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March 30, 2006In The Blog's-Eye: Rep. Jefferson And The DNC
The Democratic National Committee reportedly held a fundraiser for Rep. William Jefferson earlier this month, and MyDD blogger Matt Stoller is incredulous about that move by one of his own party's campaign committees.
The problem: Jefferson, D-La., is under investigation for bribery.
"As a rule of thumb, the DNC should not host fundraisers for members of Congress under investigation for bribery," Stoller wrote. "I mean if it's a sham investigation, OK, fine, but this isn't. Jefferson is bad news. He's one of [the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's] 13 most corrupt members of Congress."
Posted by at 12:22 PM | Comments (1)
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The Club For Growth is no fan of moves to regulate so-called 527 groups under campaign finance regulation. To that end, the group will count senators' votes on that issue toward the rankings it compiles based on key votes.
Andy Roth explained the decision at the group's blog, focusing on one Senate bill in particular, S. 1053, that would impose new rules on political ads on television and radio. Current exempts political action committees from the rules, but the bill would apply them to 527s, which get their name from the section of the tax code that defines them.
"S. 1053 is an unprecedented proposal that would ban any such ads placed anywhere, at any time, in any kind of medium by a 527 group, unless sponsored by a highly regulated PAC," he wrote. "If passed, money currently donated to 527s will instead flow to other nonprofit groups and business associations, where it will be hidden from the public disclosure currently mandated for 527 groups."
Blog readers should expect to see more such key-vote alerts in the future. "Going forward, I'm posting all of our key-vote alerts on the club's blog so that more of our readers get a chance to see them and to more clearly understand our position on the issues," Roth wrote in a separate post. "We did it every once in a while in the past, but I want to do it regularly going forward."
That's a great use of the blogosphere, and it is one that more groups should imitate. Bloggers could do it, too, by starting their own key-vote systems to grade lawmakers and inform the grassroots.
Posted by at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)
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Blogs are having an impact all across the world -- from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq to China, Pakistan and even Kenya -- so it makes sense for the diplomats at the State Department to pay attention to the phenomenon.
They are. The department dedicated a four-day "rolling webchat" to the topic last week. A writer for State's Washington File news service recapped the chat in an article published yesterday. A transcript also is available.
The article leads with this quote from journalist David Kline of Blog Revolt, who was the guest for the chat: "Nothing I have witnessed is as potentially transformative of media and politics as the emergence of blogging -- or rather, the emergence of the 'voice of the people through blogging.'"
The State Department's Web site actually is a decent place for information on the democratic impact of blogs and other technologies abroad. A search for the word "blogs," for instance, yielded articles that mentioned "the use of blogs to maintain dialogue during and between elections" in developing democracies and repressive countries, and that noted the impact of blogs in China.
The Defense Department also has given keen attention to the blogosphere, as I noted in an entry last month about a speech by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Not long after that, Military.com published a piece on how the U.S. Central Command public affairs team is seeding the blogosphere with information about the war in Iraq.
And in December, suggestions by The Washington Post that the military is trying to make pawns of bloggers embedded with troops in Iraq sparked outrage among "milbloggers" and their allies.
Then there is the touchy subject of "data mining" -- the use of technology to cull information from databases and other sources. As reported both here at Beltway Blogroll in November and at The Christian Science Monitor, the federal government is directing some of its energy in that realm toward data freely available in the blogosphere, including information in other languages.
The bottom line: Whether as a democracy enabler, an information source or a propaganda tool, blogs are being taken seriously by official Washington. And I suspect we'll continue to see the evidence of that fact mount.
UPDATE: Dan Gillmor of the Center for Citizen Media wrote a piece on blogging for the State Department as part of the detailed package on innovative technologies on the department's Web site.
Posted by at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)
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House Pulls Blog-Inspired Bill From Agenda
The House has reversed its plan to consider a bill designed to exempt bloggers from campaign finance law. The move comes after the Federal Election Commission on Monday approved new rules for online political speech.
House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, just released the following statement to explain the decision:
Both Rep. Jeb Hensarling [the Texas Republican who sponsored the bill] and House Administration Committee Chairman Vernon Ehlers deserve great credit for bringing the issue of online freedom of speech to the forefront of public debate and for spurring the FEC to take what appears to be a hands-off approach to the Internet.The recent action by the FEC, leaving virtually all political activity on the Internet free of regulation, ensures that those engaging in politics online can continue to do so safe in the knowledge that they will not run afoul of our campaign finance laws. In light of this good-faith effort by the FEC, and after discussions with the bill's sponsor, we have postponed floor action on the bill at this time.
The House will closely monitor the implementation of the new rule to ensure it protects bloggers and others engaging in politics online. If the new rule does not offer the appropriate protection, or if there are efforts to expand its regulatory scope, the House will resume plans to consider the Hensarling bill in order to guarantee freedom of speech on the Internet.
Mike Krempasky of RedState, one of the leaders of the blog swarm that inspired the FEC action and the House bill, said that is the right move.
"[T]he House leadership has taken the prudent course: Pull the bill off the calendar and hold it in reserve," he wrote. "If the so-called 'reformers' sue -- pass the bill. If the 'reformers' try to chip away at the regulatory protections -- pass the bill. If the regulations turn out to be unworkable for any reason -- pass the bill. We've already seen a majority vote, and it would be wise for the 'reform community' to remember what sort of scenario they're living under."
Other reactions:
-- Daily Kos: "[I]t's one thing to support a broad exemption in the face of not knowing what the FEC might do; it's another to push for the bill after the FEC has acted strongly to protect online free speech, such that the primary practical effect would have been to deregulate paid political advertising online."
-- Eschaton: "H.R. 1606 will provide a weapon to use against zombie reform efforts, which will keep coming back to life."
UPDATE: Hensarling just issued this statement:
While I'm disappointed that H.R. 1606 will not pass the House this week, I am optimistic that a proven majority stands willing to defend free speech on the Internet.Although I do not agree with the precedent set by the court or the FEC's ruling, I understand if the small but vocal minority opposed to H.R. 1606 had its way, these limited regulations could be far worse.
Should the forces of regulation choose to fight these modest rules or advance further restrictions on political speech over the Internet, I am confident the House will act decisively to protect Americans’ First Amendment rights.
UPDATE II: That first link to Daily Kos was to a post written by Adam Bonin, the lawyer who represented three liberal bloggers before the FEC last year. One of those bloggers, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, now has his own reaction to the latest news as well.
"People-powered politics has been legally validated," he wrote in a not-so-subtle reference to the subtitle of the book he is currently promoting.
UPDATE III: Ehlers, R-Mich., has issued a statement, too. Here is an excerpt:
Yesterday's ruling by the [FEC] seems to achieve most of what I and other supporters of H.R. 1606 wanted. The purpose of H.R. 1606 was to preserve the Internet as a free and open forum for the exchange of ideas. The application of a complicated and burdensome regulatory scheme to the Internet would stifle debate and discourage participation. This cannot be allowed.The approach the FEC has taken seems designed to ensure that those engaging in politics online will be able to continue doing so, without having to worry about whether or not they are violating our complicated campaign finance laws.
UPDATE IV: Massachusetts Democrat Martin Meehan, a House campaign reform advocate, called the House leadership's decision an "effective defeat" of a bill that he deemed a bad idea.
"Defeating this bill was an enormous victory for campaign finance reform and for individual political speech," he said in a statement. "Under the guise of protecting bloggers' and individuals' rights on the Internet, the true purpose of H.R. 1606 was to seriously undermine the landmark campaign finance law we passed in 2002. Opponents of campaign finance reform have fallen short once again."
Posted by at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)
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Of Davids And Gate-Crashers
In the days of Julius Caesar (as imagined by William Shakespeare), a soothsayer warned the Roman emperor to "beware the ides of March." Caesar dismissed that "dreamer," but his warning proved prophetic: Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. on March 15 -- the ides of March.
In the days of Instapundit, the Blog Father and Kos, the leaders of the American republic have something else to beware: the blog books of March. There are two of them on the shelves now, and both paint scenarios that are unfriendly, if not downright hostile, toward the folks who run the government, the media and more.
Instapundit Glenn Reynolds got his book, "An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government and Other Goliaths," on store shelves first. He was in Washington, D.C., earlier this month to promote it.
This week, "Crashing The Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics" is officially released, and it is openly billed as a "shot across the bow at the political establishment in Washington." The authors -- Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos and his blog father, Jerome Armstrong of MyDD -- were in the capital city yesterday to start a promotional tour.
Both books are about an ongoing information revolution that is being driven in part by bloggers, but each takes a different approach.
"An Army of Davids" is the more sweeping of the two. Reynolds covers everything from home-brewed beer and blogging (always a volatile mix) to nanotechnology and human settlement of Mars (the things you think about after consuming too many home-brewed beers).
His book also is both less political and defiant than "Crashing The Gate." Reynolds is not so much fomenting rebellion as he is reporting on the technologically enhanced changes well under way across society.
He provides plenty of evidence: retailers that offer a "third place" where people can work and play via their wireless Internet connections; tools that make it easier for individuals to publish their own commentary, record their own music or "podcast" their own news; and video games that can train the next generation of soldiers or even teach teenagers about the realities of life.
The sudden emergence of the World Wide Web into a dominant political and cultural force buttresses the thesis of the book. That the Internet is so flush with information in such a relatively short time, Reynolds says, is a tribute to "the power of millions of amateurs doing things because they wanted to do them, not because they were told to. It was an Army of Davids, doing what the Goliaths never could have managed."
By Reynolds' account, however, the revolution is far from complete, especially in the public sector. Government remains largely clueless to the power it could gain by embracing that army of citizens -- by thinking of them as a pack rather than as a herd that needs to be led. "Government wants to keep this sort of power to themselves," he wrote.
To hear Armstrong and Moulitsas tell it, the Democratic Party is just as willfully ignorant when it comes to the grassroots political army at its disposal. And as the leaders of that army, they say it's time for the peasants with pitchforks to crash the gate.
They never quite make clear whether they want to awaken the Democratic establishment or overthrow it, but readers may get the sense that they would be happy with either result -- so long as it means Republicans lose.
The authors' contempt for Republicans is obvious from the first sentence, which resurrects the charge that the GOP stole the 2000 presidential election. The opening chapter, furthermore, is dedicated to bashing every brand of conservatism, including the "theocons" of the religious right and the corporate "cons" who seek government subsidies and fight government regulation.
Amid all that animosity for Republican philosophy, though, Armstrong and Moulitsas offer an abundance of praise for Republican political strategy. They clearly hate Republican values, but they just as clearly envy how effectively Republicans have been at convincing voters that those values are best for America.
