Schumer fires video unit staff
Incoming Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer cleaned house last week in the Senate Democrats’ internal video department, firing nearly all its employees amid plans to revamp the unit with a new digital operation aimed at creating viral social media content.
Schumer (D-N.Y.) informed the employees of the Senate Democratic Media Center of their dismissal on Friday, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Several people in the unit had been with the in-house video production operation for years; goodbye emails obtained by POLITICO were from staffers who worked in the Senate for 29 years and 20 years, respectively.
More than a half-dozen people were fired, sources said; according to LegiStorm, the media center has eight employees.
“On Friday, December 16, 2016, my colleagues and I in the Senate Democratic Media Center were informed by the incoming Democratic Leaders office that our services were no longer needed,” said one staffer in an email to Democratic staffers.
Historically, the media center has been used by senators to craft videos for their constituents in their home states. But with the Democratic National Committee in some turmoil until a new chairman is selected and the party losing the White House, the 48-member Democratic minority views itself as the party’s chief messaging arm next year, according to a Democratic leadership aide.
And that will require a new staff for the low-profile media center, the aide said.
“It’s incumbent on us to create some of the more creative, buzzy, viral content,” the Democrat said. “The current, existing DMC wasn’t built to do that.”
A second Democrat familiar with the new operation said it will add “new ideas and perspectives to add capacity for high-quality, rapid response digital content that speaks to people and families and that can be used by Senate Democrats.”
Schumer’s team has already hired some new staffers for the media center and is hoping to be fully staffed by January, with confirmation fights and Obamacare repeal coming swiftly down the pike.
Still, the timing of the firings was not lost on some Senate staffers. One senior Democratic aide said it was “very unusual” for the new leadership team to let people go right before the holiday season.