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May 24, 2007Blog Bits: The Book Reviews Of Tomorrow
I've never bought into the myth, fostered by the nervous ninnies in the news business, that blogs pose a threat to mainstream media. Blogs and traditional media outlets do not compete so much as they complement. But certain aspects of the MSM may well be threatened by blogs.
The New York Times called attention to one of them earlier this month: the revered book review. The article noted both the emergence of prolific bloggers who write book reviews and the disappearance of some mainstream review forums.
"To some authors and critics, these moves amount to yet one more nail in the coffin of literary culture," the Times said. "But some publishers and literary bloggers -- not surprisingly -- see it as an inevitable transition toward a new, more democratic literary landscape where anyone can comment on books."
The reaction of one Richard Schickel, who makes his living as a film critic for Time magazine and regular book reviewer in that other storied Times (the one in Los Angeles), was predictable: Perish the thought!
"Let me put this bluntly, in language even a busy blogger can understand: Criticism -- and its humble cousin, reviewing -- is not a democratic activity," Schickel wrote in a column dripping with condescension. "It is, or should be, an elite enterprise, ideally undertaken by individuals who bring something to the party beyond their hasty, instinctive opinions of a book (or any other cultural object). It is work that requires disciplined taste, historical and theoretical knowledge and a fairly deep sense of the author's (or filmmaker's or painter's) entire body of work, among other qualities."
In other words, how dare those pajama-wearing, unrefined, filthy bloggers think they can replace me!
A lowly writer at NewsBusters took it upon himself to review Schickel's tirade thusly: "All I can say is that we Americans cast off the idea of the divine right of kings and the controlling, elite classes that accompanies a royal court several hundred years ago."
And Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine contrasted the work of anointed critics and bloggers. He argued that The New York Times would do well to link to the best reviews by bloggers.
Here are more blog bits to mull:
-- My wife is home-schooling our children, and I do my share when I can, so I won't be joining the "Let's Restrict Home-Schooling" movement proposed by Russell Shaw at The Huffington Post this week. Home-schooled 14-year-old Caitlin Snaring, who just yesterday won the National Geographic Bee without missing a single question over two days, won't be, either. For a friendlier perspective on home-schooling, read this Newsweek interview with the head of the National Home Educator's Network.
-- The second annual YearlyKos Convention for bloggers and fans of the liberal blog Daily Kos is just a little more than two months away, so Democratic presidential candidates are making plans to attend -- or "kissing Kos' ring," as conservative blogger Michelle Malkin put it.
-- Former Vice President Al Gore has a new book, and that's good enough reason to get the man who invented the Internet, or something like that, to engage the blogosphere for a plug. MyDD and Think Progress were among the blogs talking about the conference call and the book.
-- The blog of the House's Republican Study Committee has experienced a burst of activity this year, according to Brad Dayspring, the committee's communications director. Sessions on the site more than tripled when comparing last month to April 2006, he said via e-mail, and page views jumped more than fivefold.
-- Jonathan Tasini, who unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in last year's New York Democratic primary, has moved his blog Working Life under the auspices of the Labor Research Association.
-- A FindLaw columnist examined the "fair use" exception to copyright law and how it applies to bloggers like Malkin who want to use video excerpts and photographs without permission. A recent decision about "thumbnail" images on Google could have bearing on the debate.
-- A blogger in California spent months in jail for contempt of court because a judge said he wasn't a journalist and thus not protected by the state's "shield law" protecting anonymous sources. Now another blogger is in court under the same logic as a lawyer tries to get her to testify and relinquish notes in a lawsuit brought by a Hawaii landowner.
-- Blogger La Shawn Barber has a detailed post about the now-dismissed rape case against Duke University lacrosse players and how the media rushed to judgment in condemning them. One journalist who didn't join the rush, and who was the first to raise questions about whether the case was justified, was National Journal columnist Stuart Taylor Jr.
-- Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., is hosting a Web project called the Solutions Factory, where conservatives are encouraged to share their ideas for "Republican Renewal." Cantor recently discussed the effort in a blogger conference call.
-- The Politico is profiling big-name bloggers in a new feature called "BlogJam." The publication started with two liberals, Kevin Drum of The Political Animal and Matt Stoller of MyDD. Stoller called attention to his work on "network neutrality."
-- Utah state Rep. Steve Urquhart, the subject of one of my first Beltway Blogroll columns, was among the speakers at last week's Personal Democracy Forum. He talked about his Politicopia wiki for covering the Utah legislature. David All has video of some of Urquhart's comments about Politicopia.
Posted by Danny at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)
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'Danny Glover Should Be Ashamed'
That's the headline over at Congress Blog. Gets me every time. I honestly wondered for a split second what I possibly could have done to offend Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla.