Their answer, in essence, is for Democrats to behave more like Republicans: Stop kowtowing to liberal groups that focus on single issues like abortion, gun control and the environment. Start funding think tanks and media outlets that work together and mentor young Democrats. Stop wasting money on political consultants with losing records and tired ideas of how to run campaigns. And start capitalizing on modern technology to target and persuade voters.
Neither an "Army of Davids" nor "Crashing The Gate" dedicates much space to blogging, yet the authors give their blogging brethren due praise. Reynolds sees "the blog phenomenon" as a serious threat to the power of Big Media. And Armstrong and Moulitsas note the impact bloggers have had in raising money for candidates ignored or spurned by the Democratic establishment.
The entrenched political powers of today do have one advantage over Julius Caesar: The Davids and gate-crashers of today are quite open about their mutiny against the powers that be. Now we'll just have to wait and see how this power play ends.
Posted by at 07:14 AM | Comments (7)
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Most Blogs Get Campaign Finance Exemption
Bloggers are applauding a Federal Election Commission ruling to broadly extend a media exemption from campaign-finance law to the Internet, National Journal's Technology Daily reports.
On Monday, all six members of the commission unanimously voted to largely exempt blogs from regulation and instead to focus new rules on Internet political advertisements.
"The netroots have won," attorney Adam Bonin wrote at the blog Eschaton. The FEC's decision is "an official governmental recognition that what you all do is a valuable part of the democratic experiment and one which should not be thwarted by the incursion of the federal government."
Last year, Bonin represented Duncan Black, the author of Eschaton, as well as Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos and Matt Stoller of MyDD, before the FEC. About a year ago, after a blog swarm spearheaded by bloggers across the political spectrum, the agency abandoned tougher rules that would have broadly applied campaign-finance law to bloggers.
Conservative blogger Mike Krempasky of RedState gave "2.5 Cheers for the FEC" after the new rules were released late Friday and said they "aren't bad for the blogosphere."
Former Federal Election Commissioner Brad Smith, who triggered the blog swarm last March with comments made to News.com, is now, ironically, a blogger at RedState and recently commented on the new rules in a post there. Though Smith still complained about the principle set by the rules -- that "the Internet is now to be subject to regulation" -- he noted that a federal court forced the FEC to act. With that in mind, he concluded that the agency "hit a triple."
The regulations appear likely to stand. Proponents of tougher campaign rules who initiated the FEC action by suing over a previous blanket exemption for Internet political communications released a statement indicating that no further legal action is planned.
"The regulation makes clear that bloggers and other individuals communicating on their own Web sites are not covered by the campaign finance laws," the release said. "The regulation also makes clear that federal candidates and political parties buying campaign ads on the Internet to influence federal elections must comply with federal campaign finance laws and cannot use soft money to fund such ads. We believe the FEC regulation settles these issues."
FEC Chairman Michael Toner issued a statement on the new rules, as did Commissioners Hans von Spakovsky, Ellen Weintraub. Weintraub and FEC Vice Chairman Robert Lenhard also issued a joint background statement on the rulemaking.
More coverage and commentary are available from:
-- Bob Bauer;
-- Rick Hasen of Election Law Blog;
-- Former FEC staffer Allison Hayward, who now blogs at Skeptic's Eye (multiple posts that pick apart the rulemaking topic by topic, covering everything from the press exemption to threshold for ads to incorporated blogs, disclaimers and spam.
-- And media outlets like AP, News.com, UPI and The Washington Post.
The Hill moves the story another step forward by examining bills now before Congress in relation to the FEC rulemaking.
Posted by at 09:14 PM | Comments (0)
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Three Days, Six Posts
That's how long Ben Domenech lasted as a conservative blogger at The Washington Post. He just resigned amid a fast-developing plagiarism scandal.
Here is an excerpt from the note posted by Jim Brady, the executive editor of washingtonpost.com:
Plagiarism is perhaps the most serious offense that a writer can commit or be accused of. Washingtonpost.com will do everything in its power to verify that its news and opinion content is sourced completely and accurately at all times.We appreciate the speed and thoroughness with which our readers and media outlets surfaced these allegations. Despite the turn this has taken, we believe this event, among other things, testifies to the positive and powerful role that the Internet can play in the the practice of journalism.
More later.
UPDATE: Domenech's demise is the story in the blogosphere right now. His name has remained the top search item at Technorati for hours, and bloggers across the political spectrum are reacting to the news they helped make.
Domenech himself was defensive at first, both in a post of his own at RedState and in comments to The Right Angle (follow-up post here). In Bill Clinton-like fashion -- the kind conservatives like Domenech never really accepted from the former president -- Domenech later voiced contrition for using other people's work " inappropriately and without attribution," and for his "obfuscation."
Domenech's RedState co-founder, Mike Krempasky, posted "On Behalf Of RedState." Krempasky both scolded and praised Domenech; he apologized on behalf of RedState for initially failing to believe the plagiarism charges despite the strong evidence; and he condemned as "the lowest of the low" those who went after Domenech for purely political reasons.
"[F]or his failing, his career is in ruins, and his public reputation is in tatters," Krempasky wrote. "It is a long road back for Ben Domenech. And he's going to pay a steep price to regain lost trust among colleagues, readers, and friends." And those who targeted Domenech with threats, obscene commentary and rumors? "Loathesome, vile and disgusting -- their contempt for civil behavior surpassed only by the emptiness of their own souls."
Not surprisingly, the mainstream media are happily covering a story that makes bloggers look bad. The Post, AP, Editor & Publisher, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, all have stories. Even the Washington bureau of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tasked one of its reporters to cover the news rather than rely on wire copy.
The media columnist at the L.A. Times also added his thoughts, elitist cheap shots at home-schooling included. (Full disclosure: Our children are home-schooled -- and they learn far more manners and ethics at home than they would public school these days.)
My guess is that the MSM superiority complex will become increasingly evident as they tackle this topic and it's meaning for the blogosphere in coming days. Sadly, as Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters noted, bloggers of all types have provided plenty of ammunition.
Check the extended entry for excerpts from the blogosphere that struck me as the most insightful.
-- Eschaton: "The moral of box-turtle Ben. It's very simple. Stop trying to appease conservatives. You never will. Stop worrying about 'bias.' Continue worrying about doing good journalism. ... [I]f the Post had announced a 'Blue America' along with 'Red America,' Ben's plagiarism likely would've never been discovered. The outrage was over the fact that once again conservatives had succeeded in mau-mauing a mainstream media outlet into balancing reporters with conservatives."
Matt Stoller agreed at MyDD. And in a separate post, he concluded: "We're now seeing the rot from the inside. The conservative movement is nearly totally bereft of ethical standards. Torn between loyalty and integrity, they pick neither, a lukewarm mixture of contempt for those who point out ethical violations, a reflexive angry defensiveness, and a melancholy regognition that supreme self-righteousness might not be the most appropriate attitude in every instance."
-- Jeff Jarvis: "[W]hy do you feel as if you have to buy, rent, lease or own a blogger? There are tons of good bloggers out there from the right, left and libertarian persuasions. Quote them. Link to them. Blogroll them. Aggregate them. Sell ads on them. You don't have to hire them anymore. This is the distributed age, remember?"
-- The Moderate Voice: "Newspapers should take into account (as if they haven't noticed) that if they have what is effectively a blog on the left, people on the right will then clamor for a blog on the right, which will then upset people on the left, etc. One solution is that, perhaps in their rush to get bloggers, newspapers could try to get some of the more thoughtful and less polarizing writers on the left and right (more ideas and less adjective-hurling)."
-- PressThink: "I hope Jim Brady will do the right thing, the creative thing. ... An open competition on the Web to be the next political blogger at post.com, but instead of hiring one "red state" person and leaving it at that (a strategic error in my opinion), Brady should say that three slots will be filled over the coming year: one from column right, one from column left, and a third voice that is definitely neither of those, which could mean libertarian -- or not."
-- Public Eye: "Let's say another conservative is hired to take over for Domenech. Is the Web site obligated to launch a 'Blue State' blog? Most editorial pages contain a mixture of voices, some conservative, some liberal some sort of moderate. But is there any obligation to operate under some formula? ... On the one hand, it seems preferable to give space to a wide variety of opinions. On the other, this obsessive attention to 'balance' inevitably leads to 'Crossfire'-type discussions."
-- Ragged Thots: "[F]orget about the 'liberal attack machine.' As with all such public falls from grace, the 'other side' can't oust someone. The final push always comes from within. Which is what happened early Friday when Michelle Malkin and other conservatives felt that -- whatever the reason -- the evidence of plagiarism was too strong to ignore."
-- Spot-On: "In the spleen against Domenech, home-schooling is invoked as a perjorative again and again and again. ... It's not Domenech -- he's pretext. It's home-schooling. And how they hate it. If you're a parent wedded to the antique idea that you might control your child's upbringing, look and know who will fight you on that."
-- Don Surber: "Hiring Ben Domenech was a joke. The Post needs to go in-house this time. I suggested Frank Ahrens [Note: Ahrens once worked with Surber at the Charleston Daily Mail in West Virginia, as did I.]. I am sure the Post has others. No right-wing bloggers. They blew it. Domenech was their man. The Post should not trust them for a long while.
-- Some bloggers see a potential impact for bloggers and campaign finance law.
Tapped: "I believe this episode with Domenech clearly shows why members of the press, for their own good, need to understand, support, and strengthen the distinction between journalism and online partisan activism."
Daily Kos: "This week revealed yet again that the best response to "bad speech" is more speech, and we don't need the Sheriff (in the form of the Federal Election Commission) to clean things up. We're doing just fine on our own."
-- Wizbang seized on the controversy as an opportunity to bash a new federal law against anonymous online speech: "What is interesting is that in the Domenech case the anonymity of the comment section at Eschaton and the hidden identities of diarists at Daily Kos made many of those who pursued him (often profanely and scurrilously) potential lawbreakers. ... Imagine the chaos in the blogosphere that would ensue if a federal prosecutor decided to look into those anonymous publishers."
Posted by at 02:13 PM | Comments (0)
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Friday Festival Of Blog Bits
Ben Domenech has been on the blog beat at The Washington Post only a few days, and already there are calls for his resignation -- by fellow conservative bloggers like Michelle Malkin, whose book was edited by Domenech. Ouch!
The issue: plagiarism. Domenech stands accused of it by liberal bloggers who clearly have been out to get him from the start. But even conservatives who make their money off words (or want to) don't appear eager to back Domenech in light of the evidence unearthed by their liberal counterparts.
"As someone who has worked in daily journalism for 14 years," Malkin wrote, "I have a lot of experience related to this horrible situation: I've had my work plagiarized by shameless word and idea thiefs many times over the years. I've also been baselessly accused of plagiarism by some of the same leftists now attacking Ben. The bottom line is: I know it when I see it. And, painfully, Domenech's detractors, are right. He should own up to it and step down."
