http://moneyocracy.tumblr.com/

Hello everyone! Moneyocracy will have soon new developments...

Thu, 09 May 2013 20:31:56 -0400

Hello everyone!
Moneyocracy will have soon new developments including an online release of the full documentary and a new series (more details to come). As you might know, this project took more than 2 years and a half to be achieved. During that time, we’ve launched a Storytelling Lab called Chewbahat (https://www.facebook.com/Chewbahat) that will be the carier of all of our projects from now on.

We’re deeply committed to create engaging stories on important matters - campaign finance during the U.S election is just the first step - and there’s so much to do yet.
Our goal is to help you to have a better understanding of the world through innovative, qualitative and rigorous storytelling.

You’ve supported us so far and we’re truly grateful for that! Now, we’d like you to take the next step with us… starting by pressing the “Like” button on our Chewbahat page.

It’s just a click, but to us it’ll mean a lot.
Thanks a lot!
Gerald, Jean Nicholas & the “Chewbateam”

After a long night we finally validated the last version of the...

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 05:38:48 -0500

After a long night we finally validated the last version of the Moneyocracy documentary at dawn. 90 minutes at the heart of the campaign finance system in the U.S!

Thanks to everyone who believed in that project, thanks to our great team. This one is surely the first one of a long series of doco (at least for me).

Next step, a big party, an official release, and a lot of work to make it known by as many people as possible.
Stay tuned!

Moneyocracy transmedia documentary will feature:

Trevor Potter (Stephen Colbert lawyer), John Bonifaz (Free Speech For People), Bob Biersack ( OpenSecrets.org: Tracking Money In Politics), Lawrence Lessig ( United Republic ), Paul Blumenthal ( The Huffington Post), Walter Shapiro, Tom Sutton, Ford O’Connell

Hello there, We’re now working very hard on the...

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 05:42:14 -0500

Hello there,

We’re now working very hard on the documentary part of the Moneyocracy-project.
It’ll be 90 min long and will include a wide range of interviewees who will drive us into the campaign finance system that the 2010 Supreme Court decision “Citizens United v.FEC” created.

Here’s the list of the people included in our documentary:

Campaign Finance Expert, Former Commissioner & Chairman of Federal Election Commission and Attorney, Trevor Potter (@thetrevorpotter)
Former FEC Data analyst and Senior Fellow at the Center for Responsive Politics, Bob Biersack (@rbiersack)
Senior Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, Adam Skaggs (@jadamskaggs)
Co-founder of Creative Commons and law professor, Lawrence Lessig (@Lessig)
Political Columnist Walter Shapiro (@waltershapiroPD)
Managing Director at Civic Forum Strategies & Co-Founder of ProjectVirginia and Chairman of CivicForumPAC, Ford O’Connell (@FordOConnell)
Co-Founder and Executive Director of Free Speech For People, John Bonifaz (@johnbonifaz)
Reporter @HuffingtonPost covering campaign finance, Paul Blumenthal (@PaulBlu)
Lawyer and policy advocate for Demos.org, Adam Lioz (@Demos_org)
Chair of Political Science at the Baldwin-Wallace University (OH), Tom Sutton.

Stay tuned for more, the release date and promotional material.
Thanks for your support!

And here it is! The first chapter of the Moneyocracy transmedia...

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:45:00 -0500

And here it is! The first chapter of the Moneyocracy transmedia documentary project is now online on www.moneyocracy-project.com. Combining a comic experience, a serious game and a documentary, ROOM 501C4 immerses you into a secret organisation that prepares the next election cycle. Influence, money, secret, discover what made the 2012 U.S elections so special.

ROOM 501c4 is an introduction to an upcoming documentary focusing on the place of money in politics & the U.S democracy. Super PACs, Citizens United v. FEC and donors disclosure are among the topics these two segment will try to explain.

Don’t hesitate to like our facebook page or follow or twitter account for more informations and updates.

Hello! Just a few words to tell you that we are thrilled to...

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 13:13:00 -0400

Hello!

Just a few words to tell you that we are thrilled to announce that the Moneyocracy interactive documentary - which is the first part of our transmedia documentary about Money and politics in the U.S - will be released on November 3rd on “lemonde.fr”. Yes you’re right, there’s only a couple of days to wait.
In the meantime, we went through that video from Robert Reich explaining what could be - in his opinion - the biggest threat for America in the upcoming years.
Strangely enough, his message looks a lot like what Keith Olbermann was saying in his editorial comment 2 years ago. Different tone, but same conclusions.
Are you agree with that analysis?

Here’s the Robert Reich comment:

And here’s the Olbermann Editorial comment:

Enjoy this moment of fun between the two candidates.

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:19:14 -0400

Enjoy this moment of fun between the two candidates.

Hello followers! Long time no see but it was for a good reason,...

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:22:45 -0400

Hello followers!

Long time no see but it was for a good reason, as you may know Jean Nicholas and I were on the road to film the last interviews and b-roll shots for Moneyocracy. We only have a couple of days left in the U.S before flying back to France where we’ll put the final touches to our interactive documentary called “Room 501c4”, the first episode of our transmedia documentary.

Thanks for following us and supporting the project. Stay tuned!

GH & JN

We’re in Ohio since the beginning of the week, looking for...

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 09:35:04 -0400

We’re in Ohio since the beginning of the week, looking for a couple of campaign events to cover. Scheduled today: a rally with Mitt Romney and the GOP team at the Cuyahoga Falls Natatorium, near Cleveland OH.

We had the wonderful opportunity this afternoon to meet the...

