In October 15 and September 18 posts, bloggers for Andrew Breitbart's BigHollywood.com and BigGovernment.com have denounced search engines used to promote volunteer opportunities by the Entertainment Industry Foundation's “I Participate” initiative and the federal United We Serve program, condemning the former for including volunteer opportunities with Planned Parenthood and the latter for including a volunteer opportunity for ACORN. However, neither post noted that the search engines promote volunteer opportunities with a wide array of groups, including the National Right to Life Committee and the Tea Party Nation.
Breitbart websites' specious claim: Volunteer opportunity search engines have liberal bias
Published
Breitbart's sites repeatedly bashed volunteer search engines
From an October 15 blog post to BigHollywood.com by “Stage Right”:
The plan is to weave volunteerism and service into the plots of their shows and then, ultimately, encourage viewers to get up off their sofas and go to a handful of web pages that are meant to provide opportunities for service. As we saw in the previous stories at Big Hollywood and Big Government, these seemingly benign volunteer search engines often seem to be Trojan Horses for controversial, left-wing causes.
The October 19-25 “I Participate” campaign broadcast on all four major television networks for a full week of programming will point viewers to www.iparticipate.org (as mentioned in Ashton's tweet) and the AARP's www.createthegood.com web sites.
If your 12 year-old hears about this volunteer initiative and follows the lead of her favorite TV star, she will go to www.createthegood.com and type in her favorite cause. If she's been paying attention to the news these days (or listening to the lectures from most public school teachers) she will know that “Health Care” is a big deal these days. All she has to do is type “Health Care” into the search engine with her zip code (let's say 90210 cause we love those adorable Beverly Hills high school kids) and she'll get a whole host of opportunities to serve.
Go ahead... open that link and you'll see twelve opportunities to serve. Look at items “H”, “I” and “L.” All are from Planned Parenthood.
From Dana Loesch's September 18 post to BigGovernment.com:
The Obama Administration has placed a large premium on what it calls “national service.” It has launched a website, www.Serve.gov, that is reported to act as a clearing house for Americans eager to “give back” to their communities. Unfortunately, Americans looking for an opportunity to volunteer may get something they weren't expecting.
By typing “ACORN” into the search field entitled “What interests you” at Serve.gov, you're transported to allforgood.org where you can choose from a list of volunteer opportunities, including “healthcare activist.” This particular “volunteer” opportunity is with the Tuscon ACORN office.
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Your tax dollars at work, America. Living the sweet life on taxpayer dollars while using federal funding to advertise for volunteer opportunities to promote the President's health care legislation.
Pro-Obama activism is the new welfare.
Search engines provide a wide array of volunteer opportunities
Iparticipate.org promotes opportunity to join a tea party protest group. Typing “taxation” into the volunteer search box at iparticipate.org yields an opportunity to volunteer with the “Tea Party Nation,” a group that describes itself as “a user-driven group of like-minded people who desire our God given Individual Freedoms which were written out by the Founding Fathers. We believe in Limited Government, Free Speech, the 2nd Amendment, our Military, Secure Borders and our Country!”
Iparticipate.org contains anti-choice volunteer opportunities. Typing “pro-life” into the volunteer search at iparticipate.org box yields a number of anti-choice volunteer opportunities, including an internship with the Maryland affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee.
Serve.gov also contains anti-choice opportunities. As Media Matters for America has noted, typing “pro-life” into the “What interests you” search field of Serve.gov redirects you to allforgood.org, where you can choose from a number of anti-choice volunteer opportunities, including an internship with the Maryland affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee.