Other tidbits from the blogosphere:
-- Tim Tagaris, a blogger at the Democratic National Committee, has been compiling a list of campaign blogs, other blogs and more news sources. He calls it "the ultimate RSS reader" -- though with a Democratic tilt. The running list is available at both Daily Kos and the DNC blog.
-- Matt Stoller of MyDD explained why he lost interest in the hard-fought Illinois 6th District race this week -- and some of his netroots colleagues bear part of the blame.
-- The American Civil Liberties Union helped successfully defend a blogger's right to parody the anti-gay billboard of a religious group.
-- Do bloggers "take public positions more extreme, less nuanced, easier to stereotype, than they would over beer with friends?" Marty Kaplan tackled that question at The Huffington Post.
-- Virginia politics and the blogosphere seem to be a match made for mischief this year.
-- Jeff Jarvis chastised New York Times executive editor Bill Keller for his decision to stop reading blogs. "Well, I'd say that Keller thus forfeits the right to complain about or mock people -- starting with the president -- who say they don't read newspapers, especially his."
-- PoliPundit was among the conservative blogs that recently hinted at a conspiracy by Blogger.com against said blogs (cue the black helicopters). D.J. Drummond shared a response from Blogger.
-- A condo project in Taiwan called BLOG -- a sure sign that blogging in general has hit the fad stage, despite the great work being done out there by people who take the format more seriously.
-- And here's a clever fable about "The Grasshopper, the Ants and the Blogger."
Posted by at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)
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CapitolLink: Rep. Stark's Letter To Bloggers
How irrelevant is the print medium in the information age?
Here's your answer: Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., sent a letter to the editor of The Washington Post yesterday, but the letter spread across the blogosphere long before the Post could decide whether to publish it.
The letter took the paper to task for what Stark called the "conservative tilt" of its editorial board and its decision, presumably in response to charges of liberal bias, to hire conservative blogger Ben Domenech as the author of the new Red America blog. "For years, the right has worked to undermine media objectivity and bias coverage in conservatives' favor," Stark wrote. "The Post's new blog is the latest evidence that the Republican effort is working."
Eschaton was the first blog to publish the letter, and other liberal blogs pointed their readers to that posting. (It certainly helped that Stark's office sent an e-mail touting the letter.) Even more interesting, RedState responded to Eschaton's publication of the letter.
I hadn't seen the letter in the paper yet, and it didn't show up in an online search, so I asked Yoni Cohen, Stark's press secretary, if the Post had published it. "Not to our knowledge -- yet," he wrote. "We sent the letter yesterday afternoon -- and hope to have it published in the coming days."
Of course it will be old news by then. Such is the life of the ink-stained wretch in the era of blogging.
Posted by at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)
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Right Wing News posted the blog reading lists of several Republican lawmakers a couple of weeks ago, and that entry inspired me to open Beltway Blogroll for the lists of other lawmakers.
Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., was the first to respond. According to the list provided by Santorum's campaign staff, he reads a baker's dozen of blogs on a regular basis -- four Pennsylvania political blogs and nine national blogs. The senator "also reads aggregated posts that mention him, the issues he's working on, his Senate race, etc.," said Mindy Finn, his director of new media and political technology.
Santorum's national list reads mostly like a who's who of the conservative blogosphere, with one noteworthy exception: Eschaton. But that liberal blog is authored by Philadelphia-based writer Duncan Black, who writes under the pen name Atrios, and has a huge following, so it makes sense for Santorum to be reading it regularly.
The other blogs on Santorum's list are:
-- Capitol Report
-- The Corner
-- GrassrootsPA
-- Pajamas Media
-- PennPatriot Online
-- PolitcsPA (not a blog in my book, but it's on the list)
-- Power Line
-- RealClearPolitics
-- RedState
-- Right Wing News
-- And Santorum Blog (an unoffical, pro-Santorum blog)
I'd love to see the blog reading lists of more members of Congress. I want the lists of blogs read regularly by the lawmakers themselves, but I'd like to hear about the presumably broader lists read by congressional and campaign staffers, too. Send your lists to dglover@nationaljournal.com, and I'll post them as I get them.
Posted by at 08:37 PM | Comments (2)
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Of all the party campaign committees in Washington, the National Republican Congressional Committee is the least in tune with the blogosphere.
That much was obvious when I interviewed NRCC Communications Director Carl Forti for my magazine story, "The Rise Of Blogs." Here's what he had to say late last year in admitting that the NRCC mostly ignores blogs: "A lot of times," he said, "you just don't know how reliable the information on these things is. ... Ninety percent of the time, we know more than they do."
Imagine my surprise, then, to get an e-mail from the NRCC today that consists entirely of an entry from the liberal blog MyDD, under the e-mail subject header "Liberal Bloggers Worried about 2006 Elections." What to make of that?
Has the NRCC taken a sudden interest in the blogosphere -- and one so comprehensive that is even absorbing the political analysis of enemy bloggers? Does Forti now believe that the information at MyDD is reliable?
Or is the e-mail just a case of the NRCC trying to score a cheap political point at the expense of a blogger surprised by the election results in Illinois' 6th District and determined to wake up the Democratic establishment in Washington before November?
UPDATE: It's a trend. Another GOP entity, which shall remain nameless by request, just issued a similar e-mail directing people to the MyDD post. And as with the NRCC e-mail, the latest one also leaps to the illogical conclusion that one blogger's opinion is representative of a deep-seated strain of worry among all liberal bloggers.
I wonder if the GOP will pay as much attention to what DavidNYC of Swing State Project said in response to the MyDD post: "I consider any 'blowout' talk to have been mostly bluster -- was any of it even on the record? -- and I always expected [the 6th District race] to be relatively close."
Or I wonder if they will mention that Chris Bowers, who wrote the post in question at MyDD, also suggested that the winning candidate in Illinois, Tammy Duckworth, pay for a recount as a show of good faith to the loser and netroots hero, Christine Cegelis. In a post at Political Wire, guest contributor Dan Conley called that "the wackiest political idea of the day."
UPDATE, 3/23: Today the NRCC sent another e-mail to showcase a Daily Kos straw poll that it says reflects poorly on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
"If Nancy Pelosi has lost the support of the liberal blogosphere, what else is left?" Forti said in the e-mail. (Maybe he's starting to read those untrustworthy blogs after all.)
Left unsaid by Forti is what Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos noted at the bottom of the poll about netroots support both for Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
"A critic might say that Pelosi's numbers are suffering because of the beating she's taken on this site and the larger blogosphere the past week or two," Moulitsas wrote. "However, Reid is very much praised around these parts, yet he got a bare majority approval rating. People don't blindly follow and agree with what bloggers say and write."
Posted by at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)
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Another 'Fighting Dem' Gives Up The Fight
Democrat Tim Dunn has abandoned his quest to unseat Republican Rep. Robin Hayes in North Carolina's 8th District, AP reports.
Dunn was among the dozens of military veterans seeking seeks in Congress as Democrats. They call themselves the Band of Brothers (also "fighting Dems"), and they are getting lots of promotion from the left side of the blogosphere.
Dunn's departure is the latest setback for the group. Three other candidates, including Paul Hackett in the high-profile Ohio Senate race, also have ended their campaigns before any votes were cast. The other two are David Ashe in Virginia's 2nd District and Bryan Lentz in Pennsylvania's 7th District.
Posted by at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)
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Christine Cegelis won the support of many netroots activists in her 2004 race against Rep. Henry Hyde. She won 44 percent of the vote against the long-time incumbent Republican from Illinois, and many liberal bloggers were thrilled when Cegelis announced her plans for a rematch in 2006.
Her future looked even brighter when Hyde said he would not seek re-election. But then Democratic campaign experts in Washington decided they wanted another candidate in the race: disabled Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth.
The move prompted plenty of soul-searching at blogs like Daily Kos and MyDD. Last week, Jonathan Tasini, a Senate candidate himself in New York, urged bloggers to stand up to the Beltway establishment and reject Duckworth in favor of Cegelis.
But not enough voters in the 6th District listened. When Cegelis and Duckworth squared off in a primary yesterday, Duckworth, one of the celebrated "fighting Dems," narrowly won.
Cegelis conceded defeat at her campaign Web site today, and now the netroots are looking to the future.
One diarist at Daily Kos wrote this to start the day: "Primary elections shape our party. And a candidate who lost yesterday is now more experienced and better vetted for future contests. Now that they're over, however, I intend to support every one of the winners of these races in November. And we all should pledge the same."
Posted by at 12:25 PM | Comments (0)
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Blogs are all about the individual. They are at their best when the personality or pet interests of the authors are on display.
My pet interest at Beltway Blogroll happens to be blogs themselves, and I don't often veer from that topic. But I am going to break with that theme today to tell you about the children's book I wrote under the pen name Mister Critter.
I wrote the book, "George Washington Beaver and the Cherry Tree," several years ago, after a trio of beavers toppled some of the prized cherry trees near Washington's Tidal Basin. The book combines the factual with the fictional and the historical with the mythical to convey an important message about truth-telling. It's also designed to encourage children to learn some of the great stories from American history.
The book is chock-full of intriguing characters and Beltway-like references that Washingtonian parents will appreciate, too. There is George Washington Beaver; Teddy Roosevelt Beaver, who talks softly but carries a big stick; J. Edgar Beaver, the notorious head of the FBBI; the evil weasels who impose a pondweed tax on the beavers; Dam Vernon and Capitol Dam; and the Select Committee on Beaver Intelligence.
Just this week -- in time for the National Cherry Blossom Festival that begins in a few days -- I re-launched my Web site, MisterCritter.com, to promote electronic versions of both the book and a companion coloring book. The site also has sample coloring pages for children to print and color as often as they want, and you can see a couple of thumbnails of images colored by my two older children, Anthony and Elli.
I hope you'll check out the site and let me know what you think. And thanks for bearing with me through this shameless plug.
Posted by at 07:03 AM | Comments (1)
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The Washington Post And Red America
When The Washington Post came under fire late last year for the "White House Briefing" blog/column written by Dan Froomkin, washingtonpost.com executive editor Jim Brady responded by saying in part that his news operation already was looking for "a different voice altogether" to complement Froomkin.
The Post appears to have found that voice in Ben Domenech, a co-founder of the RedState blog and a book editor for conservative authors at Regnery Publishing. Washington's most famous MSM outlet just tapped Domenech to start a new blog called Red America.
Domenech's first post went online at 7 a.m. today, and he kicked it off with this message: "This is a blog for the majority of Americans."
