Yesterday, House Republicans launched the website AmericaSpeakingOut.com, a communications initiative designed to solicit ideas from the public. As Republican new media strategist Jon Henke noted, the website is nothing unique -- and looks like “a site designed to build [an email] list and get earned media.”
The publicity strategy appears to have worked with the usual suspects: Fox News and Fox Business collectively devoted six segments and over 14 minutes to the website . America's Newsroom even treated the website's launch as “breaking news,” running Fox News' dramatic “news alert” graphics and sound to introduce the segment.
In promoting the website, Fox programs routinely plastered the URL on-screen. FoxNews.com also ran an op-ed by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) asking Fox readers to visit the website to “get this country back on the right track.”
The following are the Fox programs that promoted the website, along with the discussion length:
- Happy Hour (Fox Business, Rep. Bachmann): 6 minutes, 45 seconds.
- Fox & Friends (Rep. John Boehner): 45 seconds.
- America's Newsroom (NY Post's Charles Hurt): 4 minutes, 30 seconds.
- Your World with Neil Cavuto (Rep. Peter Roskam): 1 minute, 50 seconds.
- Special Report (no guest): 15 seconds.
- Fox Report (no guest): 45 seconds.