But as it turns out, it's that other Danny Glover -- you know, the actor who has made a fortune off my name. I really should start charging royalties just to compensate me for the hassle of the hate mail I get every time he is in the news.
What did he do this time? Here's what Mack says:
I was shocked and saddened when I heard the news that actor Danny Glover accepted approximately $18 million from Venezuela’s self-proclaimed Communist President Hugo Chavez to film two upcoming movies. ... To turn to an avowed enemy of the United States -- and someone who in his own right has snuffed out dissent and free speech -- for movie financing smacks of radicalism and opportunism run amuck.Danny Glover should refuse to accept Hugo Chavez’s tainted movie deal and instead work with legitimate enterprises, investors and financiers who value freedom, treasure our nation and who won’t climb into bed with renegade communist dictators.
UPDATE: This just in from Mack's press secretary: "I wanted to let you know that Congressman Mack saw your blog posting just now -- and he thinks you (the real Danny Glover) do a great job!"
Posted by Danny at 01:10 PM | Comments (0)
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The netroots have been distracted by wonky issues like emergency spending and the Iraq war of late, but with that major clash lost to President Bush, policy playtime is about to end.
Now that Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos has returned from his weeks-long paternity leave, he and his netroots have turned their attention to their first love: politics. And they are already plotting their 2008 online attacks.
Kingpin Kos barked his call to arms hours after being back on the job full time on Monday. The order: "Videotape Everything They Do" -- "they" being Republican presidential candidates.
"Every appearance by a top Republican official or candidate should be recorded. Every one of them," he wrote. "All it takes is one 'macaca' incident to transform a race or create one where one didn't exist."
Over at MyDD, meanwhile, an anonymous commenter seized on a post by Chris Bowers to say that it soon may be time to reach back into the netroots bag of online tricks and grab another successful tool from the 2006 campaign: "Google bombs" against GOP candidates.
"Considering that there is a lag before Google's index will be updated, it's likely prudent to start the 2008 presidential Google bomb once the Republican nominee is known," Monkey In Chief wrote. "I wonder if an early round targeted at all the candidates ... wouldn't be of value. The only downside to starting early is that it gives the other side more time to respond."
Both netroots calls to action have other bloggers, including those on the right, talking about online strategy.
At Blog P.I., my former National Journal colleague William Beutler pondered the possibilities of a "reverse Google bomb" aimed at preventing negative manipulation of search-engine data on candidates. And Dean Barnett at HughHewitt.com, who just last week chastised Republicans for copying the tactics of the netroots, said Republicans should think about copying the tactics of the netroots on this one.
But when it comes to videotaping, The Hillary Spot's Jim Geraghty, also once a colleague of mine at a now-defunct online publication, isn't convinced that the tactic has much staying power.
"[W]e will see various campaigns trying to persuade the media and the voting public that they've recorded the next big 'macaca moment' on the part of their opponent," he wrote, "But each successive 'shocking moment' will make the previous one stand out less. I suspect that after a while, voters will be less surprised or interested in a candidate stubbing his toe and dropping the f-bomb, or flipping off a hostile reporter or whatever."
That is an astute analysis.
Posted by Danny at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)
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Amanda Marcotte, 'Hero' Or 'Bigot'?
Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon was all over the news early this year during her short-lived and controversial career as the chief blogger for the presidential campaign of Democrat John Edwards.
So does her experience make her a "hero" or a "bigot"? It all depends on who you're asking.
BlogPac, an outfit run by Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller of MyDD, think Marcotte is a hero and gave her $1,000 last week "for her courage in the face of an irresponsible media."
Conservative blogger Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation has a different view: "Since when did it become heroic to act as an anti-Catholic, trash-talking bigot?"
Posted by Danny at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)
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GOP Is Not So Grand At Online Politics
The Washington Post has a front-page piece (also syndicated at MSNBC) about Republicans who aren't so thrilled with their party's seeming willingness to finish second in the online political realm.
The writer, Jose Antonio Vargas, asked for my perspective. Here's the part of my analysis that made it into print:
K. Daniel Glover, who edits National Journal's Technology Daily, cited several other bright spots for Republicans in recent weeks -- Fred D. Thompson, the former senator and "Law & Order" star who's considering a White House run, immediately started connecting with the conservative "right roots," the equivalent of the progressive "Net roots," and Rep. John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, the House minority leader, has joined Twitter, a social networking site."But look at the short history of online politics," Glover said. "For Republicans, the Internet is where bad things happen. Take [former U.S. senator] George Allen and his 'macaca' moment. . . . You can kind of understand why Republicans have this almost instinctive fear of the Internet, where the mob rules."
That last quote about "mob rule" begs further explanation. I made the point when telling Jose that Republicans historically haven't been as interested as Democrats in embracing "the people" -- in part because Republicans often see the people as an unruly mob that needs to be led rather an informed electorate whose will should be followed.