Domenech immediately showed a willingness to bite the blog hand that feeds him with a poke at Post managers who "spent far too much time in sessions with markers and whiteboard, trying to settle on a name for the column." And he closed with this thought: "Red America's citizens are the political majority. They're here to stay. It's time to start paying attention to what they believe and why."
Conservative bloggers -- including A-listers like Hugh Hewitt and Michelle Malkin, whose books Domenech has edited -- rejoiced at the news. But Malkin encouraged her readers to show Domenech "some love and support" because "the moonbats will go nuts. I promise you."
UPDATE: Editor & Publisher has a report on the firestorm of criticism from liberals upset by the decision to hire Domenech.
Posted by at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)
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The Campus View Of Political Blogging
The stats for Beltway Blogroll over the weekend showed a burst of activity from a nondescript blog, so I decided to check who had a sudden interest in my site and why. I found some pleasant, some enlightening, some humbling and some disturbing answers.
It turns out that my National Journal magazine piece from January, "The Rise Of Blogs," is required reading in a media short course offered electronically by the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y. The course is billed as a way to "learn how to incorporate traditional forms of writing by utilizing blogs as a pedagogical tool and impacting an audience through community building."
That discovery was the pleasant part of my stats journey. I may be a rare bird in journalism, but I love it when educators recognize value in something I've written. That it happens rarely -- one other piece I wrote in 1998 on the impeachment of Andrew Johnson generated great interest -- makes those moments all the more sweet.
At the same time, I was enlightened by some of the reactions to my article by students in the class. The whole thesis of the piece, and of Beltway Blogroll, is that blogs are important. They have power in both media and government. None of the students seemed to have even an inkling of that power -- and some seemed genuinely bothered by the fact the bloggers matter at all. (Check the extended entry for quotes and links.) The reactions reminded me anew how disconnected those of us inside the Beltway can become from folks in the heartland.
The humbling part came in the form of critiques of my article. No writer ever likes to hear phrases like "it bored me" and "long and drawn out" about his work. I take no offense, though. I read many a book or article in college that produced yawn after unceasing yawn. Besides, I write about blogs because I'm fascinated by them and because more and more people in policy and political circles are, too. The college set is not my target audience.
And the disturbing part? Well, that's where I get to critique the students. Too much of the writing on their blogs is atrocious, plagued by typos, poor punctuation and juvenile grammatical errors. All students should be able to write better than too many of them are -- even on a free-wheeling blog -- by the time they reach college. The class appears to be within the English curriculum, so I sure hope a big part of the grading is based on the writing.
Here are some telling quotes from the student-authored blogs that are part of the class:
-- "The one point the author made that shocked me the most was the one about Dan Rather's resigning from the night news anchor on CBS. I figured he left because he was sick of reporting everything and was getting old so he wanted to retire, but according to the article, that is not the case."
-- "I wasn't aware that politics was such a large topic of interest in the blogging world. Was anyone aware of this? Although I have experience with blogging, I don't spend my time searching the Internet for blogs that are of [interest] to me."
-- "I guess I just assumed that blogs were simply Internet diaries of completely random people that like to rant with like-minded people. ... I honestly didn't realize that people's Internet diaries actually received notice from leaders and other decision-makers. Well, obviously it's not just one person here and there, but an organization of bloggers, but still, it's amazing!"
-- "Overall, I thought the article was informative and enlightening. It is probably not something that I would have given a second look at had it not been assigned, which explains why I knew so little about blogging."
-- "I just read the assigned article and, to be perfectly honest, it bored me. Maybe I didn't understand it correctly, but if the author was trying to say that blogs have a significant influence on society's political views, I think they are sadly mistaken. ... Blogs aren't going to get us a president who knows what he or, hopefully one day, she is doing. Blogs aren't going to stop this pointless war that we are in. Blogs aren't going to legalize gay marriage. Blogs aren't going to make any significant impact on our nation."
-- "When I think of blogs, I think of teenage girls who are writing about what happened in their life today, so I feel that blogs are not the first place people would look for political information. Also we have to bring in the concept of digital divide and that most people with access to blogs are the middle and upper class. Many political decisions affect those of the lower socio-economic class, those who may not have access to the Internet. Without people seeing these blogs, the blogs can not be as influential as Glover claims."
-- "Why are bloggers so much more superior than the average person? Just because they speak their mind about their thoughts and beliefs on a blog, why are they entitled to march down to Washington D.C. and cause a scene? I don't know about you, but I feel that that is wrong. Maybe it's just me, but why do they get to represent the American people?"
Posted by at 12:01 PM | Comments (2)
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Another Round Of Big Media Blog-Bashing
The clueless Canon City Daily Record in Colorado seized on some of the comments about blogs in the recent State of the Media 2006 as an excuse for bashing blogs.
The paper's editors chastised their journalistic brethren for being cowed into embracing blogs because of high-profile episodes like the toppling of CBS News anchor Dan Rather at the hand of bloggers. Here are some of the misguided gems from the editorial:
-- "There is undeniable romance in the power-to-the-people theme that bloggers promote, but something's missing: the people. They just don't believe the blogs."
-- "[J]ust as the people are often way ahead of politicians in their thinking, so are consumers of news way ahead of a journalistic chattering class newly obsessed with com-peting on a playing field -- the blogosphere -- that perhaps it shouldn't set its fact-checking foot upon."
-- "The mainstream media may have lost some of the trust it enjoyed in years past. But imitating those who are trusted even less surely won't earn it back."
The Daily Record did acknowledge this truth: "A politician who ignores blogs does so at his or her own peril." But it also read an awful lot into the report's comments on blog readership because like so many other people in the mainstream media, the journalists there simply believe they are superior to bloggers.
The paper made a sadly typical mistake when it tried to elevate old media by demeaning a new and vibrant medium that is rapidly changing the way many Americans consume news. Instead, the editors of the Daily Record and their journalistic brethren should take the time to study where blogs excel and why the people who do read them -- important people, "the influentials" -- are paying so much attention to blogs.
Otherwise, they may well find themselves as the focus of unwanted attention in State of the Media 2016.
Posted by at 07:23 PM | Comments (0)
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Technology Daily Is Now Podcasting
Beltway Blogroll is just my side job. By day, I am the managing editor of National Journal's Technology Daily, and in that capacity, I'm happy to announce that we are now podcasting.
This morning, I launched the maiden voyage of the Tech Policy Pod, a brief roundup of the week's top tech policy news. I or another Tech Daily editor will do the same every Friday. The podcasts will be based on our weekly written roundup of the tech policy news, but there is one difference: The podcasts are free. They will be available at iTunes, Yahoo and various podcasting directories.
If you have an RSS reader and care to take a listen, follow this link to the RSS feed. And please tell everyone else about Tech Daily's new adventure, too.
Posted by at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)
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Senate Republicans held their latest chat session with a few friendly bloggers yesterday, but at least one of them went away both unimpressed and irritated.
The reason: The senators who participated apparently thought they were reaching out to a bunch of lapblogs rather than smart, free-thinking members of Estate 4.5 who might actually want to ask an unscripted question and get an unscripted answer.
Robert Bluey of The Right Angle at Human Events Online said the "quasi-presser for bloggers -- staged by the Senate Republican Conference -- was by far the most bizarre" and ultimately concluded that most Senate Republicans "really have no idea about blogging." That's why so few of them do it themselves and why they aren't too keen on interacting with bloggers, either, he said.
Bluey offered three tips for any Capitol Hill staffers who want to benefit from the power of blogs and who are willing to listen: 1) Never use a script; 2) staged questions are bad; and 3) bloggers like interaction.
"Dumping a bunch of talking points on me only makes me angry," he wrote. Although Bluey obviously is partial to the Republican mindset, he added, "I'm not a flack for the GOP."
Tim Chapman of Capitol Report at Townhall.com also took note of the scripted event, saying that he told Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania that he should actually let bloggers ask some questions next time.
But in pointing to the coverage of other bloggers later, Bluey acknowledged that he was "the lone attack dog" at the event.
That's not to say the other participants, including the Open Market blog of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the ShopFloor blog of the National Association of Manufacturers, were lapblogs. They just covered the conference like any other news event, reporting what the senators had to say.
But the senators clearly hoped they were preaching to the choir, and Bluey's decision to sing a different tune, off the key of GOP, made his post the most interesting one to read.
Posted by at 06:47 AM | Comments (2)
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CapitolLink: Rep. Conyers Notes 'Blog Power'
Rep. John Conyers used his own blog to take note of three current events that are demonstrating the power of blogs: the publication of the book "Crashing The Gate" by liberal bloggers Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the rallying of liberal bloggers around the attempt to censure President Bush, and the ongoing push by bloggers to protect online political speech.
His analysis is politically biased, though, as evidenced by the conclusion that the events "highlight the growing effectiveness of our progressive online efforts."
The flip side the coin provides just as much evidence of the effectiveness of bloggers on the opposite end of the political spectrum. The three parallel events: the publication of the book "An Army of Davids" by Glenn Reynolds, the rallying of conservative bloggers against the censure resolution, and the ongoing push by most bloggers to protect online political speech, strange blogfellows and all.
So what's the bottom line? Blogs have power, period, whether from left, right or center.
Which brings us back to Conyers, D-Mich., and this quote: "Where we have traditionally relied upon centralized, national infrastructures to coordinate media coverage of political activity, the Internet and blogs in particular have empowered anyone with fresh ideas and a will to make a difference."
Posted by at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)
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The Politics Of Technology
Politics in the information age increasingly is marked by efforts to best one's opponents in the technology arena, and the smart losers in those innovation battles are quick to study the successes of their political enemies. That's what Republicans appear to be doing with the new blog of Forward Together PAC, a political action committee chaired by potential Democratic presidential candidate Mark Warner.
Jerome Armstrong, a former blogger at MyDD and a co-author of the soon-to-be-released book "Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots and the Rise of People-Powered Politics," is one of the forces behind Warner's new blog. He merited a flattering profile at MSNBC.com earlier this month for his work with Warner.
That work includes new video technology at the blog that appears to have impressed even Republicans. Visitors to the blog are greeted by none other than Warner himself in a video that appears automatically. The site also features a video "progress report."
The efforts caught the attention of David All, one of the communications staffers for the House Republican Conference. "Looks like the Dems are making strides in video technology," All wrote this morning in an e-mail to bloggers. We need to catch up. Thoughts?"
He also reminded the bloggers that Republicans -- including his boss, Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia -- are making tech strides of their own in the form of "podcasts," digital audio recordings that can be downloaded onto devices like Apple Computer's iPods. Kingston calls his offering The JackCast.
