The Yes Men
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:01:01
A few years ago, we wanted to...
:01:04
try to help out with some activist's
anti-corporate activities.

:01:08
And we heard about this website
called rtmark.com.

:01:11
And we went there, and they...
:01:13
they handed us a domain name-
gwbush.com...

:01:16
and asked us if we might like
to make a website

:01:18
that was critical of George Bush.
:01:20
Because George Bush's real
domain name was georgewbush.com.

:01:24
And this was 1999,
so it was just during the campaign

:01:27
when he was beginning
to run for president.

:01:29
And we didn't really know
quite what to do,

:01:32
so we went to Bush's website
and looked at it.

:01:34
And it turned out to be full
of strange hypocrisies, like,

:01:37
for example, he called himself
"The environmental governor of Texas,"

:01:40
but we looked a little closer
at his record and found out

:01:43
that he had actually created
the most polluted state in the country

:01:46
because he dismantled
the Clean Air Laws while he was there.

:01:49
And, actually, that's, I guess,
what he's doing now nationally.

:01:52
So we thought,
"Well, this kind of hypocrisy

:01:54
we can easily poke fun at
by making a satire website."

:01:57
And we made this satire website
that looked exactly like Bush's

:02:00
except for a few key differences.
:02:02
Like there was a photo on the banner...
:02:04
instead of him and his wife
in front of the capitol building in Texas,

:02:09
we showed him pointing the finger
at black people.

:02:12
And this seemed to get him
a little bit angry.

:02:15
So the Bush campaign
tried to shut us down

:02:17
by sending us
a cease and desist letter

:02:19
and by complaining
to the Federal Election Commission.

:02:22
But we were able
to just take those threats

:02:24
and send them to the media.
:02:26
And immediately the New York Times
wrote an article,

:02:28
and there were a whole bunch
of other articles.

:02:30
In fact, one reporter
read these articles and,

:02:33
at a press conference,
asked Bush,

:02:35
"So, what about this website-
gwbush.com-what do you think of that?"


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