The current divide over the Iraq war illustrates the point. Most polls show a majority of Americans now firmly opposed to the war, and Democrats repeatedly cite the numbers as one reason to bring U.S. troops home. Republicans argue that government shouldn't decide weighty matters like war based on shifting public opinions and say instead that voters need to trust the commander-in-chief and military leaders on the ground in Iraq.
So how do those philosophies translate into online politics?
The Internet is the most democratic medium in history, and its fans place great trust in the ability of citizens to change politics for the better. Democrats share that confidence -- despite being burned online themselves occasionally -- because they are philosophically inclined in that direction. Republicans are not, and the bad things that happen to them online just reinforce their mistrust of the mob.
That's why Democrats have the edge in Internet politics.
Now on to a related topic: Former Republican Party e-campaign director Michael Turk also was quoted in the story, and like me, he elaborated on his thoughts in a post titled "Context."
The fact that both he and I felt compelled to say a bit more about our views on the subject are timely in light of another article in the Post this morning about the best way of conducting journalistic interviews in the Internet era.
My thoughts: I conduct interviews by e-mail, phone and in person, whether I'm the interviewer or the interviewee, and each option has its strengths and weaknesses. Knowing when to choose which method, and when to insist on one over the other (e-mail is not the best format for impromptu follow-up questions on controversial topics, for instance), is part of what makes a good journalist.
Whether journalists conduct their interviews by e-mail, phone or in person, however, they should never object to having them recorded and fully aired/published. And with the Internet, doing so is much easier. Yes, the Web is great for journalistic democracy, too -- and I for one embrace it.
Posted by Danny at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
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Technology Daily senior writer Heather Greenfield was in New York yesterday and today for the annual Personal Democracy Forum event. You can read some of her coverage over at Tech Daily Dose. Jeff Jarvis also has coverage at PrezVid.
North Carolina blogger/journalist Ed Cone, meanwhile, penned a critical review of PDF:
Limited interactivity, mostly lectures from the stage to an audience -- it didn't seem very personal or democratic or forum-like. The content was sometimes very good, but it wasn't especially fresh or granular. If one more person had said that the internets were "revolutionary" and "transformative" I would have required medication. Much of the day came across as a remedial lesson for NY/DC elites who are finally realizing that this Internet stuff is actually happening; but for references to YouTube and MySpace, it could have been 2003.The conference itself was well-organized and well-run. The crowd and program were full of smart folks, and the conversations and connections in the hallways and between sessions -- always the best part of these things -- were worth the trip. But the sessions felt ... off.
Cone's comments reflect what I heard from Heather yesterday -- and what I had expected well in advance of the conference after seeing the list of speakers and topics.
Heather had a tough time getting a story out of the event for our PM Edition because the conference featured the same high-profile bloggers and other speakers saying the same things we've reported over and over again in recent months. If the organizers of the event hadn't issued a six-point challenge for this year's presidential candidates to make it a goal to become the first tech president, our story would have been as dry as the conference was up until our mid-afternoon deadline.
You'd think that with technology and the Internet changing as quickly as it does that these politics and technology conferences could keep pace and not be so dry. Although I wasn't at either event and thus may not be the best critic, the Online News Association event in Wisconsin a day before PDF, covered by a Tech Daily stringer, struck me as much more newsworthy and engaging than PDF.
As Cone noted, the trip was worthwhile because of the networking opportunities and the chance for unofficial conversations with smart and innovative thinkers in politics and technology. Heather undoubtedly will return from New York with some fresh story ideas to pursue. But the official conference appears to have been a bit of a dud.
UPDATE: PDF has a roundup of links to other coverage of the conference in its daily digest.
Posted by Danny at 11:27 AM | Comments (1)
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Bill Frist, Fred Thompson And New Media
For much of last year, political observers thought Bill Frist of Tennessee was going to seek the Republican presidential nomination. He had used blogs, podcasts and other new media to endear himself to many in the party.
Weeks after Republicans lost control of Congress to Democrats, Frist decided to take a break from politics when his Senate term and stint as Senate majority leader ended. But he hasn't taken a break from new media -- and now he sees it as a great tool for another Tennessee Republican who may run for president: Fred Thompson.
Frist has been blogging steadily about Thompson for a couple of months now, and in a post earlier this month, he praised Thompson's use of new media.
"For some time now he has been speaking directly to Americans and wisely relying upon the new media to get his message out," Frist noted. "His ABC radio podcasts are downloaded everyday and linked to by many popular, conservative blogs including: RedState, Wizbang, Pajamas Media, etc. Since I began blogging and podcasting almost two years ago, I know how powerful a medium the New Media is and how effective this type of outreach can be."
Thompson knows it, too. "By empowering individuals and building communities, the Internet provides a way of going around the inside-the-beltway crowd to reach people in numbers unheard of not that long ago," he wrote at Pajamas Media after a 48 percent showing in the site's GOP presidential straw poll. "I believe this direct communication and discussion is going to have an enormous impact on our political process."