Republicans appear to have taken more of an interest in podcasting, particularly Senate Republicans, but lawmakers from both parties are using the technology. Here's a list of congressional podcasts I've discovered so far:
-- The House Republican Conference;
-- The Senate Republican Conference;
-- Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.;
-- Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.;
-- Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.;
-- Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine;
-- Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas;
-- Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas;
-- Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho;
-- Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho;
-- Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.;
-- Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa;
-- Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind.;
-- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.;
-- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.;
-- House Republican Study Committee Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana;
-- Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
-- Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo.
I suspect there are others that I'm missing, both within Congress and on the campaign trail. Let me hear about them at dglover@nationaljournal.com.
Posted by at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)
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In the eyes of conservative bloggers this week, Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin is the laughingstock of the Senate for trying to get his colleagues to censure President Bush. But in the eyes of liberal bloggers, he is the only Democratic senator with a backbone.
The debate about Feingold has been raging ever since he announced Sunday that he would introduce a resolution of censure aimed at Bush for secretly authorizing terrorism-related spying within America without first getting warrants. Liberal bloggers quickly jumped on the idea, urging readers to ask their senators to support the move. One diarist at Daily Kos even compiled very Beltway-like "talking points" for readers to use when they call Senate offices.
Feingold also made another foray into the blogosphere to tout his censure drive. "Censuring the president is not something that should be taken lightly," he wrote at Daily Kos. "But the president has BROKEN the law and there needs to be action and accountability."
Feingold's backers initially dominated the conversation online, but that changed after he filed the resolution on Monday and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., decided to call Democrats out on the proposal. When Frist tried to put Feingold's censure resolution to a vote, Senate Democrats balked. In the process, conservative bloggers started ridiculing the idea -- and praising Frist for trying to force Democrats onto the record. The resolution even merited a condemnation of "Feingold's grandstanding" at the Republican National Committee blog.
The battle has occupied much of the attention of both lawmakers and bloggers, even in the House. A similar attempt to censure Bush led by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., never took root there, but House Republicans are all over the story now that a potential presidential candidate from the other chamber has thrown his weight behind it. Several House members addressed the issue in speeches and press releases yesterday, and the Republican Conference promoted the activity in a series of e-mails to bloggers.
The controversy has sparked some great commentary in the blogosphere. Check the excerpts in the extended entry.
Americablog: "Feingold is sadly right. Bush is at the helm of one of the greatest failed presidencies in American history and the Democrats continue to cower in fear. So long as Democrats continue to value their jobs more than the best interests of their party and their country, they will continue to sit back, do nothing, and enjoy their hefty paychecks and their honorific titles."
Captain's Quarters: "If anyone expected the Democrats to make significant gains against the GOP, which has seen its popularity buffeted by scandals the past few weeks, that analysis obviously excluded the capacity for Democrats to shoot themselves in the foot. Only an idiot would attempt to make a president the enemy during wartime, especially for an action that he performed in defense of the country."
The Huffington Post: "Feingold for president. I know, I know -- it's nuts. Jewish, twice-divorced, Republicans salivating to turn him into McGovern, can't get the moderates and independents he needs to break 40 percent. Anything else? Okay, now that the Beltway wisdom has spoken, let's try take two. He's authentic, unafraid, says what he believes. ... He doesn't just pay lip service to bipartisanship; he actually has a track record. He wants to save democracy from the Washington sewer it has become. He's got deep roots in the midwestern progressive tradition. He's a good fiery speaker."
Ezra Klein: "Props to Feingold for his introduction of a measure to censure the president. Having the executive unilaterally declare himself unbound by the laws Congress passes to constrain him is, I think, worthy of official rebuke. Having him then decide to not mention his unlimited authority to anyone but instead to simply ignore and contravene statutes he dislikes probably merits substantially harsher penalties, but in the current climate, I'd be perfectly pleased with a censure."
MyDD: "Today, Russ Feingold is the leader of the Democratic Party."
PoliPundit: "Republicans are making a mistake on the censure resolution if they do not let it come to the floor. ... Given that Democrats will have to vote against it, it will be seen as an overwhelming victory for the President when it is voted down 80-20. And the 20 Democrats that would vote for it commit political suicide unless they are from Massachusetts."
Power Line: "Those with a sense of deja vu may recall the similar episode of Congressman Jack Murtha's resolution calling for immediate termination of the Iraq mission. The Democrats hailed Murtha's "courage" and welcomed the headlines that followed--did you know that Murtha is an ex-Marine?--but considered it dirty pool when the Republicans actually wanted to vote on Murtha’s proposal.
Right Wing News: "[W]e have a pretty clear split between both parties that needs to become an issue in the 2006 elections. Republicans believe that we need to act aggressively to defend Americans from terrorists who want to harm us, and Democrats believe that the president should be impeached for acting aggressively to defend America from terrorists."
Posted by at 07:16 AM | Comments (0)
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Strange Blogfellows
Mike Krempasky of RedState and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos were all chummy yesterday. There is hope for the world.
The two kingpins of the political blogosphere are sworn enemies online, and when I interviewed them separately last year, each had harsh words for bloggers at the opposite end of the political spectrum. But ever since Krempasky and Moulitsas started working together last year to fight for free political speech by bloggers, strange things have been happening.
Krempasky posted a diary at Daily Kos (much to the chagrin of some loyal readers); Bob Brigham of the liberal Swing State Project joined a conversation at RedState; Krempasky traveled to Boston with John Aravosis of the liberal Americablog for a panel discussion on blogging; and Krempasky and Moulitsas issued a joint letter, posted by Krempasky at both Daily Kos and RedState, in support of a bill expected to be on the House floor this week.
The strangest news of all, however, came yesterday. Mary Katharine Ham of HughHewitt.com had the first report of the Kos/Krempasky friendly encounter. "Best part? Krempasky and Markos are sitting next to each other. Adorable," she wrote. "Markos, by the way, up close and personal -- very clean-cut and good-looking. The Bush Derangement Syndrome and anger don't show on the outside."
But what happened behind the scenes, before the panel discussion Ham mentioned, was even stranger. As Moulitsas noted at Daily Kos this morning, Krempasky shared his insights as "a long-time political operative" and eventually convinced Moulitsas of "The Power Of Early Fundraising."
Moulitsas told Krempasky that he does not think progressive blogs are good at political fundraising yet, but Krempasky disagreed. By Moulitsas' account, Krempasky said, "You are selling yourself short. A good fundraising operation can take that $100K [progressive blogs raise] and turn it into $1 million over the course of a one-year campaign. That's why conservatives are willing to lose money on the initial response to a direct-mail fundraising appeal. Because those who respond, in the long term, more than make up for the effort."
Moulitsas later checked that spin with a friendlier source but ultimately came away convinced. "The bottom line? We have collectively had a much, much larger impact on the dollar front than I ever imagined," he wrote. "How much we'll never know, and it doesn't really matter. But it's more than the direct results indicate.
"But more than that, it simply shows the importance of early donations. The further in advance we can start helping out the campaigns we like and support, the more the campaigns will benefit in the end."
Posted by at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)
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Many Americans love to hate Wal-Mart. They see the "big box" behemoth, with its 3,800 stores in all 50 states, as the epitome of all that is wrong with retail these days: master of the cookie-cutter shopping experience, promoter of suburban sprawl, killer of U.S. manufacturing and mom-and-pop shops, and king of the low-wage, poor-benefits job.
The company has been a regular subject of critical media reports, books, Web sites and even a recent movie, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price."
But millions more Americans happen to love shopping at Wal-Mart -- more than 100 million every week, according to a recent speech to the nation's governors by company CEO Lee Scott. Some 1.3 million associates work there, too, making the corporation the largest retail employer in the United States. Many of those people arguably would be unemployed were it not for Wal-Mart's presence in their communities.
With that kind of reach and recognition, and with the company being the focus of policy debates at the federal, state and local levels, bloggers are becoming increasingly interested in all things Wal-Mart.
The company is just as interested in bloggers, having picked as a public relations consultant one of the bigger names in the blogosphere, Mike Krempasky of RedState. Krempasky works on the Wal-Mart account at the Edelman PR firm with at least one other blogger, Marshall Manson.
The relationship between bloggers and Wal-Mart burst into the mainstream last week, thanks to a New York Times article about Manson's e-mail outreach on Wal-Mart's behalf. The piece noted that some bloggers had reprinted text from the e-mails exactly as it came from Wal-Mart and had not disclosed their source for the information.
The article sparked a flurry of commentary both before and after publication. Brian Pickrell of Iowa Voice and other bloggers defended their dealings with Wal-Mart, and they found plenty of allies.
Others wondered what the bloggers must have been thinking. "Are they not capable of at least taking the information and rewriting it to look like it comes from their brains?" Jonathan Tasini, who is challenging Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York's Democratic primary, wrote at Working Life. "Is this a comment on the relative creativity of pro-Wal-Mart blogs?"
But the real story is that the Times wrote about bloggers and Wal-Mart at all. Bloggers clearly have made enough of an impression in the debate about big box stores that Wal-Mart feels compelled to pay them heed -- and to try to harness their power to its own benefit.
To a certain extent, that is a break from Wal-Mart's past. The bricks-and-mortar empire that Sam Walton built isn't known for its online presence. A 2002 e-commerce case study, for instance, characterized Walmart.com as being "distinctly back of the pack."
Wal-Mart was late to the blogging game as well. Two of the leading anti-Wal-Mart outfits, Wal-Mart Watch and Wake Up Wal-Mart, beat their nemesis into the blogosphere by months. Even more telling, the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet last week recognized Wake Up Wal-Mart as having the best national Internet campaign in 2005.
The Writing On the Wal also has been working diligently to undercut Wal-Mart's reputation. Plus last November, the high-traffic blog The Huffington Post dedicated an entire day to posts against the company. The array of writers included Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, independent Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Robert Greenwald, the director and producer of last year's anti-Wal-Mart movie.
When Wal-Mart finally entered the blogosphere last fall, the effort was downright timid. Rather than challenge its foes by creating a forum where officials could vigorously defend company practices, Wal-Mart launched a feel-good, short-term blog that emphasized corporate philanthropy in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and other storms.
By contrast, Wal-Mart's recent attempts to curry friendly coverage in the broader blogosphere show that the company, or at least its PR firm, is not totally clueless about online marketing.
Wal-Mart already has taken the next logical step by inviting bloggers to its annual media day at company headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. And unlike the Arab television station Al Jazeera and the Netherlands tourism board, Wal-Mart will not pay the expenses of any bloggers who make the trip in April -- another smart move.
When asked during a washingtonpost.com chat about the Times story, Edelman senior vice president Steve Rubel, himself a blogger, lauded the efforts of the Wal-Mart team and added, "We will continue to build relationships with bloggers and strive to make them as transparent as possible."
If Wal-Mart hopes to maintain its standing in thousands of American communities, that's exactly the right strategy.
