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Blog Bits (Edwards Bloggers And More)

Extreme Mortman was shocked -- shocked! -- to see Washington Post columnist David Broder use the adjective "deranged" before the innocent-sounding noun "blogger."

But after this week's hullabaloo over the bloggers working for the presidential campaign of Democrat John Edwards, I'm willing to bet that a whole lot more people will make that ill-informed connection -- to bloggers on both the left and the right.

That's one sad reality that Republican new media consultant David All predicted as he pondered the lessons to be learned from the Edwards campaign's blog scandal. "[T]he damage left by stories, or controversies like this, hurt the entire ’sphere and those of us who work in it as a profession. They simply send new ripples of fear through an already scared and unknowing politician or company that some of us are trying to escort to the modern world."

The whole controversy made Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine wonder whether campaigns and conversation are incompatible.

The reputation of the blogosphere may be hurt by such scandals, but what about the candidates? Does their standing suffer when the bloggers affiliated with them get caught in a swarm? Not at all, says Chris Bowers of MyDD. He cited as evidence the support that Edwards won in a poll conducted during the heat of last week's controversy.

"[T]he vast majority of voters will have no idea this 'scandal,' ever happened, and most of those who know it happened will have forgotten the next day," he wrote. "Bloggers, even the most prominent ones, have national name-recognition numbers in the single digits. Even after 300-plus newspapers picked up one of more of the various wire reports surrounding the flap, and even after numerous cable news network segments on the story, I still bet that less than 10 percent of the country knows this happened."

That might help explain why the presidential campaign of Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., was willing to hire a blogger from RedState in the midst of the Edwards campaign's blog scandal. RedState explained what that will mean for its group blog.

Other Edwards-related blog bits:

-- The Raw Story reported that Dan Gerstein, a top campaign aide to Sen. Joseph Lieberman in Connecticut last year, criticized the blogosphere as a result of the scandal. Gerstein: "There's a big problem in the Democratic Party right now. I think for a lot of Democratic bloggers, there's extremism, there's an anger, and there's a lack of accountability for what people say and do."

-- Daily Kos and MyDD were among the liberal blogs that warned dire consequences for the Democratic campaign that anonymously criticized the Edwards campaign for keeping the bloggers on board.

-- Donklephant: "American politics is about to become even dirtier and more trivial, thanks to the blogosphere, the efforts of candidates to harness it, and the ambitions of extreme, foul-mouthed bloggers, be they left-wing or right wing."

-- Garance Frank-Ruta of Tapped: "No one who signs up for a presidential campaign should be surprised if they get turned into an issue, and no one hiring people for such a campaign should be surprised if staffers get attacked. That's how things roll [in Washington politics]. Also: ... The issue is whether Democrats can figure out how to fight off such attacks."

-- The bloggers at Balloon Juice tried to head off problems by sending this message to campaigns: Don't hire me.

-- A writer at NewAssignment.net sees the Edwards scandal as further evidence of the ongoing blurring of the lines between media and politics.

-- From a diarist at Daily Kos: "What Bloggergate Says About The Movement."

For folks who are tired of the Edwards story or never much cared for it in the first place, here are some other blog bits from the past couple of weeks:

-- The White House invited four bloggers to its annual budget briefing.

-- Right Wing News said the Senate Republican message machine has improved greatly thanks to the hiring of blogger Jon Henke by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

-- Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was the guest on today's BlogTalkRadio show by Heading Left, and Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., will be the featured speaker at the BlueNC Women's Conference of bloggers on Saturday.

-- David All said something needs to be done to preserve congressional history online -- including the blogging (quite limited) that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., did late in his tenure.

-- Arkansas state Rep. Steve Harrelson has been blogging from the House floor this year and has built quite a following, especially among his colleagues.

-- The North Carolina Democratic Party apparently is the first at the state level to hire an Internet communications director.

-- Matt Stoller of MyDD has taken on three consulting projects and disclosed that information to his readers. Some of them wondered whether his disclosures were sufficient. One of Stoller's ongoing projects (for the Sunlight Foundation) is called XXX.

-- Like Stoller and the rest of the crew at MyDD, are you part of the progressive blogosphere elite? Hint: If you have to click the link to see, you're not.

Posted by Danny | 09:54 PM

Comments

That might help explain why the presidential campaign of Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., was willing to hire a blogger from RedState in the midst of the Edwards campaign's blog scandal. RedState explained what that will mean for its group blog.

Or maybe Brownback didn't hire a lunatic. That could explain it.

Christopher Fotos | 02.13.07 01:43 AM

Edwards is shedding the softie,breck girl image though...here's video proof:
http://minor-ripper.blogspot.com/2007/02/john-edwards-gets-tough-with-matt-lauer_08.html

minorripper | 02.13.07 06:47 AM

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