Posted by Danny at 07:11 PM | Comments (0)
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Inside The Blogway
Folks are talking about a map of the political blogosphere published by The Politico this week. I produced an "Inside The Blogway" map of my own back in January when I spoke to journalism students about blogs and the future of media. I thought Beltway Blogroll readers might like to see it, too.
Here's the image (larger version available as a PDF file), which illustrated the conclusion to my speech, and you can click to the extended entry for my explanation to the students:
I could stand here all day and tell you stories about blogs and technology in politics:
-- I could tell you about the triangulation approach to blogs employed by candidates like Ned Lamont of Connecticut -- embrace them whey they are helping your campaign, deny that you're involved with them when they do things like paint Joseph Lieberman in blackface;
-- I could tell you about the other scandals some bloggers created for their favorites;
-- About the "Google bombs" that bloggers used to try to influence voter perceptions;
-- About the attempts to vandalize candidate bios on Wikipedia, a collaborative online encyclopedia whose content can be edited by the public;
-- About the candidate pages, both real and satirical, that began appearing at Facebook, MySpace and other online social networks;
-- And about the blog luncheon with former President Clinton that deteriorated into a bizarre fight about whether one of the female bloggers "posed" in a way that was meant to showcase her breasts.
But you get the idea. Blogs matter. YouTube matters. Google matters. Wikipedia matters. Online social networks matter. And in a couple of years, desktop applications called "widgets" may be the new, new thing that will matter.
I'll close by giving you a peek at all of those things -- a peek inside what I call the Blogway. This quick slide show will give you a sense of just how rapidly the political media world is changing.
The innovators
-- Instapundit
-- Daily Kos
-- RedState
-- MyDD
Working from outside
-- Outside the Beltway
-- The Agonist
-- Captain's Quarters
-- Hugh Hewitt
-- TalkLeft
-- Right Wing News
Working from inside
-- Americablog
-- Political Wire
-- Personal Democracy Forum
-- White House Watch
Emerging media
-- Center for Citizen Media
-- NewAssignment.net
-- Wikipedia
-- MySpace
Hottest trend: Internet video
-- YouTube
-- PoliticsTV
-- Hot Air
More Beltway bloggers
-- Porkbusters
-- SCOTUS Blog
-- Congress Blog
The newcomers
-- The Politico
-- AirCongress (my personal site, launched in November)
And that's just a sampling. The size of the blogosphere has been doubling about every six months for quite a while now, and it seems like there's a new site or service that goes online every week or two. The bottom line is that blogs and the Internet are powerful forces in politics and the media, and that is not going to change anytime soon.
The new leaders of Congress acknowledged that power last week by granting bloggers special attention when the new session started. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California gave Democratic bloggers special access inside the Capitol, and numerous lawmakers sought out the bloggers. PoliticsTV, which is part media and part activism, posted video interviews with more than a dozen House Democrats. Other bloggers did likewise. In the Senate, Minority Leader MItch McConnell held a conference call with select Republican bloggers.
More of the same can be expected by both parties and in both chambers. And before you know it, more lawmakers may be blogging themselves. Just a few weeks ago, the House approved secure software that every office can use to add blogs to the offerings on their Web sites.
Whether they will avail themselves of it remains to be seen. ... The technologically driven changes we are seeing in politics and the media terrify a lot of my colleagues and a lot of politicians. Rather than embrace the wonderful opportunities presented by the Internet, too many of them have taken cover beneath the imagined safety of their green eyeshades or in their smoke-filled backrooms.
But soon enough, those people will be relics of the past. You are the future. Journalism in the 21st century will be what you make it. Politics will be what you make it. I look forward to seeing how you use the tools you have today and the ones you are certain to create tomorrow.
Posted by Danny at 09:02 PM | Comments (4)
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How in the world does something like this happen in the 21st century (as noted at Technology Daily this morning)? And why is this judge allowed to rule in the case?
Basic terms like "Web site" baffled a British judge on Wednesday in the trial of three accused terrorists who allegedly used the Internet to incite terrorism in Britain and beyond, Reuters reports."I don't really understand what a Web site is," Judge Peter Openshaw, 59, told the court. The prosecutor explained the terms "Web site" and "forum" to the judge, but the judge responded that he has not "quite grasped the concepts."
Exchanges on a Web forum used by alleged Islamist radicals and violent material posted on the Internet, including a video of Western hostages being beheaded, is central to the case.
UPDATE: Reuters has published a follow-up story that cites the United Kingdom Judicial Communications Office as saying the judge is computer literate and "was simply clarifying the evidence presented, in an easily understandable form for all those in court."