The company is the target of a class-action discrimination lawsuit and faces criticism over everything from labor practices to in-store banking services. One great way to combat all of that negativity is to send a positive message via blogs.
"They matter," one blog watcher said. "They're a trusted source of information for people."
Posted by at 07:26 AM | Comments (1)
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The Blogosphere As 'A Small Circle Of Friends'
The Project for Excellence in Journalism just released its latest report on the state of the news media, and blogs merit siginificant attention in the report.
One entire section of the part of the report dubbed "A Day in the Life of the Media" is dedicated to blogs. The project tracked seven popular blogs on one day (May 11, 2005) to reach some conclusions about how the blogosphere works.
Here is a telling excerpt:
Bloggers are also not simply reacting to what they have read in the mainstream media. The posts themselves have the feel of a small circle of friends talking to each other, often with their own language, and without a good deal of background explanation. Many of the blogs linked back and forth to each other or to other blogs through the course of the day. Very little of what a journalist would call actual reporting was evident.There was also an implicit expectation that readers were familiar with the places linked to and had been following the conversation among them. Some of this insider feel and internal code is doubtless due to the shorthand nature of the way blogs are written, but it goes beyond that. One also gets the sense the insider feel is part of the appeal of blogging and blog reading in the first place.
And from the section of the report about the online media audience, here's another great quote that should ring true to people in Washington: "Although blogs are often seen as a symbol of the new, democratized citizen media that Dan Gillmor and others have championed, there is some evidence that the heaviest readers of blogs are members of the Washington establishment."
The intro goes on to examine blog readership, blog creators, blogging economics and the role of blogs in covering Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath last fall. The report, which also has a chart on blog readers in 2004, is chock-full of information that bloggers should take time to digest this week.
Posted by at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)
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Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin has been a favorite of liberal bloggers for a while now, and he scored more points with them over the weekend by calling for the censure of President Bush.
Most of the major liberal blogs -- including Americablog, Daily Kos, Eschaton, Firedoglake, MyDD, TalkLeft and Think Progress -- took note of Feingold's plan to introduce a censure resolution this week. Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat who has been urging the censure of Bush for a while, also plugged Feingold's effort at ConyersBlog.
The call for censure is over the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program, which aims to identify people in America who are communicating with terrorist suspects abroad. By lending his name to the censure effort, Feingold already has rallied the liberal blogosphere behind the idea.
Firedoglake encouraged the netroots to let Feingold know that they are behind him. "Call both your senators first thing in the morning and ask if they support Russ Feingold's censure proposal," the blog urged its readers. "If they don't, ask what their position is on the issue -- and why. The more people we have calling, the more staffers in the offices start to realize that Feingold struck a political chord with a bunch of us in America."
Censure emerged as a political option for former President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s, before the Republicans who controlled Congress ultimately decided to impeach him instead. The idea went nowhere back then, however, and it is almost certainly destined for the same fate with Bush in the Oval Office and Republicans still in control of Congress.
As the push for censure garners more media attention thanks to Feingold, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, reports already are beginning to note that Andrew Jackson is the only president ever to have been censured. That politically motivated effort also was for naught, as a subsequent Congress more friendly toward Jackson eventually reversed the censure.
I revisited "The Censure Of Andrew Jackson" back in December 1998 in a historical essay for IntellectualCapital.com. That site is now defunct, but for anyone who is interested, the article is available at the Wayback Machine via the link above.
Posted by at 07:14 AM | Comments (0)
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CapitolLink: A Call For Clarity In Iraq Policy
Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., at Daily Kos: "Earlier this week, I wrote to President Bush, urging him to state clearly and unequivocally that we do not seek permanent military bases in Iraq, and that Iraqi oil belongs to the Iraqi people. His continuing failure to clarify U.S. intentions provides an excuse for many Iraqi leaders to avoid compromise and jeopardizes our ability to succeed in Iraq."
Posted by at 04:02 PM | Comments (0)
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If Al Jazeera invites dozens of bloggers to the Middle East in order to cover a forum that is designed to promote the Arab television station, should those bloggers: a) take the free trip, or b) disclose the freebie to their readers if they do?
The questions are not rhetorical. Al Jazeera held just such a forum earlier this year, and according to Alvin Snyder at the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy, "at least 100 blogger-delegates had all travel and accommodation costs covered, courtesy of their host sponsor." Few of them disclosed that fact to their readers, Snyder wrote in a piece titled "The Ethical Dilemma of Blogging."
Snyder contacted me for his story because of my recent coverage of a similar trip that several bloggers took under a contractual arrangement with the Netherland government's tourism board. In that case, bloggers must disclose the trip, but I argued (and still believe) that bloggers who cover government affairs never should have accepted the trip in the first place. Plenty of people, especially the bloggers who are taking the trip to Amsterdam, disagreed.
Snyder's piece looks at the ethics of both trips in the context of a broader debate about blog and journalistic ethics. He has some interesting details on the Al Jazeera forum, including the fact that BBC and most other mainstream media chose not to attend the session, and I recommend the piece. If you are so inclined after reading the story, please share your thoughts, pro or con, in the comments section for this entry.
Posted by at 12:53 PM | Comments (9)
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The House Administration Committee today approved a bill calling for the exemption of certain online communications from rules for reporting campaign finance activity.
National Journal's Technology Daily reports that the bill, H.R. 1606, was approved by voice vote. Last November, the full House failed to garner the two-thirds majority necessary to pass the bill under expedited procedures. That 225-182 vote kicked the legislation back to committee.
Also on Thursday, two key bloggers who have been fighting for the bill, Mike Krempasky of RedState and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos, sent a letter to all members of Congress, urging them to pass the measure.
I recently recapped the story of the fight to protect online political speech. You can find plenty of relevant links in that recap.
UPDATE: Tim Chapman live-blogged yesterday's committee debate at Townhall.com's Capitol Report.
And at his VOLPAC blog this morning, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., explained why he has proposed companion language to H.R. 1606 as an amendment to a bill to overhaul lobbying regulations. Here are some excerpts:
From the earliest days of our republic, freedom of speech and freedom of the press -- be they anonymous pamphlets, celebrated essays or local newspapers -- were understood to be fundamental to the practice and defense of liberty. Without the ability to convey ideas, debate, dispute, and persuade, we may never have fought for and achieved our independence. ... And, today, it's bloggers whom we now have to protect. There are some who, out of fear or shortsightedness, wish to restrict the ability of our modern day-Thomas Paines to express political views on the World Wide Web. ... I stand firmly against these efforts to hamstring the Internet and squarely with the champions of free speech.
Posted by at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)
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Try as I might to thoroughly cover the impact of blogs, I never have enough free time to mention in detail everything that is worth noting. So I've decided to follow the example of other blogs and start a feature that will consist entirely of short blurbs and links.
As its name suggests, the "Friday Festival of Blog Bits" will run on Fridays. That should give Beltway Blogroll readers something to read on the weekends, if they so choose. This first installment will cover tidbits from this week, as well as those from recent weeks that I never found the time to mention.
-- Blogger Mark Tapscott of Tapscott's Copy Desk will be inducted into the National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame next Thursday.
-- The Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University issued its "Golden Dot Awards" this week during the annual Politics Online conference, and some blogs were recognized for their achievements.
-- Liberal blogger Ezra Klein was not impressed by the interview that conservative blog Atlas Shrugged conducted with John Bolton, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
-- Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters is leading a team of volunteer bloggers in a search of documents related to military prisoners who are being detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
-- RedState is trying to compile a list of campaign-specific blogs. On the left, MyDD has a similar state-specific blogroll going.
-- The WisPolitics/WisOpinion Blog Summit is scheduled for March 18.
-- Extreme Mortman is chronicling the "Blogs the Famous Media Read," with current entries covering Jeff DuFour of The Hill, Howard Fineman of Newsweek, John Harwood of The Wall Street Journal, Walter Shapiro of Salon, Roger Simon of Bloomberg and Jake Tapper of ABC News.
-- In late February, Concurring Opinions and Sentencing Law and Policy discussed the scholarly merits of blogs. A National Law Journal article on the topic spurred the conversation.
-- Some new blogs worth a click-through: TPMMuckraker is doing its part to unearth political corruption and scandal; Following the Money critiques federal spending on military operations in Afghanistan in Iraq; Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and George Radanovich, R-Calif., now have blogs; and the bells-and-whistles blogs of former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., and former Democratic Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia have earned kudos.
-- John Aravosis of Americablog suggests that The New York Times is planning a "hit piece" on liberal bloggers.
Posted by at 07:06 AM | Comments (0)
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CapitolLink: A Broken And Depleted Army
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., at The Huffington Post: "I have said before that our army is broke, hollow, and stretched thin. I am not talking about the soldiers; they are well trained and have accomplished their mission. I say this in regards to the equipment and my particular concern regarding the National Guard."
Posted by at 08:48 PM | Comments (0)
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Everyone who blogs about politics and policy would like to think that people in power read their blogs. Thanks to Right Wing News, some bloggers now have proof in the form of a blog reading list for a handful of Republican lawmakers.
The list obviously provides only a snapshot into the favorite blogosphere haunts of congressman, but it is still telling. Here are some of the insights I gleaned from the list:
-- Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio is the most voracious, least partisan and thus the smartest blog reader. His list includes 33 blogs from across the political spectrum.
I'm not singling Ney out for praise because his list happens to be the only one with Beltway Blogroll on it. (That's just a happy coincidence.) I think he's the smartest blog reader because he doesn't limit his blog journeys to the GOP echo chamber. Ney has faced some pretty harsh criticism at top liberal blogs like Daily Kos, The Huffington Post and, especially, Talking Points Memo, but he reads them all anyway. No doubt about it, that's smart.
-- Rep. Joe Wilson is the most parochial of the bunch. He reads only one blog, SCHotline, and it's from his home state.
Ney and Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona also are partial to home-state blogs. Ney reads Buckeye State Blog and Ohio 2006, and Franks' list includes Arizona Congress Watch and Blog for Arizona.
-- RedState made the readings lists for all but two of the nine lawmakers polled in the survey. Wilson and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, are the only ones who don't read RedState. Cornyn's Texas colleague in the House, Jeb Hensarling, reads only RedState and Quorum Report.
-- The biggest surprise to me: Hugh Hewitt, Instapundit and Power Line apparently are not required reading for Republican lawmakers. Each made multiple appearances in the survey, but RedState appears to be the favorite of more Republicans on Capitol Hill.
-- Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia, who has his own blog and blogs at RedState, is the only member surveyed who cares enough about what his colleagues think to actually read one of their blogs. He ranked Congressman Conaway's Blog, the online forum for the office of Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, among his favorites.
