When Andrew Lawrence starts his night shift, he switches on his monitor to review Fox News’ evening programming.
At Media Matters for America, a liberal nonprofit media watchdog group, Andrew and his team spend hours each day watching cable shows, livestreams, and congressional hearings to find political moments they can clip, share on social media, and criticize as absurd.
“We watch Fox News so you don’t have to,” Andrew said.
Their efforts are paying off, with their video posts often getting millions of views.
Clipping political gaffes used to be a hobby for amateur political enthusiasts, but now professionals have taken over, accelerating the political discourse by flooding platforms like X and TikTok with sharply captioned video snippets, sometimes publishing edited clips within minutes or even seconds.
Despite concerns that the most-watched clips often lack crucial context, clippers have garnered tens of millions of views, making candidates take notice and be more careful with their words.
Clipping has been embraced by official Democratic and Republican campaign committees more than ever before, leveraging the power of real-time clips to outdo their independent predecessors.
Gone are the days of trackers following candidates with camcorders; now, anyone with a smartphone can capture campaign moments that clippers can turn into potential viral hits. With so much of a campaign captured on video and quickly highlighted in detail, even minor slip-ups can turn into a PR disaster for a candidate.
Curtis Houck, an editor at NewsBusters, clips and analyzes White House news briefings and has garnered about 150 million impressions on X since the 2016 presidential campaign.
Clippers on both sides of the political spectrum see themselves as holding the media accountable in real-time, flagging presidential speeches and remarks for scrutiny.
However, clippers often remove context from their video posts, unlike journalists who provide necessary context.
@RNCResearch, an official X account of the Trump campaign and the Republican Party, has gained millions of views since 2009 by posting clips and memes highlighting what it portrays as senior moments in President Biden’s public appearances.
Fact-checkers have flagged misleading content in @RNCResearch posts, such as a clip of Mr. Biden at the Group of 7 summit that omitted crucial context but still garnered millions of views.
Former President Donald J. Trump has referenced clips posted by @RNCResearch at rallies, using them to criticize Mr. Biden.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, has criticized the videos as being done in bad faith and manipulated.
Tommy Pigott, an R.N.C. spokesman, claims that @RNCResearch posts are accurate and sourced from publicly available videos.
In response, Mr. Trump has also complained about his words being taken out of context by social media accounts.
@BidenHQ, the Democratic Party’s response to accounts like @RNCResearch, has also posted clips to counter Mr. Trump’s messaging.
Clippers like Aaron Rupar and Ron Filipkowski see clips as a new form of political currency, capable of going viral and shaping narratives in real-time.
Campaigns now need to respond almost instantly to counter false statements or missteps captured by clippers.
The Democrats have been urged to be more proactive in clipping and countering Republican messaging.
Clippers are constantly on the lookout for viral moments, knowing that even one clip can have a significant impact.
They are also keeping a close watch on their counterparts across the aisle, ensuring that the political discourse remains dynamic and responsive.