I received an e-mail and statement to the same effect from the commission, but I'm not convinced by the explanation. As I noted in an exchange with the corporate communications editor for the commission, Openshaw was quoted as saying "'I don't understand.' That doesn't sound to me like he was trying to clarify it for "everyone in court" or to make sure "it is given in a form all can understand."
The commission did not dispute the accuracy of the quote.
It's entirely possible that the judge simply chose his words poorly and does, in fact, understand Web sites. I'd say that's even likely because I just can't imagine anyone living in the developed world in the 21st century, and especially a public official, who doesn't have at least superficial knowledge of the Web.
But as for the commission's interpretation of what transpired in court, I'll let the judge's words speak for me: "The trouble is I don't understand the language."
Posted by Danny at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)
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Technology Daily sent a stringer to cover an Online News Association event in Wisconsin yesterday. The subject: how presidential candidates are approaching and integrating digital strategies into their campaigns.
The early discussion focused on how candidates are using blogs to test market new messages. Here's an excerpt from the story:
Wisconsin Republican strategist Brian Fraley indicated that statewide blogs are an excellent tool to "test ideas -- and see if they are press release worthy." He said campaigns overall are now devoting more staffing and money to monitoring and cultivating bloggers and online sites.Fraley cited this week's example of Fred Thompson, a possible candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, releasing an online video in response to a recent trip to Cuba by liberal filmmaker, author and activist Michael Moore.
Thompson previously had criticized the trip, and Moore challenged him to a debate. Thompson answered the challenged in a video released through the Internet rather than the mainstream media. In the video, Thompson noted that another documentary filmmaker had been put in a mental hospital in Cuba. "He made quite a point of emphasizing the words 'mental institution'" when speaking to Moore through the video, Fraley said.
Democratic consultant Ted Osthelder agreed that the Internet video had a dramatic impact on Thompson's visibility as a potential player in 2008. "I don't think campaigns are going to spend $100 million on YouTube.com" like they might on traditional campaign ads, Osthelder said, but more people may well remember Thompson's inexpensive video.
You can read the whole thing at Tech Daily Dose, our publication's blog.
Minnesota resident Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters was a panelist at the ONA event and live-blogged it in three separate entries. He also did a live broadcast of the panel discussion for his CQ Radio show on BlogTalkRadio, where Morrissey now works full time as the political director.
Posted by Danny at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)
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The Whittier Daily News reports that the city of Pomona, Calif., has sued a local political blog for defamation over the blogs surmisings about the departure of the city manager.
Foothill Cities, run by two anonymous posters, says it "[promotes] responsible, limited local government and [exposes] corruption and government waste." The city of Pomona says the Internet Web log is nothing more than a supermarket tabloid in electronic form.... Experts say the battlefield in the dispute between government and those who cover it has morphed from disputes over the flimsy pamphlets of the 1700s to the quarrels over the transient bits and bytes of cyberspace.
Nearly two-dozen blogs cover some form of politics or life in the northeastern portion of Los Angeles County stretching from Claremont to Pasadena. Some are serious; some are not. "Fortunately, the First Amendment covers new technologies," said Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor. "It's the message rather than the media."
The evolution of political commentary from pamphlets to newspapers to television to the Internet is not unlike the evolution of transportation from horse-drawn carriages to mag-lev trains, said Volokh, who has a group blog at Volokh Conspiracy.
Volokh wrote about the case earlier this week. He noted that Supreme Court precedent means the city has no chance of winning a suit if it pursues one.
"[W]hile I certainly think it's wrong to make knowingly or recklessly false statements about government entities, and while it may be libelous to make such statements about particular city employees or officials, it cannot be libelous even to say outright lies about the City of Pomona more broadly," Volokh wrote.
Posted by Danny at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)
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China Relents On Blog Registration
As noted in Technology Daily this morning:
The Chinese Ministry of Information Industry has abandoned plans for a law that would require all Chinese blog services to obtain verifiable personal details from users before they could blog, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The government is expected to ask industry players to sign a pact and promote the use of real-name registration, according to Yang Junzuo, who heads a committee with the Internet Society of China.
"We are leaving it to the industry to guide the development," Yang said. China has attempted to control the use of technology by citizens in a number of ways and faced challenges in the process.
Posted by Danny at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)
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I'm several days late in reporting this news but just heard about it from a reader: Erick Erickson of RedState is running for office. He wants to be a city councilman in Macon, Ga.
Erickson, a Republican who is in the heat of an ethical battle against elected Republicans in the U.S. House, began considering his entrance into politics earlier this month after encouragement from others. After some soul-searching and prayer, he decided to take the plunge.
"Christy [Erickson's wife] and I complain about the direction Macon is headed all the time and yet we live here," Erickson wrote. "Here's an opportunity to try to change the place for the better. I think I’d regret it more if I did not try than to try and maybe fail. ... [I]t's time to stop offering solutions and actually try to solve the problems."