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:57:38 -0400

We had the wonderful opportunity this afternoon to meet the great kids of the Columbia Heights Educational Campus, Washington D.C and talk with them about the upcoming elections and the place of money in politics. Thanks to Eddie Mandhry, Diana Aljets, Libby Hill and Rasha Hashem and Global Kids for this very nice moment.

Another day in New York filming B-Roll sequences for the...

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 17:18:18 -0400

Another day in New York filming B-Roll sequences for the Documentary. Alongside the day-to-day work we’ve received a great news from the CNC (the French supporting branch for documentaries and fiction movies) ! Follow the link.

What do we have in our bags? Well here’s a glimpse of the...

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 17:13:32 -0400

What do we have in our bags? Well here’s a glimpse of the 25kg or so in equipment we’re carrying everyday to make that project happen. Thanks to The Photo Brigade for this feature.

French photojournalists Gerald Holubowicz & Jean-Nicholas Guillo share the contents of their camera bags, which they use for theirMoneyocracy documentary project.
Full list of gear here: http://bit.ly/UyI3G3

Check out more posts like these at http://ThePhotoBrigade.com/

Here we are in New York starting to shoot the last pieces of...

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 08:53:24 -0400

Here we are in New York starting to shoot the last pieces of footage for Moneyocracy.
Stay tuned for a bit more content and making of shots.

source2012: 2012’s ad avalanche Research released this week...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 14:00:31 -0400

source2012:

2012’s ad avalanche

Research released this week from Kantar Media’s CMAG, which tracks political advertising, shows that battleground TV viewers are being deluged by ads.

“As of early this month,” writes Kantar’s Elizabeth Wilner in Ad Age, “we have seen 1.3 million ad occurrences for all political advertising on local spot TV.”

Not only is this a huge increase above the number of ads aired during the same period of 2008, but this election has seen a spike in the percentage of ads aired by outside groups such as super PACs and politically active nonprofits — especially on the Republican side.

Between April 10, when Republican Mitt Romney unofficially claimed the GOP presidential nomination, and early September, Wilner notes, outside groups accounted for 55% of all presidential ads aired on the Republican side, while Romney and the Republican National Committee accounted for just 45%.

She continues:

“During this same time frame in 2008, only 3% of all Republican ads were sponsored by outside groups; 97% were aired by the McCain campaign or the RNC.

“On the Democratic side, the difference between 2008 and 2012 is negligible: 91% of all presidential ads aired during the April-September period in 2012 were sponsored by either the Obama campaign or the Democratic National Committee; just 9% of the ads aired came from outside groups such as Priorities USA Action. In 2008, the breakdown was 96% to 4%.”

h/t Andrew Sullivan

Hello guys! Jean Nicholas and I just wanted to share with you a...

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 06:36:00 -0400

Hello guys!
Jean Nicholas and I just wanted to share with you a couple of exciting news about the project. Indeed, we’re flying to New York next week to start shooting the last remaining shots for the i-doc and the documentary.

We’ll be in the U.S from September 17th to October 22nd, filming in different locations such as New York, Boston (Harvard), Washington D.C, Michigan and Ohio where the last battle between Obama & Romney will take place.

Right before election day, the I-doc wil be released as the first part of the Moneyocracy project quickly followed by the documentary.

Stay tuned for more on our blog and here on our Facebook page. Thanks again for your support!

Gerald Holubowicz

thenationmagazine: Never mind the Super PACs: A new must-read...

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 05:32:01 -0400

thenationmagazine:

Never mind the Super PACs: A new must-read investigative report in The Nation reveals how Big Business is buying the election with secret money.

According to OpenSecrets.org: Tracking Money In Politics latest...

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 09:27:57 -0400

According to OpenSecrets.org: Tracking Money In Politics latest analysis, conservative super PACs have outspent their liberal counterparts by more than $100 million. (*Note: This is a correction from something we posted last night, which noted a 10:1 spending imbalance. It’s more like 4:1.)

Photo

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:59:23 -0400

First glimpse of the Moneyocracy Documentary

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:31:00 -0400

First glimpse of the Moneyocracy Documentary

source2012: Obama pushes small-dollar donors “If we don’t step...

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 03:12:36 -0400

source2012:

Obama pushes small-dollar donors

“If we don’t step it up, we’re in trouble,” the Obama campaign pleaded in a fundraising email Monday that emphasized the threat of “billionaires and super PACs” that are seeking to defeat the president.

The email message also included the graphic above that name-checked casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who, along with his family, has donated more than $30 million to Republican super PACs so far this election cycle.

GOP-aligned super PACs and nonprofits and Republican party committees have buoyed Mitt Romney’s own presidential bid. Party committees have higher contribution limits than candidates’ campaigns and super PACs and nonprofits have no contribution limits at all.

Thanks to these higher contribution limits, Romney and his Romney Victory Fund — which benefits his campaign and several Republican party groups — has now outraised the president and his joint fundraising operation for three months in a row.

In contrast, President Barack Obama has long sought to mobilize grassroots donors.

According to campaign finance filings with the Federal Election Commission, about 60% of the money that Obama has raised has come in chucks of $200 or less. And about three-fourths of the money Obama has raised has come from people giving less than $1,000.

Romney’s campaign has only relied on donations of $200 or less for about 20 percent of its funding. And more than half of the money Romney has raised has come from people giving at least $2,000, FEC records show.

Federal law prohibits individuals from donating more than $5,000 to either Romney or Obama — that’s $2,500 a piece for their primary and general election funds.

Mitt Romney picks Paul Ryan as running mate

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 06:54:55 -0400

Mitt Romney picks Paul Ryan as running mate