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CapitolLink: Why Does A Congressman Blog?

Rep. John Conyers asked and answered that question earlier this week, both at ConyersBlog and Blackprof, where he is currently guest blogging.

Like many other bloggers, the Michigan Democrat said he was inspired to start his own online journal after seeing the success of 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. Joe Trippi, the Dean campaign chief largely credited with helping his candidate capitalize on the benefits of the Internet, counseled Conyers about congressional blogging.

"So many politicians who were intrigued by the Dean campaign saw the Internet as a cash machine and little else," he wrote. "Not only is such a view short-sighted, it is ineffective, as many politicians have seen the Internet activists tune them out after the third fundraising appeal in one week. I decided to follow a different model and became the first member of Congress to start his own blog with reader comments."

While Conyers acknowledged concerns about a "digital divide" that denies some people access to or knowledge of technology, and about blog readership being skewed by race and class, he is now a regular contributor at various blogs.

So to get back to that question in the headline, why is Conyers blogging? Here is the short answer: "The [mainstream media] simply will not report on the actions of a party that lacks the White House or majority control of either house of Congress. ... Blogging lets me bypass that filter and take my message directly to many voters."

Posted by | 05:31 PM

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» Why Congressman Conyers Likes to Blog from Politics and Technology
Over at BlackProf.com, Congressman John Conyers answers the question on the mind of politicians everywhere, Why Blog? For me, the internet and blogging serve other purposes that have nothing to do with raising money. For the past five years, I [Read More]

Tracked on October 25, 2005 02:31 AM

Comments

It's 10pm Saturday night. Do you know what your Congressman is doing?

If you're in Michigan's 14th district, your Congressman is studying up on something that only matters to people aching to stick a knife into the Gray Lady of journalism. And what's his source? Not a "mainstream" media reporter like Howard Kurtz. Not a "mainstream" professor from an accredited higher education institution like Jay Rosen of NYU. No, he reads the "Pontificator," some random person on the DailyKos. That's meritocracy.

Now this would be great for Democracy if the Pontificator or Kos or Armando actually had anything original to say on the dead horse which is the Judy Miller story. Similarly it would be a great thing if there were a post every so often on the Conyers blog which mentioned something about communicating with a constituent. I've been searching all mentions of "constituent" and they seem to only be in the comments section.

I don't see a U.S. Congressman here. I see that people have come to except the "winger"-style of commentary-- just wing it-- from the political spinners, and Conyers is just aping that in his blog. (and by the way, I'm a Democrat).

Jon Garfunkel | 10.19.05 10:37 PM

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