with reporters in Panama City, Fla.
And this week, he posted a video that mashes together: A) Talking heads at Fox News defending Sarah Palin’s $150,000 wardrobe; and B) talking heads at Fox News bashing John Edwards for his $400 haircut. The video, obviously, makes Fox News types look like hypocrites.
Lewison’s work has also been picked up and run by “The Rachel Maddow Show” and Fox News, and it’s been embedded or posted online by gobs of sites beyond YouTube, including Wonkette, the Weekly Standard and Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish.
“It’s been something else,” Lewison says. “I was excited when my first video got 100 views. ... Now I’ll put [a video] on, and it’ll get 100 views in a few minutes.”
In the summer and early fall, Lewison, 35, was posting video mashups on his site, JedReport.com, and in the comments section of the liberal DailyKos.com. But just the other week, Kos officially hired Lewison to be Kos’ chief video contributor, and he edits video for the Huffington Post. He also posts other people's viral videos, like the new one from the "Wassup" guys, which is almost as powerful as the video from Ron Howard.
Where did he come from? Lewison is an ex-director of online marketing for RealNetworks, and he was communications director for Sen. Maria Cantwell in Seattle until he moved to Vegas at the end of 2004, intent on writing a thriller of a novel. He’s not rich, he’d merely saved enough money to focus on writing, he says. The book is written, and now he’s pitching it to publishers.
But in his off time, he started tinkering with a video editing tool on his computer. Then he bought Adobe Premiere Elements editing software and starting teaching himself, as he moved from rank amateur to extremely effective video editor in a very short amount of time.
His first splash was what he calls the first viral video that combined old footage of Hillary Clinton appearing on a safe tarmac in Bosnia with her news comments that she had survived sniper fire on that peaceful tarmac. The video helped expose Clinton’s false claim, which she then apologized for making.
Where did he get that video? From a Clinton supporter’s site. Sound implausible? It’s not. He also picks up video from McCain supporters’ sites that makes McCain look weak.
“You get so much stuff from people putting up stuff to promote their candidate,” Lewison says. “It’s really funny. I love McCainland for doing it.”
The strength of Lewison’s videos is he is very good at figuring out which video snippets will resonate with viewers. He’s better at this, oftentimes, than are the liberal shows, “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” and “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
You can see Lewison’s natural eye for good editing in that wedding-ring finger video of McCain’s staring at Palin’s rear. That video comes across as a comical turn-off, largely because Lewison slowly zoomed in on McCain’s wedding ring as well as his grinning, glaring face. By the end of the video, most viewers probably think, “Wow, McCain is really into Palin’s rump, and why is he so fixated on his wedding ring?”
Like most successful viral videos, Lewison’s videos fit into narratives from the campaign trail.
“I’m definitely not a fancy video editor. I just don’t have those skills,” he says. “My strength in video editing is probably figuring out what moments are good to highlight and how to create a narrative flow.”
In other words, they aren’t just hit pieces. His videos work as supporting plot shots from the trail, visually exposing McCain’s and Palin’s perceived weaknesses.
Lewison quotes to me a Steven Soderberg breakdown on narrative that he remembers as a sort of motto: “You gotta catch, hold and release.”
“You want to grab attention, keep it for a little while, but then you have to give it up. You can’t have something that’s super intense without having a period where you let go,” Lewison says.
“Also, there’s a tendency in videos to be too didactic,” he says, “especially on YouTube. So you put out point-of-view,” but it can’t be so overwhelming and obvious that viewers feel like they're being preached to. This is a classic documentarian’s approach.
He says pro-McCain videos have largely failed online and offline. He points to a recent poll that claimed 60 percent of liberals have watched political videos online this season, while only one-third of conservatives have viewed online videos this season.
Lewison says the poll suggests more liberals are watching McCain’s official attack ads than conservatives are. And that angers liberals, fuels them into action, and convinces them to donate more money to Barack Obama.
“If he [McCain] hadn’t put attacks online,” he says, “the level of anger against him would be lower.”
He also says McCain’s video makers “always pick the wrong stuff” to use in anti-Obama spots.
“On [McCain’s] YouTube page, they had Obama saying the fundamentals of the economy are strong. But what he [Obama] said was: we have to make the fundamentals of the economy strong.”
So, very easily and quickly, bloggers and some in the media figured out that pro-McCain video twisted Obama’s words. And that destroyed the video's anti-Obama credibility.
“You have to be more subtle, and not take things out of context,” Lewison says. Political videos become meaningless if “you get the reputation you’re a liar.”
Once the election ends, Lewison plans to stay engaged in online videos, to help shape public opinion, if he can, in support of policy pitches in an Obama administration.
He’s also thinking of creating videos that help poker players figure out when certain players give up their “pattern of tells.”
But for now, he’s not only shaping some public opinion with his videos, he actually got phone polled the other day. How did that go?
“I went with Obama,” he said.
This entry was posted on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2008 at 03:47 PM
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to "All Those Anti-McCain Videos Online Are Coming From Right Here In Las Vegas"
I check the Jedreport several times everyday. Jed is awesome and smart. His site is the best!
Well written article and true. I think Jed would have helped get more Obama supporters with his videos. Without Jed and other bloggers, McCain and the media would have manipulated videos.
I'm a big fan of Jed. Thanks for this write up. Great job.
I consider myself lucky to have found Jed's great blog early last summer. His videos work because they're truthful and cut to the chase. His narrative is so concise that you get exactly what his intent is, without any subterfuge.
Not only are the videos topnotch but so are the reader comments.
Thank for the great article, Doug.
Not only are the videos topnotch but so are the reader comments.
Thank for the great article, Doug.
Jed's videos have been some of the strongest messaging for Obama this entire campaign. Hopefully, someone smart on the Obama team will find a place for him at a high-level on the White House communications staff. . .
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