A tongue-in-cheek rap video made in support of controversial South Carolina Senate Democratic candidate Alvin Greene made its way to the airwaves recently and it didn’t fool many people who watched. However, for the New York Times and political reporter Katharine Q. Seelye, that wasn’t quite the case.
On June 22, Seelye posted the video on the Times’ website without properly checking the video’s authenticity. In that posting, she even commented on how catchy the song is.
“Warning: “I say ‘Alvin,’ you say ‘Greene,’” may be ringing in your ears for days after tuning in – and Mr. Greene can only hope that if you live in South Carolina, it will remain with you as you go into the voting booth in November,” she wrote.
The video shows various news clips of Greene intertwined with highlights of Lebron James playing basketball. The song’s lyrics are comedic in nature–speaking about many of the issues that have come out during his campaign.
“Alvin Greene is the one for you. He knows how you feel because he’s unemployed too,” the song says. “Alvin Greene is the natural choice. Don’t listen to the folks that make fun of his voice.”
The Times issued a correction on their website, but don’t count Greene, 32, as someone offended by the mishap. Greene, whose win in the primary came as a shock to Democrats statewide, has actually welcomed the coverage he’s received from the video and actually likes the song.
“I didn’t have anything to do with it, but I’ll take credit for it,” Greene told ABCNews.com. “The video looks good. The music is good. It’s cool.”
The people responsible for the video are Jay Friedman, a music producer from San Francisco, and Justin Cass, a copywriter from Brooklyn, N.Y. Friedman told the Times that the two are fans of Greene’s and were just “goofing off” when they made the video.
The duo also claims that they’re not finished. People should “be on the look-out for more great releases.”