Why Ocasio-Cortez's lesson in dark money is the most-watched political video

[G_j]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/14/campaign-finance-but-make-it-viral-alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-unlikely-video-hit

It’s already well-established that congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is very good at social media. A Guardian analysis found she has more engagement on Twitter than Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.

But even the most exciting social media personality might struggle to make the often plodding work of congressional committees especially exciting. Some had assumed that while Ocasio-Cortez drove likes and favourites online, as a first-term congresswoman she would be relatively inconspicuous.

Instead, she has done the improbable, translating the topic of campaign finance into a viral video. Recently, she played a “lightning round game” with a panel of ethics experts, in which she asked a series of quick-fire lawyerly questions in order to demonstrate the ease with which officials in Congress and the White House can be corrupted by donations from special interest groups.

An edited video of the hearing, which was uploaded by the leftwing online channel NowThis news, has been viewed 37.5m times, making it the most watched political video ever posted on Twitter, according to the subscription-based web analytics company Tubular (although that claim depends on what you count as “political” – Donald Trump’s doctored video of him bodyslamming and punching a person with the CNN logo for a head has slightly more views at 39.1m).

“The video has been uniquely successful but we are seeing more and more clips from congressional hearings and floor speeches getting tens of millions of views,” said Nico Pitney, NowThis political director.

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[2naSalit]

1. Sounds like a public that woke up...nt

[G_j]

2. That is what I also find very heartening

“Our audience is very hungry right now for issue-based political videos. They want to hear from people who are authentic, and who present smart factual information in a creative way.”

[2naSalit]

3. Indeed. I am glad to see

that not only are people ready to absorb the information but that there are people with creative ideas in presentation coming forward to do just that.

I wanted to wait and see how this new House Rep. would do, I think she's doing well so far and I hope she only gets better at it. She might be the next generation Nancy Pelosi in how she grows into positions of power with grace and intellect. I think she'll be around for a while and I'm glad to see her, and all the other women in office, standing strong. I finally have a little less stress because of it.