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Social media influencers are hitting the DNC. Can they bring the youth vote?
For the first time in its history, the Democratic National Convention has opened its doors to social media influencers, and with them, millions of online followers as the party tries to reach younger voters.
The organizers say the decision to give creators press credentials enables them to reach Americans at the event and beyond. The convention committee credentialed over 200 influencers to attend in-person, according to a spokesperson.
Brynn Anderson / AP
A source familiar with the programming said there would be special appearances from different influencers each night including Deja Foxx, Nabela Noor, Carlos Eduardo Espina, Olivia Julianna and John Russell.
“Bringing creators to our convention will multiply our reach and ensure that everyone can witness democracy in action,” said Cayana Mackey-Nance, director of digital strategy for the Democratic National Convention Committee.
Kalen Allen, an internet personality with upwards of 1 million followers on both TikTok and Instagram, is one of the creators invited to join this year.
“Personally I think that the strategy is absolutely brilliant,” Allen told CBS News.
“I’ve had a front-row seat to watching these creators actually activate and mobilize in ways I’ve never seen us been able to have access before,” he said. “I think what is great about this is that we are meeting young voters where they are.”
Since festivities kicked off Monday, Allen has been “reporting live from the DNC” using his social media accounts to share photos – like this one with Michelle Obama following her highly-watched speech – and to engage followers with queries like: “Any DNC questions? Keep it cute.”
Allen emphasized that he and his influencer compatriots aren’t just capturing celebrity guests and performances; they are also using their platforms to dig into policy.
“The content creators that were selected are people that actually have platforms that are structured around policy, different political activations and conversations,” he said.
The social media influencer says all the creators have been provided with messaging and campaign details so they can serve as catalysts for that information.
A Democratic National Convention Committee spokesperson said they are also providing creators with logistical assistance and “front-row access” to the convention via a Creator Platform built directly on the convention floor.
“From the main stage, to the creator platform, to the convention floor, and all across Chicago, content creators will play a critical role in making sure more Americans than ever before can engage with our convention and hear the story of the Harris-Walz ticket,” said spokesperson Emily Soong.
Samantha Thomas, a journalist and 10-year content creator vet from Chicago, said she’s encouraged to see the DNC extend invitations to those outside the traditional media world.
“I’m glad that the DNC, the creators for Kamala (Harris) and also the DNC creators have recognized that social media is the way,” she said.
The Democrats’ strategy isn’t new. Even before the Chicago event, the party had begun to make hay out of the creator community, something the right has capitalized on for years.
The Republican National Convention gave access to 70 influencers, The Washington Post reported.
The decision to invite influencers to the DNC is part of the party’s ongoing efforts to shore up support among young voters ahead of the November election.
Persuadable voters, a recent CBS News analysis found, tend to be on the younger side and are more likely to get their news from social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
According to a 2020 poll by Tufts, 70% of young people got their information about that year’s election from social media.
Harris has already made notable headway with millennials and Gen-Zers since she replaced President Biden on the ticket. Multiple polls indicate voters from 18 to 29 years old are leaning toward the Democratic nominee.
The campaign has also employed a viral coconut tree meme and Charlie XCX’s lime green “Brat” branding in an effort to win over young voters.
Any momentum the DNC social media influencers can add to the mix is good, said Thomas.
“We are bringing a different voice,” she said. “This is a change. This is something new.”
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After Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating, Memphis officer texted photo of bloodied man to ex-girlfriend, she testifies
A former Memphis police officer charged in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols sent his ex-girlfriend a photo of the badly injured man on the night he was punched, kicked and hit with a police baton following a traffic stop, according to trial testimony Wednesday.
Brittany Leake, a Memphis officer and Demetrius Haley’s former girlfriend, testified during the criminal trial that she was on the phone with Haley when officers pulled Nichols over for a traffic stop. She said she heard a “commotion,” including verbal orders for someone to give officers his hands.
The call ended, but Haley later texted the photo in a group chat comprising Haley, Leake and her godsister, she testified. Prosecutors displayed the photo for the jury. It showed Nichols with his eyes closed, on the ground with what appeared to be blood near his mouth and his hands behind his back.
Leake said that when she saw the photo, her reaction was: “Oh my God, he definitely needs to go to the Med.”
The Med is shorthand for Memphis’ trauma hospital.
The fatal beating, caught on police bodycams and street surveillance cameras, has sparked protests and calls for police reform. Officers said they pulled over Nichols for reckless driving, but Memphis’ police chief said there was no evidence to substantiate that claim.
Haley, Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith are on trial after pleading not guilty to charges that they deprived Nichols of his civil rights through excessive force and failure to intervene, and obstructed justice through witness tampering. Their trial began Sept. 9 and is expected to run three to four weeks.
George Walker IV / AP
The Memphis Police Department fired the three men, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., after Nichols’ death. The beating was caught on police video, which was released publicly. The officers were later indicted on the federal charges. Martin and Mills have taken plea deals.
During her testimony Wednesday, Leake said she deleted the photo after she saw it and that sending such a photo is against police policy.
“I wasn’t offended, but it was difficult to look at,” she said.
Leake said Haley had sent her photos before of drugs, and of a person who had been injured in a car accident.
