Zach Exley
Zach Exley is a specialist in 'grassroots' internet campaigning. He worked for the Kerry campaign against George W. Bush. Previously, Zack Exley was Organizing Director at MoveOn.org. In 2005 he worked in the Labour Party election team.
Exley and New Labour
In February 2005, it was reported that Exley was working for New Labour:
- Labour has hired an American spin doctor known as the "garbage man" for publishing pictures doctored to show George Bush taking cocaine. The party faces controversy over "dirty tricks" after it said Zack Exley, 35, is working full-time on its campaign.
He is notorious in Washington as an expert in the use of the internet to spread black propaganda. President Bush was moved to call him a "garbage man". Other stunts included fake photographs of Mr Bush smoking a joint and spoof articles by him.
—Francis Elliott, "No 10 in new dirty tricks row over role of US 'garbage man'", The Independent, Feb. 27, 2005.
Blair was advised by a whole raft of US spin doctors in 2005, but unlike the Tories this was kept largely out of the news during the campaign. Democratic Party volunteers from the United States joined Blair's campaign, including Clinton's pollster Stan Greenberg, a veteran of previous Blair campaigns; Zack Exley, who directed John Kerry's online campaign; Karen Hicks, a key organizer of Howard Dean's New Hampshire campaign; and longtime Democratic party adviser Bob Shrum, who ran Kerry's presidential campaign.[1]
Resources
- William Dinan Undercover in New Labour Spinwatch, 24 May 2005.
- Francis Elliott, "No 10 in new dirty tricks row over role of US 'garbage man'", The Independent, Feb. 27, 2005. Also at [2]
^ 'Britons Vote With War in Iraq on Minds' Thursday May 5, 2005 10:16 PM, AP Photo LPE105 By ROBERT BARR Associated Press Writer, http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4985606,00.html
