Common Purpose Project

The Common Purpose Project meets "every Tuesday afternoon at the Capitol Hilton" in Washington, DC, and "brings together the top officials from a range of left-leaning organizations, from labor groups like Change to Win to activists like MoveOn.org, all in support of the White House's agenda. The group has an overlapping membership with a daily 8:45 a.m. call run by the Center for American Progress' and Media Matters' political arms; with the new field-oriented coalition Unity '09; and with the groups that allied to back the budget as the Campaign to Rebuild and Renew America Now. Unlike those other groups, however, the Common Purpose meeting has involved a White House official, communications director Ellen Moran, two sources familiar with the meeting said. It's aimed, said one, at 'providing a way for the White House to manage its relationships with some of these independent groups.' The group's founder, political consultant and former Gephardt aide Erik Smith, described it in general terms after others had confirmed its existence. 'The goal is to convene a group of people that identify the most effective progressive messages and to advance a progressive policy agenda,' said Smith. ... Common Purpose is formed as a 501(c)(4), which leaves it focused on policy, rather than electoral, work. Its political director is another former Obama aide, Miti Sathe. Part of the group's role is to enforce a kind of message discipline."

Common Purpose Project is run through the PR firm Blue Engine Message & Media. It enforces message discipline among liberal organizations and coordinates closely with Progressive Media, another part of the pro-Obama messaging and strategy operation.

Articles and resources

• John Stauber, The Progressive Movement is a PR Front for Rich Democrats, March 15, 2013, CounterPunch.

Related SourceWatch articles

• 99% Spring
• Blue Engine Message & Media
• Center for American Progress
• David Brock
• John Podesta
• Media Matters
• MoveOn
• Organizing for America
• Progressive Media
• Sustainable Security in Afghanistan

External articles

• Ben Smith, "'Common Purpose'," Politico.com, April 8, 2009.
• Jane Hamsher, "White House May be Dictating, But We’re Not Stenographers," Firedoglake blog, April 8, 2009.
• Jeremy Scahill, Rahm Emanuel's Think Tankers Enforce 'Message Discipline' Among 'Liberals', RebelReports.com, April 9, 2009.
• John Stauber, Common Purpose, Another Cog in the Obama PR Machine, PRwatch.org, April 9, 2009.

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