If any other lawmakers or their aides in either party read Beltway Blogroll, I'd like to hear from you. I'd also like to hear from any other officials in Washington. Tell me which blogs you read regularly and I'll post them here. You can e-mail me at dglover@nationaljournal.com.
Posted by at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)
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The Netroots Lose Another One
Hotline On Call is reporting that Rep. Henry Cuellar won enough votes in the the 28th District of Texas yesterday to secure the Democratic nod without a run-off primary against former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez. That means that yet another favorite of netroots bloggers has gone down to defeat.
All of the major Democratic blogs, including Americablog, Daily Kos, Eshcaton and MyDD, had endorsed Rodriguez' bid to reclaim the seat and had helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for his campaign in recent weeks. Rodriguez also began posting diary entries at Daily Kos starting in early February.
Their effort was looking good as early returns were posted, with Rodriguez leading much of last night. But the project ultimately fell short thanks to Cuellar's strong polling in precincts near his home of Laredo. With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Cuellar had won nearly 53 percent of the vote to Rodriguez' 41 percent. He needed only 50 percent plus one vote to avoid a Democratic run-off.
The defeat is the latest is a long string of losses for netroots-backed dating back to 2004. Republican bloggers love to gloat about the fact that none of the "Kos Dozen" (actually 16 candidates endorsed by Daily Kos in 2004) won their respective elections. They crowed again when Democrat Paul Hackett lost to now-Rep. Jean Schmidt in an Ohio special election last summer. I expect to hear more of that talk today.
The Democratic bloggers who supported Rodriguez may adopt a refrain similar to the those they have voiced after the other setbacks: that the very existence of electoral competition, rather than victory, is important because it forces Republicans to spend money in districts or states where they otherwise would; and that some of the Democratic candidates, like Hackett, have scored surprisingly well in GOP strongholds.
In the case of Rodriguez, however, he scored worse in the district this time than he did in 2004, when he lost the Democratic nod to Cuellar by only a few dozen votes.
Check the extended entry for commentary from other bloggers.
Bull Moose: "Congressman Cuellar's primary victory in the Great State of Texas is just another example of the fact that there are more bytes than bite in the blogosphere. One could say that the bloggers crashed at the gates and now they must move on. Yes, you can raise money on the internet, but not necessarily votes. At the end of the day, Democrats should be spending far more time at mega-churches and at exurban malls than in the blogosphere. ... The blogosphere is fun, entertaining and informative, but not all that politically significant."
Daily Kos: "We're a nascent movement a scant two years old. The right built theirs over 30 years. We won't take over the world in two. But this netroots/grassroots/labor coalition is the blueprint for a more effective national progressive movement, and this was the first time we all worked together. It won't be the last."
Eschaton: "It's pretty much a given that Ben Chandler probably wouldn't have won without support from bloggers. It's also the case that Stephanie Herseth got a tremendous boost from bloggers, though I won't say I can claim that blogger support was necessary. Neither of those members of Congress are my favorites, but the fact that they were supported despite being rather right wing undercuts the usual media narrative that lefty bloggers only support candidates that are crrrraazy lefties who are otherwise unelectable. Herseth and Chandler won against Republicans in conservative districts."
GOP Bloggers: "If the Democrat blogs can't sway the race in a Democrat primary (especially in a red state where they need to be more competitive), will this make [Senate Minority Leader Harry] Reid, [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi and [Sen. John] Kerry rethink their ties (and their pandering) to Kos and his worshippers?"
MyDD: "I'd like to point out that Texas apparently has an open primary system, where Republicans can actually vote in a Democratic primary, and vice versa. Given this, Ciro almost certainly won the day among registered Democrats, and at the very least would have forced a runoff in a closed primary. ... As disgusting as it sounds, if Cuellar wins the Democratic primary without a run-off, it will be because of the Republican vote."
Personal Democracy Forum: "I can't fault the Daily Kos community for wanting to change the party. The Democratic Party is screwed up and needs fixing. But they shouldn't be eating our young. And they shouldn't be taking elected Democrats and weakening them through intra-party squabbling. That's what I think Kos and his community are doing. Their tone is negative. They aren't willing to compromise or, it seems, to even discuss alternatives to their view. Who knows, maybe they would learn something if they listened more and ranted less."
The Plank: "[E]lectoral politics in the United States is a zero-sum game and, at some point, these bloggers are going to have to make enough of a difference to actually win a race -- something they've so far failed to do. ... But more often than not, these liberal bloggers (especially Kos) act like they already have taken over the world --writing manifestos, issuing threats and engaging in all sorts of chest-thumping behavior. But, like I said, their batting average is still a big fat zero."
RedState: "Thus far the lefty netroots has aggressively pushed numerous out-of-touch losers but has yet to generate a winner. Lefty netroots support continues to be the kiss of death, and that support is, unfortunately, eroding the credibility of the netroots in general. It should be noted that the right side of the blogosphere has not been as aggressive in building and backing candidates ... but the right has managed to show itself more in touch with reality."
Posted by at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)
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The Attack On Internet Anonymity
I moderated a panel discussion at the Politics Online conference today, and one of the members of the audience asked a question about a proposal in New Jersey to outlaw anonymity online.
Both the panelists and the other audience members dismissed the idea as laughable and unconstitutional. Most everyone thought the man asking the question must not have had the story right.
Apparently he did. Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine has the details, including links to a critical newspaper editorial about the plan and to the bill text.
According to the news report, the bill would require the operators of blogs and other Internet forums to register the names and addresses of their users or risk being held liable for defamatory posts.
"Postings on public forums are sometimes mean-spirited and unfair," the Asbury Park Press editorial argued. "But requiring all posters to provide their names and addresses would discourage many would-be contributors from sharing their legitimate concerns about the actions of public officials and other opinion leaders. The free flow of ideas should not be restricted by thin-skinned politicians whose egos have been bruised by criticism, deserved or not."
My guess is that the legislation will not gain any traction, but a blog swarm is possible even if it doesn't. Bloggers who fought the Federal Election Commission and Congress for the right to free speech online, and who appear to be on the verge of winning that fight, are not likely to stay quiet while the New Jersey legislature organizes another assault on Internet speech.
Jarvis may well lead the fight, if this excerpt from his post is any indication:
Assemblyman Biondi: My name is Jeff Jarvis. I live in your state. In fact, I live in your own district. What a coincidence, eh? Well, I will vote against you. Again. I will campaign against you. I will stand on street corners to tell my neighbors what I think of you. You are a blooming idiot. ... Your idiotic bill is a violation of my rights of free speech and privacy. It is utterly impossible to enforce. It contradicts federal law.
Expect to hear more about this proposal from bloggers very quickly.
Posted by at 09:10 PM | Comments (0)
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Instapundit Glenn Reynolds came to Washington yesterday to promote his new book at a National Press Club roundtable, and he gained a powerful plug from another blog revolutionary along the way.
Joe Trippi, who helped introduce the broader political world to the power of blogs during the 2004 Democratic presidential campaign of Howard Dean, wholeheartedly endorsed the thesis of Reynolds' book, "An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government and Other Goliaths."
"I envy Glenn the title of the book," said Trippi, the author of "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet and the Overthrow of Everything."
He said people are misguided when they talk about the "information age" because technology is about more than distributing information; it is about "distributing power to the bottom." Trippi said the powerbrokers of the past face battlefields full of Davids, so the question they must ask themselves is, "Do you want to be Goliath, or do you want to be their slingshot?"
By way of example, he mentioned the market for music. The music industry acted like the all-powerful Goliath that it was by crushing perceived threats like the Napster file-sharing service, Trippi said. Apple Computer, on the other hand, decided to be the slingshot of music listeners by creating the now-popular iTunes service for distributing music online.
Like the music industry, Trippi said, "a bunch of companies are losing tons of profit" because they chose unwisely between being Goliath or the slingshot.
Reynolds said the same technological advances that have opened new economic doors -- what he called "worker control of the means of production without all that tedious communism stuff" -- also have given people a forum to speak their mind: the blogosphere.
"There are a lot of people who have things to say, and they have traditionally not been able to say them very much," he said. "And now they do."
Reynolds expect people to keep talking regardless of whether they are paid. He predicted that the bulk of the blogosphere will remain amateur even if some people make money at blogging, but that doesn't matter because blogging is "a reward all itself."
"We are hard-wired to share our opinions," he said. "We don't need to make money at it."
The foil at the roundtable was Barry Lynn, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of "End of the Line: The Rise and Coming Fall of the Global Corporation."
He acknowledged that corporate Goliaths exist and added, "I hope and pray that Joe and Glenn are right" about the Davids taking power from them. But he warned of "new oligopolies" that he instead sees controlling specialty markets for everything from razor blades and canned soups to medical devices and semiconductors.
"If there was a period where the consumer gained significantly, that's certainly not the case anymore," Lynn said.
In the question-and-answer session, one person asked Reynolds a question that he hears often: Why doesn't he allow reader comments at Instapundit?
Reynolds noted that his choice on that score actually is an "expensive" one because comments boost page views, and thus advertising revenue, as readers constantly visit pages to follow their favorite conversations. But he gave two reasons for not allowing comments: 1) Journalists too often erroneously attribute reader comments to blog authors; and 2) "It's pretty hard ... to maintain comments that are civil, interesting and good."
Panel moderator Nick Gillespie, the editor-in-chief of Reason magazine, countered by explaining why his publication allows comments at the Hit & Run blog: "We kind of like our idiots."
At least two bloggers also attended the event. You can read their coverage at Age of Hooper (The) and Outside the Beltway.
UPDATE: Pat Cleary at ShopFloor heard Reynolds speak at a Cato Institute forum yesterday and has a full report.
Posted by at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)
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A Fly On The Blog
A few dozen House Republican press secretaries gathered on Capitol Hill on Friday to try to make sense of the power of blogs within Washington and what it means for their bosses.
Republican bloggers, GOP blog experts and two journalists/bloggers from National Journal -- that would be Marc Ambinder of Hotline on Call and me -- told the 50-plus press secretaries why blogs matter, why lawmakers should be blogging or at least trying to engage bloggers, and how best to do so.
The event was closed to the press, but as one of the panelists, I was given permission to blog about it, under the condition that I not reveal any specific strategies discussed at the seminar and keep the conversation on background unless specific people granted permission to quote them. Other bloggers at the event -- including Robert Bluey at Human Events Online's Right Angle and Mary Katharine Ham at HughHewitt.com -- also have posted entries.
The questions asked by the press secretaries were the most enlightening part of the conversation. My favorite was this: Is there an expectation of engaging in debate if lawmakers start blogging?
