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What Do Scooter Libby And Mitt Romney Have In Common?

Nothing ... but I made you look. Well, actually they have a little something in common. Technology Daily published two blog-related news summaries in our AM roundup, and Libby and Romney were the subjects.

The first summary is based on two Washington Post stories, one about bloggers receiving credentials to cover the high-profile trial of former top Bush administration aide Libby next week and the other about bloggers who are making money on their work. Here's that item:

The credibility of Web logs as journalism may be boosted by the perjury trial of former vice-presidential Chief of Staff I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, The Washington Post reports. A pair of the 100 seats at the trial reserved for media will go to bloggers, a first in a federal courtroom. Libby has been accused of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Justice Department's investigation of a White House news leak. His trial opens next week. The Media Bloggers Association, which represents about a 1,000 members, has been negotiating with judicial officials for two years to win space for bloggers in courtrooms. President Robert Cox said a diverse group of bloggers, including himself, would rotate throughout the Libby trial. The Post also reports that some bloggers are earning decent money.

The second summary focused on an "ancient" video clip of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney that has come back to haunt him on YouTube as he runs for president:

The presidential campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney already has a YouTube problem. The Boston Globe and AP report that a video on the site of Romney endorsing a series of liberal viewpoints during a 1994 U.S. Senate campaign has generated more than 12,000 hits. Romney, a Republican who established a presidential exploratory committee last week, called Glenn Reynolds of the popular Instapundit Web log on Wednesday to defend himself and accused the creators of the video of unearthing "ancient footage" to attack his current conservative stances on issues such as gay marriage. Romney said he has gotten wiser since the 1994 race, which he lost to Democrat Edward Kennedy. "Of course, I was wrong on some issues back then," he said. "I'm not embarrassed to admit that."

Instapundit's comment on the series of events also is worth noting: "That's kind of cool, using a podcast to respond to a YouTube interview. All new media, all the time!"

UPDATE: Republicans David All and Mary Katharine Ham are among those praising Romney and his online team for how they responded to the YouTube video. Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine comments as well.

And GOPProgress said Romney's team was smart to respond quickly.

John Hawkins of Right Wing News was not impressed by the substance of Romney's response. "[H]e comes across as a politician who has changed his positions because he needs to appeal to conservatives if he wants to get the Republican nomination for president," Hawkins wrote, "and it's hard not to be leery of pols like that because conservatives keep getting burned by them over and over again."

Posted by Danny | 12:48 PM

Comments

Not a YouTube problem ... a YouTube solution!

Stephen Smith | 01.11.07 12:13 PM

I have been made aware that Robert Cox is planning to arrange a seat at the Libby trial for one of his bloggers - a Lance Dutson of

HTTP://mainewebreport.com

I have been following Mr Dutson's blog for some time, and have come to find that most of his accusations appear to be brazenly untrue - untruths about which he has repeatedly been made aware. He has even admitted to being aware of these untruths a few times, but the admissions eventually disappear... and off he goes again...

Robert Cox informs me and others that he has never even read Dutson's blog. I find this, if true, to be an act of extreme negligience.

If you do read Dutson's blog, you will see that the headlines are never corroborated by fact, but rather, the links point only to more of his own accusations, or even to documents which actually CONTRADICT his accusations.

Apparently, people only read the headlines. And they believe them.

He appears to get the most gratification out of making searingly vicious personal attacks on total strangers whom he somehow perceives as being enemies.

He behaves as a web troll, and nothing else but. I find it very difficult to believe that anyone would assign a seat at the Libby trial, and its resultant journalistic credibility, to someone without ever having checked his credentials.

Web trolls should be eliminated - not elevated.

Sanity Seeker | 01.19.07 04:47 PM

There is an update to this story...Cox admits that he did read Dutson's blog up until May of 2006, but since then he as only "Skimmed" it I have some emails from him admitting this.

Whole story here:

HTTP://truthaboutlewis.blogspot.com

Thank you--

Sanity Seeker | 02.23.07 04:53 PM

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