Washington, DC – The crisis of corporate influence over American democracy is the latest subject of award-winning Internet filmmaker, Annie Leonard, who, on March 1, released “The Story of Citizens United v. FEC,” an animated short.
Leonard, who directs The Story of Stuff Project, was inspired to make the film by the disastrous 2010 US Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC that permitted corporations to spend freely to influence American elections. The eight-minute film, available March 1 at www.storyofcitizensunited.org, places corporate influence – not bad politicians – at the heart of Americans’ low confidence in the political process.
The movie explores the history of the American corporation and corporate political spending, the appropriate roles of citizens and for-profit corporations in a democracy and the toxic impact the Citizens United decision has already had on our political process. It ends with a call to amend the US Constitution to confirm that people – not corporations – make the decisions in a democracy.
“Getting corporations out of our democracy is critical to making progress on a huge range of issues that we Americans care about, from good jobs to clean air to safe products,” said Leonard. “Unless we act, those concerns will take even more of a backseat to the concerns of Walmart, Exxon, and Dow than they do now.”
A Hart Research Associates poll released in January found that nearly four in five Americans (79 percent) support the passage of an amendment that would overturn the Citizens United decision and make clear that corporations do not have the same rights as people, thus giving Congress the authority to limit the amount of money corporations can spend on elections. “The Story of Citizens United v. FEC” is being released to support the growing movement for a constitutional amendment.
“A year after the Supreme Court’s abominable Citizens United decision, we have overwhelming evidence of the damage done to our democracy – and clear signals of worse threats to come,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, and a content adviser on the movie. “In the 2010 elections, corporations and the super rich funneled a reported $300 million through so-called ‘independent’ organizations to run attack ads and advance corporate agendas. And 2010 was just practice for 2012. If we are going to rescue democracy and re-establish the principle that corporations shouldn’t be able to buy elections, we must have a constitutional amendment to overturn the heinous Citizens United decision.”
Busy schedule? Click here to keep up with Truthout with free email updates.
On the evening of release, The Story of Stuff Project will hold over 500 house parties around the country for participants to learn more about the Supreme Court’s decision and to organize in support of a constitutional amendment.
“The Story of Citizens United v. FEC” companion web site (www.storyofcitizensunited.org) will serve as an interactive launch pad for information and activism. The site offers viewers additional educational resources, including an annotated script and FAQs, as well as ways to get involved in the constitutional amendment campaigns of Public Citizen, Free Speech for People and People for the American Way.
Kicking off Season Two, “The Story of Citizens United v. FEC” is the first in an anticipated series of three new movies from The Story of Stuff Project in 2011. Season Two will tell the stories behind “The Story of Stuff” – what makes our economic system tick, who pays, who benefits and how can we turn it around. The Project’s three Season One movies – “The Story of Bottled Water,” “The Story of Cosmetics” and “The Story of Electronics” – have together been viewed more than 2.3 million times online. The original film “The Story of Stuff,” released in December 2007, has been viewed more than 15 million times.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.