The question is telling both because it shows how disinterested that too many people within Congress, the heart of American democracy, are in the very idea of debate and because it shows how clueless they are about the blogosphere years into its development. The answer is "yes," folks, and shame on you for not realizing that your bosses should always have an expectation of engaging in debate, whether in the blogosphere, at town halls or within the halls of Congress.
I also took note of two other excellent questions: 1) How do you get bloggers to talk about long-term, wonky issues versus "sexy" issues or the topic of the week, like the vice president shooting a hunting partner? And 2) How do you find the right bloggers to get them talking about those issues?
The answer to the first question is found in the second: Find the niche blogs that cover the lawmakers' pet topics. Some examples from my blogroll (though not necessarily ones of interest to GOP press secretaries): Abolish the Death Penalty, Arms Control Wonk, Bush v. Choice, Education Weak, Election Law, Social Security Choice and Tax Policy Blog
One blogger who spoke at the event offered a cautionary note to the staffers there. While he hoped the session would be useful to the press secretaries, he reminded them that most of the bloggers invited to speak are inside-the-Beltway bloggers. They are not necessarily the bloggers press secretaries will be approaching, and bloggers outside Washington think quite differently.
All of the panelists sang the praises of blogs. One said that blogs are the best way to stay informed these days. They report the news more quickly and the links to various articles via blogs serve as a reader's "personal editor." That blogger added that the personal connections bloggers have with their readers, as well as the personalities they develop online, make them effective movers of people in ways that newspapers never could.
Another expert predicted that blogging actually will seem "primitive" sometime soon, as innovations like personal Web television shows spread. But he also said, "Blogging is the future. It's good for the country."
At HughHewitt.com, Ham said after the event that politicians who recognize that, and who overcome their fears of being unable to control their messages in the blogosphere, will be the ones who gain the most from the medium.
"It is the politician who recognizes this ability to shape and move messages as an advantage instead of a hindrance who will do well in the blogosphere and in the future of political communication," she wrote. "The blogosphere is a world in motion, and deliberative bodies aren't always comfortable with how it moves. Hence, panels like this one."
Three press secretaries who spoke as part of one of the panels also had some good thoughts for their colleagues.
Brad Dayspring, who last month organized the first-ever live-blogging of a congressional hearing from within a committee room, said lawmakers should not be too cautious. "You can't stick you're pinky toe into the blogosphere and expect it to work for you," he said.
Dayspring also praised the work of one of the bloggers at that hearing, Rebecca MacKinnon of RConversation. He said she told the story of Internet filtering in countries like China (the subject of the hearing) more thoroughly than anyone in the mainstream media. MacKinnon's coverage "couldn't have been better if I typed it myself," Dayspring said.
Michael Steel, the spokesman for GOP Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona, worked with bloggers during his boss' recent bid to become House majority leader. He told his colleagues why they need to care about what bloggers say: "The people [who] people listen to read blogs," Steel said.
And Ken Spain, the spokesman for House "blawgmaker" Mike Conaway, R-Texas, warned that press secretaries need to act now to get their bosses blogging if they want the effort to have an impact. "When you're the 435th member [of the House] getting on board," Spain said, "it's just going to be another thing to update on your Web site."
On a lighter note, Ambinder covered the comedic intermission at the workshop, which featured Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central. His "Better Know A District" segment features skits with members of Congress. Georgian Jack Kingston, who has a blog and whose staff at the House Republican Conference organized the blog seminar, has appeared on the show.
Colbert was there to promote the show and invite more Republican lawmakers to go on it. I think one of them should accept the invitation ... and live-blog the show.
Here's a list of others who spoke at the event:
-- Tim Chapman of TownHall.com's Capitol Report
-- Ben Domenech of RedState
-- Ryan Loskarn, with Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
-- Philip Pidot of Suitably Flip
-- And Patrick Ruffini, the e-campaign director at the Republican National Committee
The "Theme Team" of the House Republican Conference also made public a two-page primer on blogging, "another great communication tool." It offered four reasons why blogs are popular and tips for interacting with blogs. Here is the latter section of the printout:
-- Start one. The problem with congressional Web sites (and Web sites in general) is that they never have fresh content so constituents, students and others visit a Web site, hopefully find what they need and move on. Why not keep your constituents involved with what you're working on (for them) and your progress? To do so, consider establishing a blog on your Web page or create a blog with a third-party vendor and prominently link to it from your Web site.-- Write conversationally. Consider using a voice similar to that you would use for a statement or an op-ed.
-- Establish relationships with bloggers, and keep them updated on what you are working on and give them access. Most bloggers freely list their contact information on their blogs. Keep in mind that bloggers often have "day jobs" and are not paid to cover Congress. Make their job easier by letting them know what you're boss is working on and why they may find it interesting.
-- Do your homework and know your blogger. Bloggers cover the issues they care about. Find their interests, and share your news with them.
-- Do not simply send your press release to a wide list of blogs. Choose one blogger and share your story, and provide the materials to back it up. If they do not want it, ship it out to a wider group.
-- Do not expect instant gratification. For six baseball seasons, Babe Ruth led the National League with more strikeouts than any other player, but that didn't deter him from taking a swing in hopes of hitting his next homerun.
-- WARNING: Bloggers are "friendly," but you should understand that there could and probably will be criticism and questions from the right, so choose your issues well.
You can read the whole primer here.
UPDATE: The blog at Rep. Kingston's Web site also recaps the event and provides links to coverage.
Posted by at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)
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The Misguided Hype About A Blog Bust
William Powers, the media critic here for National Journal magazine, challenges the recent hype that blogs are about to go boom. I totally agree with his analysis.
Here's an excerpt:
Media serve three major functions: 1) convenience (organization of news and information in user-friendly formats); 2) truth-telling (digging up important stories and holding powerful people accountable); and 3) pleasure (the sheer fun of reading, listening, or watching). Newspapers thrived for as long as they did because they were good at all three. And they've declined as they've lost their competitive edge in these same areas, especially convenience and pleasure.Though blogs are young, they've already proven adept at all three functions. Many are convenient harvesters and organizers. Some are fearless truth-tellers. And the best are a total pleasure to follow. If they're doing all this now, imagine what they'll be like in 10 years.
The other thing blogs have going for them is that most bloggers are not in it for money -- they do it for love. The mainstream outlets would now have us believe that this is a bit pathetic. Just look at those dreadful audience numbers, the scanty profits. I say 20 million or so bloggers know otherwise. Once they were up, and now they're down. It's the classic arc of an establishment-media fad. It's weird that so many bloggers bought into it, given their feelings about the establishment. Never mind: They'll be back.
Read the whole piece here.
Posted by at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)
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Tomorrow's House GOP Blog Seminar
I will join Marc Ambinder of Hotline on Call and other speakers at a Capitol Hill workshop on blogging tomorrow. The "Theme Team" of the House Republican Conference is hosting the event for Republican press secretaries.
I will discuss the kinds of insights included in my recent National Journal magazine story, "The Rise Of Blogs." Roll Call has a story today with more details on the seminar.
I'm always open to such invitations to discuss the policy and political impact of blogs, which is the focus of Beltway Blogroll, or to chat about other ways that blogs are shaping modern media and culture. You can contact me at dglover@nationaljournal.com.
Posted by at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
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The March Toward Political Speech Online
As it was last year, March is shaping up to be a busy month for debates about free speech on the Internet.
The Federal Election Commission, now fresh with three appointees presumably more friendly to unregulated political speech, already has scheduled a vote on a rulemaking related to campaign speech online. Now word has it that the House also is prepared to vote on the issue again next week. Both RedState and Tapscott's Copy Desk reported rumblings of the forthcoming debate.
The debate began in earnest on March 3, 2004, when News.com published an interview with then-Federal Election Commissioner Brad Smith. The article sparked the first-ever blog swarm against a federal agency.
Within days, bloggers formed The Online Coalition to fight the perceived threat of FEC regulation of blogs. By the end of the month, the agency had backpedaled under the pressure, opting for a rulemaking much less expansive in scope than the draft first proposed by staffers (and made public by RedState).
The FEC held hearings on the issue last June, and the House took its first vote on the topic in November. Not much has happened since then, but now the political winds are starting to blow with the same predictability of March's blustery weather. We'll know soon enough whether they are blowing the way of bloggers.
UPDATE: I changed the reference to the new FEC members to reflect my error, as helpfully noted in the comments by Allison Hayward of Skeptic's Eye.
UPDATE II: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is eager for his chamber to consider the legislation, too. "This legislation is endorsed by bloggers from all ideological persuasions and should command wide bipartisan support," he wrote today on the blog at his political action committee. "I am anxious for the House to take up and pass this legislation as quickly as possible. When it does so, I will work for its passage in the U.S. Senate."
Posted by at 05:14 PM | Comments (1)
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Republican Senate candidate John Raese in West Virginia apparently thinks blogs advertisements should be a political liability -- at least if they appear on the Democratic blog Daily Kos.
Raese's opponent, Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd, is running an ad there that directs readers to a petition related to the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program to combat terrorism. Byrd, who has dedicated his near-record Senate career to defending the Constitution and the prerogatives granted to Congress within it, wants an indepedent commission to investigate whether President Bush violated the law by secretly starting the program.
"There is evidence that the Bush administration may have broken the law, and most certainly has violated the spirit of the Constitution, and the public trust by spying on American citizens without a court order," the petition says.
The ad prompted Raese to issue a critical press release, Mountain State blogger and Charleston Daily Mail columnist Don Surber reports. "I am shocked that Senator Byrd would align himself so closely with the far left-wing of his party," Raese said in the release. "First he goes against 96 other senators and votes against the PATRIOT Act. Now he is openly questioning a policy that's in place to protect America."
Raese, by the way, finally has the beginnings of a campaign Web site, but there's not much to it yet. There is no blog.
Posted by at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)
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I've discovered some new policy-oriented blogs during my blog reading the past few days. I'll be adding them to the blogroll on the left but also wanted to draw attention to them here. Click this way:
-- AFL-CIO Now, from organized labor's biggest name (Pat Cleary at ShopFloor calls the new site a "Soviet-style blog" because no comments are allowed)
-- Bulletin Board, the blog of the National Association of State Boards of Education.
-- Down And Dirty, the blog of ABC News Washington correspondent Jake Tapper, who is currently on a stint in Baghdad.
-- From The Heartland, the aptly named forum of the Heartland Institute in Chicago.
-- NCLBlog, a publication of the American Federation of Teachers that is critical of the No Child Left Behind Act, the 2002 federal education law.
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Of America PAC, which I mentioned in my latest Beltway Blogroll column, also has a blog called The Daily Vet. It may well disappear after this year's election, so I won't put it on the blogroll. But it's worth a mention here.
Posted by at 02:08 PM | Comments (1)
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