He filed the paperwork May 10 and is accepting campaign donations via PayPal at his personal blog. The campaign has a logo that rejects "outside the box" thinking. (I had to point that out because I once wrote a local newspaper column called "Inside The Box.")
Texas Tipster, the diarist at RedState whose e-mail enlightened me to Erickson's city council bid, sees a conspiracy connection between that run and his crusade against the House GOP. That seems pretty far-fetched to me, but you can decide for yourself after reading his take on things.
In any case, Erickson's bid for council is the latest example of a blogger running for office. I mentioned other blogger candidates last year and also noted that Tim Tagaris, who is currently working for the presidential campaign of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., plans to run someday, too.
Posted by Danny at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
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Blog Bits: Rightroots In-Fighting
To be activists or not to be activists. That is the question that top Republican bloggers are asking themselves this week as RedState challenges the House GOP leadership.
Dean Barnett over at HughHewitt.com said the answer should be a resounding "no" because the last thing bloggers on the right want is to become like Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos. He scolded Erick Erickson of RedState for his "needlessly purple and hostile" prose in attacking fellow Republicans for elevating ethically troubled Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., to the Appropriations Committee.
Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation, who blogs at RedState, defended Erickson's activism (if not his in-your-face tactics) and noted that Barnett himself joined an online activist campaign against fellow Republicans just months ago.
Matt Lewis of Townhall.com then reprimanded Bluey. "Rob has always had a bias toward using blogs for activism. My only argument would be that I think we all bring different things to the conservative movement -- and that the movement is big enough for different kinds of bloggers."
GOP new media maven David All just blogged back and took it all in with a "this is an interesting ideological duel to watch" distance from the battlefield, kind of like people watching the Civil War in the 1860s.
I've been soaking it all in myself, and here's what I'm thinking (tongue planted firmly in cheek):
The Bible says "evil companions corrupt good morals." Conservative bloggers think Kos and his online colleagues, like Jerome Armstrong and Matt Stoller of MyDD, are the epitome of evil. Some conservative bloggers have been keeping company with those very same netroots celebrities. So ...
Hey, I'm just thinkin' out loud. And I'm not alone. Just the other day, a writer at RedState asked, "Are We Becoming Them?"
Mull it over while you read the rest of today's blog bits:
-- The presidential campaign of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., "has hired a traveling blogger to write and videblog his campaign trips in real time." Ari Melber praised the choice of Matt Browner Hamlin. "The Dodd campaign was smart to tap a true believer who challenges the conventional wisdom in the blogs and the papers, even if he's never worked on a campaign before."
-- Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is generating some blogospheric buzz as a presidential candidate. Recent praise from Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish downstairs here at the Watergate building may have something to do with that. Of course at last night's GOP presidential debate, the buzz about Paul took an ugly turn, so Sullivan has expended much energy today defending the darkhorse.
-- Fred Thompson, another Republican who has not yet officially entered the presidential race, is creating his own buzz in the blogosphere -- by blogging, in word and video.
-- The early cliche of Campaign 2008: "The YouTube Election." Even Vanity Fair has used that headline now, under the byline of James Wolcott no less.
-- Blogs are blowing the whistle on the pharmaceutical industry, and Congress is responding.
-- Outside the Beltway blogger James Joyner and Jeff Mascott of the Adfero Group public affairs firm offered folks on Capitol Hill some advice in The Politico on how to befriend bloggers. Burt Edwards was less than impressed with the advice and responded in a sarcastic guest post at e.politics.
-- What's wrong with this picture? The U.S. Mission to the United Nations held a briefing to celebrate the world's bloggers (and rightfully so). But the mission reportedly wouldn't let bloggers cover the invitation-only event by new Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. The U.S. Senate Press Gallery, meanwhile, revoked the credentials of a reporter for ConsumerAffairs.com because of questions about the site's "business model."
-- Liberal commentator Eric Alterman (whose work I once edited when I was the associate editor at the opinion e-zine IntellectualCapital.com) defies labels. He said he is neither a part of the netroots nor the mainstream media. "I like to think that my position outside the both of them -- academia, too -- allows me to see each one's limitations more clearly." Although I'm a paycheck-cashing member of the MSM and blogger, his point rings true to my work here at Beltway Blogroll as a media/blog observer and critic.
-- Max Sawicky of the Economic Policy Institute is a liberal but no fan of the netroots. Read his six-point critique of the movement at TPMCafe.
-- Ethics alert: Bloggers are accepting gifts from television networks and film studios to write positive reviews. The Wall Street Journal called it "blogola." Steve Young of The Huffington Post said political campaigns appear to be taking notes from their commercial counterparts, and bloggers are buying Web sites "for purely political reasons."