Earlier Wednesday, Martin was on the witness stand for a third day. Defense attorneys tried to show inconsistencies between Martin’s statements to investigators and his court testimony. Martin acknowledged lying about what happened to Memphis Police Department internal investigators, to try to cover up and “justify what I did.”
But Martin said he told the truth to FBI investigators after he pleaded guilty in August, including statements about feeling pressure on his duty belt where his gun was located during the traffic stop, but not being able to see if Nichols was trying to get his gun. Martin has testified that he said “let go of my gun” during the traffic stop.
Martin Zummach, the attorney for Justin Smith, asked Martin if he knew of any reasons why Nichols did not simply say, “I give up.”
“He’s out of it,” Martin said. “Disoriented.”
Martin testified that the situation escalated quickly when Haley pulled his gun and violently yanked Nichols from his car, using expletives and failing to tell Nichols why he had been pulled over and removed from the vehicle.
“He never got a chance to comply,” Martin said.
Nichols, who was Black, was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during the traffic stop, but ran away, police video shows. The five officers, who also are Black, then beat him about a block from his home, as he called out for his mother.
Video shows the officers milling about and talking as Nichols struggled with his injuries. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating.
An autopsy report shows Nichols – the father of a boy who is now 7 – died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.
Jesse Guy testified that he was working as a paramedic for the Memphis Fire Department the night of the beating. He arrived at the location after two emergency medical technicians, Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge.
Guy said he was not told about the medical problems Nichols had experienced before he arrived, and that Nichols was injured, seated on the ground and unresponsive.
Nichols had no pulse and was not breathing, and it “felt like he was lifeless,” Guy said.
In the ambulance, Guy performed CPR and provided mechanical ventilation, and Nichols had a pulse by the time he arrived at the hospital, the paramedic said.
Guy said Long and Sandridge did not say if they had checked Nichols’ pulse and heart rate, and they did not report if they had given him oxygen. When asked by one of Bean’s lawyers whether that information would have been helpful in treating Nichols, Guy said yes.
Long and Sandridge were fired for violating fire department policies after Nichols died. They have not been criminally charged.
The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas.
Federal prosecutors have previously recommended a 40-year sentence for Martin. A date has not been set in state court yet.
Nichols worked for FedEx, and he enjoyed skateboarding and photography. The city of Sacramento, where Nichols grew up, named a skatepark in his honor. “Tyre fell in love with skateboarding at a young age and it wasn’t long before it became a part of his lifestyle,” states the resolution approved by the city council. He had a tattoo of his mother’s name.
“Tyre Nichols’ family have been praying for justice and accountability from the very beginning of this tragedy,” Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, the civil rights attorneys representing Nichols’ family, said in a statement when the trial began.
Boeing’s CEO said Wednesday that the company will begin furloughing “a large number” of employees to conserve cash during the strike by union machinists that began last week.
Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg said the people who would be required to take time off without pay starting in coming days include executives, managers and other employees based in the U.S.
“While this is a tough decision that impacts everybody, it is in an effort to preserve our long-term future and help us navigate through this very difficult time,” Ortberg said in a company-wide message to staff.
Boeing didn’t say how many people will face rolling furloughs, but the number is expected to run into the tens of thousands. The aerospace giant had 171,000 employees at the start of the year.
About 33,000 Boeing factory workers in the Pacific Northwest began a strike Friday after rejecting a proposal to raise pay by 25% over four years. They want raises of at least 40%, the return of a traditional pension plan and other improvements in the contract offer they voted down.
Scott Brauer / Bloomberg via Getty Images
The strike is halting production of several airplane models including Boeing’s best-selling plane, the 737 Max. The company gets more than half of the purchase price when new planes are delivered to buyers, so the strike will quickly hurt Boeing’s cash flow.
Ortberg said selected employees will be furloughed for one week every four weeks while retaining their benefits. The CEO and other senior executives will take pay cuts during the duration of the strike, he said, without stating how deep the cuts will be.
All work related to safety, quality, customer support and certification of new planes will continue during the furloughs, he said, including production of 787 Dreamliner jets, which are built by nonunion workers in South Carolina.
Ortberg said in a memo to employees that the company is talking to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers about a new contract agreement that could be ratified.
“However, with production paused across many key programs in the Pacific Northwest, our business faces substantial challenges and it is important that we take difficult steps to preserve cash and ensure that Boeing is able to successfully recover,” he said.
Boeing’s chief financial officer warned employees earlier this week that temporary layoffs were possible.
The company, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, but has most of its commercial-airplanes business located in the Pacific Northwest, is also cutting spending on suppliers, freezing hiring and eliminating most travel.
Despite two full days of talks assisted by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the union said Wednesday that no resolution had been reached and no additional negotiations were scheduled, according to CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO-TV.
Striking workers are picketing at several locations in the Seattle area, Oregon and California. The union, which recommended the offer that members later rejected by a 96% vote, is surveying the workers to learn what they want in a new contract. The union’s last strike at Boeing, in 2008, lasted about two months.
If the walkout doesn’t end soon, Boeing’s credit rating could be downgraded to non-investment or junk status, which would make borrowing more expensive. Shortly after the walkout began Friday, Moody’s put Boeing on review for a possible downgrade, and Fitch said a strike longer than two weeks would make a downgrade more likely.
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