ABC News is helping Trumpco build campaign email list

[deminks]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/abc-news-local-stations-help-trump-build-a-campaign-email-list-on-his-birthday/

ABC News Helps Trump Build a Campaign Email List on His Birthday

ABC News is helping the Trump re-election campaign build its email list.

Some of the network’s largest affiliates posted an identical piece of content on their websites on Friday promoting a “birthday card” for President Donald Trump. The card is actually a petition website created by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee to harvest email addresses that can be used during the 2020 campaign.


“Happy Birthday, Mr. President!” the stories read. “To help him celebrate, the GOP has made him a digital birthday card... Those who want to leave their well wishes can do so on the GOP’s website.”

Each story links to a page created by an RNC-affiliated group at donaldjtrump.com, the Trump campaign’s website. The page encourages visitors to hand over their names, email addresses, phone numbers, and zip codes.

The Trump campaign has made a push on Friday to use Trump’s 73rd birthday to harvest as much voter information as it can. It’s fairly typical for political campaigns to use such occasions to try to beef up the lists of voters and supporters that they can later target for fundraising or activation.

It’s far less typical for a news organization to lend its resources to such an effort. The ABC affiliates’ stories amount to explicit promotions of a political candidate’s list-building efforts, just as the 2020 campaign kicks into high gear. A spokesperson for the network didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

[marble falls]

1. We do everthing we can to stub our toe. Fortunately no one who's going to vote against him ...

is going to wish him well in anything ever. So he'll be getting a lot repeat addresses from the basket of deplorables.

[Vinca]

2. I imagine if I leave a "go fuck yourself" message on the GOP website they'll remove it.

They'll probably be busy all day removing "well wishes."

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Sinclair?

[Dennis Donovan]

4. My first thought too

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stations_owned_or_operated_by_Sinclair_Broadcast_Group

...it might be useful in this context.