Found this article while digging Linda Rabbitt at Rand Contruction who rehabbed 101 Constitution for Penn Biden Center.
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April 26, 2012 w Page 5
SMPA, Google join forces to thwart political spin
by Aliya Karim
Hatchet Staff Writer
'''The School of Media and
Public Affairs will partner with
Google to ensure the average
Americans have their facts
straight in the run-up to the
2012 presidential election.'''
The project, called Face the
Facts USA, will employ staff
from the school’s Center for
Innovative Media and Google,
along with a line-up of media
companies to present informa-
tion on political issues in more
understandable and visually
compelling way than tradition-
al press. The efforts will kick off
July 28 – about 100 days before
the presidential election – and
continue into 2013.
"I have long felt that we
need more creative ways to
engage [in] more serious con-
versation,” SMPA Director
Frank Sesno, the project’s cre-
ator, said. “We want to try to…
infuse the conversation with
facts – transformative facts,
interesting facts that can shed
light on the issues that people
have to know about if they’re
going to be informed citizens
and voters."
One fact each day will be
blasted out via social media
and broadcast on the project’s
website using images or vid-
eos about key issues like na-
tional debt, unemployment,
infrastructure, health care and
foreign policy.
Google will feature the
daily facts on its news site and
promote the project through
its social network Google Plus.
Atlantic Media, the company
that owns The Atlantic maga-
zine, will also serve as a part-
ner and design the website.
Sesno’s vision for the proj-
ect came to life after meeting
entrepreneur and philanthro-
pist Ed Scott, co-founder of the
D.C.-based think tank Center
for Global Development, who
committed a large donation to
get the project off the ground.
Sesno declined to disclose the
size of that donation, but said
the project would look to raise
about $3 to $4 million total.
A team of 13 editors,
producers and researchers
– including six undergradu-
ate and graduate student
researchers from the school
– met for the second edito-
rial meeting Wednesday to go
over the research behind the
project with Face the Facts ex-
ecutive director Tom Farmer,
a former CNN executive pro-
ducer who worked with Ses-
no at the television network.
The challenge of the ef-
fort, Farmer said, will be pre-
senting information that not
only captures Internet buzz,
but also sticks with voters
as they snuff out campaign
talking points from President
Barack Obama and likely Re-
publican presidential candi-
date Mitt Romney.
"We want to create an
environment where smart
people can get together and
do better and do wonderful
things,” Farmer said. “We’re
giving them the information,
the tools, the mechanisms
to connect with each other,
to demand better of their
elected leaders, to assess the
rhetoric that flows through
the air and move the country
in a different direction."
Farmer said the project
will not try to cram itself into
a crowded marketplace of fact-
checking and digital media or-
ganizations like FactCheck.org
or ProPublica, but will instead
Freddo Lin | Hatchet PHotographer
Junior Will Haynes, center, a student researcher, speaks about research topics during the second editorial
meeting for the School of Media and Public Affairs's project 'Face the Facts USA,' which will launch July 28.
carve out its own place in the
market of information with a
blitz of social media.
"We’re reaching beyond
the elites who use [FactCheck.
CEO to speak at
GWSB graduation
by Juliana Tamayo
Hatchet Reporter
Hatchet file photo
Dean of the GW Business School Doug Guthrie said GW's programming
in China creates opportunities for its Chinese students.
Foreign programs
under fire for growth
by Cory Weinberg
Assistant News Editor
As universities like GW
dive deep into global ex-
pansion, one higher educa-
tion group wants them first
to take a breath.
The increasing number
of universities setting up
programs around the world
need to consider “poten-
tially adverse unintended
consequences” to foreign
students and cultures, the
International Association of
Universities said in an April
20 memo.