-- A few days ago, I called attention to some surprisingly thoughtful media criticism from a blogger. Liberal blogger Ezra Klein was impressed by that Daily Kos post, too, though he focused on the expertise that bloggers can add to coverage rather than the limits of journalism.
-- Reporters who attack bloggers and what R.J. Eskow thinks of them: Read it at The Huffington Post. Plus more thoughts from Eschaton and Unclaimed Territory. Back in March, Eschaton griped about the "hackery" of campaign journalism, but I guess attacks by bloggers on the media are perfectly OK.
-- Matthew Sheffield of NewsBusters, a publication of the conservative Media Research Center, argued that blogs produced by mainstream media outlets prove the liberal bias of the MSM. But Eric Boehlert, a blogger at The Huffington Post, said separately that The Washington Post, one of those outlets that Sheffield no doubt considers liberal, is guilty of "heavy-handed indifference to the achievements of liberal bloggers" and pointed readers to his Media Matters for America report to bolster that view.
-- And here's what one critic at the Post thinks of the plague of anonymity wrought by blogs and the online world: "In any community in America, if Mr. anticrat424 refused to identify himself, he would be ignored and frozen out of the civic problem-solving process. But on the Internet, Mr. anticrat424 is continually elevated to the podium, where he can have his angriest thoughts amplified through cyberspace as often as he wishes. He can call people the vilest names and that hate-mongering, too, will be amplified for all the world to see."
-- The Mercury News published a story about "hateful discourse on blogs," which has been a hot topic of debate online since talk of a blog code of ethics surfaced a few weeks ago. My thoughts on the subject: Bloggers should be more civil, but no code will make it happen. Seen it, done it, been there, and it was a miserable failure.
-- Does your workplace need a policy for blogs and personal Web sites? If so, you might want to read this.
Posted by Danny at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)
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GOP Silence Frustrates Online Activists
As reported this afternoon in Technology Daily:
Online activists from conservative and nonpartisan organizations and blogs are getting frustrated as they push Republican lawmakers for more transparency.
The party's own activists are among those working to expose the senator or senators behind an objection to a bill that would require electronic disclosures of campaign filings. The Sunlight Foundation has asked blog readers to call every Republican senator to see who is blocking the e-filing bill from Senate passage by voice vote.
Sunlight Foundation Director Ellen Miller said backers of the measure are frustrated that "numerous" telephone calls to Senate offices have been met with a wall of silence, and she blamed Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Online GOP activists also want to know which House Republicans voted to put Ken Calvert, R-Calif., on the Appropriations Committee, a move they oppose.
RedState Editor-in-Chief Erick Erickson asked readers to bombard key members with calls. He later charged the office of House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, with telling lawmakers not to reveal their votes.
Spokesman for both Boehner and McConnell denied that the lawmakers are blocking the efforts.
Posted by Danny at 05:05 PM | Comments (0)
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I have said before that blog power in Washington is limited by the people who truly have the power. In other words, bloggers only have as much power as establishment politicians and bureaucrats are willing to cede.
And when it comes to the internal workings of Congress, the powers-that-be aren't willing to cede much to the powers-that-wannabe. That seems to be especially true of Republican powerbrokers.
RedState and other GOP blogs who are on an ethics crusade against the House Republican leadership are learning that reality anew this week.
The bloggers and their readers are trying to pressure GOP leaders to reverse last week's appointment of Rep. Ken Calvert of California to a party slot on the Appropriations Committee. Calvert was elevated to the slot after another California Republican, John Doolittle, resigned from the panel amid ethical concerns, and Calvert's critics believe he has too much ethical baggage of his own.
Early reports indicate that GOP leaders aren't too thrilled with the crusade, and they apparently are willing to fight their "rightroots" activists this time.
RedState's Erick Erickson, who picked the fight, reported yesterday that the staff of House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, is pressuring GOP Steering Committee members "to not say how they voted on Calvert" because it could end up reflecting poorly on Boehner.
In a note this morning to members of the RedState group at the Facebook online social network, Erickson added details about the reaction of John Linder, R-Ga., to the anti-Calvert campaign:
A reporter called to get my response to this: John Linder told the reporter less than 10 people called yesterday about Calvert and that it does not matter anyway because he does not trust anything bloggers have to say. So, now you know where you rank with John Linder. Oh, and I know he got more than 10 calls. Do all politicians lie?
The conflict now comes down to a battle of wills between the rightroots and the establishment.
Will GOP bloggers have the staying power to force transparency in Congress, or will their outsider crusade flame out because not enough people care about inside-the-Beltway maneuverings? Can Republican Steering Committee members who have good reason to keep their votes on a controversial appointment secret withstand the heat?
Liberal bloggers have managed to sustain and win these kinds of fights before. Earlier this year, for instance, they pressured the Democratic Party to reverse its decision to participate in a presidential debate hosted by Fox News, which many liberals see as being biased in favor of conservatives.
