Call Massey Media to put your 2010 dreams into action.

What’s your dream for 2010? Is it stopping the destruction of mountains in West Virginia, bringing affordable, quality health care to the nation, covering the urban environment with murals, ending representational bias in the electorate, or maybe, just maybe, you dream of winning a national battle of the bands and taking your rock group global? As we reflect on 2009, we see the Massey Media team has brought positive media attention and new audiences to all of these dreams.

Mobilization for Health Care for All: Shifting the Conversation in the Press
The summer of 2009 was a time of intense opposition for the national healthcare overhaul. The conversation shifted from what kind of publicly supported healthcare should the United States have to should we have that at all. Advocates and activists took notice and organized to bring attention to the millions of Americans who believe health care is a human right and want universal healthcare for all. Massey Media helped the Mobilization for Health Care for All to create newsworthy messages, bring out the cameras, and successfully use social media to broadcast its vision.

I Wanna Rock: The Power of the Press in the Entertainment Industry
This year was groundbreaking for Massey Media in our work with arts and artists, especially when we successfully placed an art mural on the front page of the Weekend Edition of the Washington Post. As a result, our arts portfolio is rocking with new clients like DC’s youngest electronic rock band, Power Pirate. This fall, we placed the band on NBC4 for a live interview about their dreams of winning a national battle of the bands and playing for an international audience. The results were thousands of new fans who cast their votes in favor of the group and helped the band to win the contest.

Massey Media Takes on Massey Energy to Protect Appalachia
First off, no, we’re not related. Our group of Masseys want to protect Coal River Mountain from destruction, while the other group wants to blow off the top and rip up the hills for coal and greed. Mountaintop removal coal mining lays the mountains low, poisons the air and water and ruins livelihoods. We love mountains and green spaces. We believe there is a better way to make energy, such as wind farms. Massey Media is supporting Climate Ground Zero and this vital campaign by connecting them with national press.

Recent press results for our clients:

• 11/05/09 ABC News Protesters Arrested at Lieberman’s Office
• 11/19/09 NBC4 Power Pirate
• 11/29/09 The Atlantic The Best Picture Of The 2008 Electorate To Date
• 12/14/09 All Our Noise Tearing Down the Walls of Medium: District Calling Builds with the Mortar of Creativity
• 1/1/2010 Washington Post Storefront Exhibits Offer Artists a Different Kind of Exposure

Please call us at 202 518-6186 to discuss how we can place your message in the press.

Today, the Mobilization for Health Care for All returned to Sen. Joe Lieberman’s office to ask him to stop taking private health insurance company campaign contributions. When he refused to meet with the mobilization, they sat down in his lobby until forcibly removed by the police. Today’s action included Sam Pullen, 31, who said that his mother was denied a lifesaving bone marrow transplant by an insurance company. Pullen was previously arrested during a sit-in at the Los Angeles office of Blue Cross.

Here is my video from last week’s sit-in at Lieberman’s office:

Great coverage from Julian Hattem of the Huffington Post today. And, see more coverage here at ABC’s The Note from last week.

You may ask why did they do the sit-in again? For one, there are two members of the movement still in jail from last week’s action. Lieberman has refused to answer calls for a meeting or make a statement about his relationship to private health insurance money. For two, the Mobilization had already invested a lot of time and resources into an action that was popular with the press. So why not do it again? CBS network, the Associated Press, and CNN joined the Huffington Post in coming out to cover the action.

- Sarah Massey

It all started in mid-September with a few committed organizers who saw the national conversation on health care reform was blind to the big picture: the core problem in today’s health delivery system is that health decisions are being made for profits. Treatment options are limited by types of coverage individuals carry vs. the treatment they need. Private companies are making the life and death decisions around patient care that should be in the hands of doctors. “Patients Not Profits” became the lead message for a new campaign called the Mobilization for Health Care for All.

A little over a month later, the Mobilization for Health Care for All has taken off through the support of Americans who have experienced the pain of having a medical decision dictated by a bean-counting bureaucrat. Hundreds of patients have gone to private insurance agency offices to demand that all life-saving doctor-recommended treatments be approved. When they are not, a group of brave volunteers engage in civil disobedience, sitting down in the office until forcibly removed.

This tactic garners attention and offers a dramatic action for people who want to get involved. The news media has published dozens of stories in papers across the country and reached millions on TV news viewers. The Mobilization for Health Care for All Facebook page has 2,300 fans, 878 people have volunteered to risk arrest at private health insurance offices, and 78 Americans have been arrested since the beginning of the movement. On 10/15, the mobilization had nine actions across the country. On 10/28, there are 20 actions. All of this growth is due to individuals’ contributions and determination to put the spotlight on greed.

Doctors and nurses have joined the campaign because their hands are tied by private health insurance companies that limit payments for life-saving treatment. Can you imagine what it would feel like to be a doctor and know you could save your patient’s life only to be told by an insurance company that it’s not cost-effective to treat the patient? “This is a moral issue, and I’m outraged at the thought that 45,000 people die every year due to the lack of quality health care,” said Ken Weinberg, MD, who stated he will be risking arrest at a health insurance office in New York City in the coming weeks. “What kind of country are we when we are not providing health care to everyone we can?”

Everyone of us has a family member or friend who is denied the care they need. At the same time that I started my PR firm, my best friend started a graphic design business. When her COBRA ran out, she started shopping for health insurance and couldn’t find any due to her “pre-existing condition,” which is diabetes. Her dreams of self-employment were put on hold. But my friend is lucky, in a way, because she found a job with benefits that covered her. What if she had not found a good job? We all know someone who is out in the cold without health insurance, and the U.S. system slams the door on them.

This campaign will continue until our country puts an end to corporate health insurance, which currently places a higher value on profits than on the health of our nation. Join the campaign here: http://mobilizeforhealthcare.org.

- Sarah Massey

“Patients not profits, Medicare for all. Aetna profits, people die, Medicare for all,” were the chants heard in the lobby of the Midtown office of the Aetna health insurance company on Tuesday morning. Dozens filled the halls to demand that all life-saving procedures requested by doctors for patients be immediately approved by company bureaucrats. One activist held a sign, “Aetna is the real death panel.” Demonstrators with the Mobilization for Health Care now want an end insurance abuse and to win health care for all.

From The New York Time’s City Room blog:

The police said that 17 people were arrested after refusing to leave the lobby of an office building on Park Avenue where the insurance company Aetna has offices. They were charged with criminal trespass. In addition, the police said, three of those arrested were charged with obstructing governmental administration.

Organizers said it was the first step of a national campaign meant to publicize their views and challenge claims made by right-wing radio hosts and Republican officials.

“The myths about government death panels are pure hysteria,” an organizer, Mark Milano, said on Park Avenue. “The real death panels are people who are paid by insurance companies to deny health care to patients.”

Check out this great video about the action and join the campaign on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mobilization-for-Health-Care-for-All/134530106378?ref=mf&v=wall

- Sarah Massey