But liberal bloggers are much better at coordinating their activism online, a fact that leading GOP bloggers readily admit. In fact, some Republican-leaning bloggers are loathe to embrace any "movement."
The anti-Calvert crusade, then, will test whether the rightroots have learned anything from their netroots counterparts -- or even whether they want to behave like them.
Erickson's decision to resurrect an arrest report against Calvert that is nearly 15 years old and repeatedly call attention to Calvert's encounter with "a heroin-addicted prostitute" -- even though Calvert was nabbed while in Congress and has been re-elected multiple times since -- proves that Erickson is willing to fight like the netroots.
The liberal blog Think Progress adopted the same tactic in condemning Calvert. And last year, John Aravosis of Americablog rallied his troops against a constitutional amendment against gay marriage by highlighting the transgressions of "family values hypocrites."
But others may not be willing to follow Erickson's lead in adopting that kind of in-your-face strategy -- at least not for the long haul necessary to convince GOP leaders that Calvert must go.
Posted by Danny at 12:05 PM | Comments (1)
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As reported in yesterday's PM Edition of Technology Daily:
Universal Music Group has abandoned its attempt to silence syndicated conservative columnist Michelle Malkin for her online criticism of one of the label's controversial artists, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said Monday.
Earlier this month, Universal filed a copyright notice regarding a recent episode of Malkin's online video in which she called hip-hop star Akon a "misogynist." She supported her claims with excerpts from his songs and video clips of him with a teenage girl at a Trinidad nightclub.
EFF said Malkin's video, which was posted on YouTube, was legally protected "fair use" and fought a takedown notice from Universal on her behalf. The video has been put back online.
EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl called the label's copyright claim "bogus" and said the company misused a 2001 copyright law. "Shame on any copyright holder who would attempt to use the DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] to intimidate and silence critics," Malkin said in a statement.
(You can see the video in question at Hot Air, Malkin's video blog, or at MichelleMalkin.com.)
Posted by Danny at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)
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Military Hits Blogs First, Then YouTube And More
Although sensationalized by fans of milblogs, the Army's guidelines on the Internet musings of soldiers are real. Now comes word from AP and Stars & Stripes that the Defense Department as a whole is taking other steps to control Internet access by soldiers.
Specifically, the department has blocked access to the YouTube video-sharing site, the MySpace online social network and 11 other sites that are popular among deployed troops who want to communicate with family and friends. Technology Daily mentioned cited AP this morning. Here's the heart of our summary:
According to a memorandum sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the policy is being implemented to protect sensitive information and lessen "recreational" Internet traffic that impacts the department's network and bandwidth ability and poses "a significant operational security challenge." Members of the military still will be able to access the sites on their own computers and networks. However, the department's computers and networks are the only ones that many troops stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq can use.
The news has not yet generated the kind of knee-jerk, don't-censor-blogs reaction among bloggers as the Wired article about milblog rules did earlier this month.
"I don’t even know why this is news," FederalRepublic.net noted. "Even though the media is hyping this up as a new policy decision, it’s really not. In my experience, every base has its own network policies, with each having its own say as to what sites are blocked or restricted. When I went to Iraq, MySpace, YouTube and even this blog were restricted.
But the story may yet trigger another blog swarm. I've seen critical commentary so far at Daily Kos and My Two Sense. I'll update this post as necessary.
One ironic footnote to the story: The Multinational Force in Iraq recently launched its own channel on YouTube to promote the military's efforts there, so the new Internet-filtering regime apparently will keep the troops who are fighting the war in Iraq from seeing themselves on Internet TV or pointing their family and friends to select videos.
Posted by Danny at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)
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As noted in Technology Daily this morning:
The editor of RedState began over the weekend to rally fellow conservatives against House Republicans for their decision to temporarily appoint Ken Calvert, R-Calif. to the spot on the House Appropriations Committee left vacant by Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif.
The Hill reports that Erick Erickson said: "There were plenty of other Republicans who would have been eligible and good. Instead, they made a lateral move from Doolittle to Calvert, who has not only had several questionable land deals but also an arrest."
Calvert's press secretary, Rebecca Rudman, responded on the blog, saying that any allegations of wrongdoing regarding the land deals were false and that Calvert's appointment was "completely aired out before the steering committee and the full Republican Conference." Calvert also defended himself against the attacks in an entry on RedState.
The Hill further reported that RedState plans to intensify its coordinated campaign against members of the steering committee.
Posted by Danny at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)
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Mother's Day, The Mountain State And My Mom
I have West Virginia on the brain this weekend, so bear with me while I write a bit more about the great Mountain State that I called home for the first 20-plus years of my life. The subject this time: Mother's Day.
The holiday that families all across America are celebrating today actually got its start in West Virginia. (Father's Day also began there.) Gayle Manchin, the state's first lady, recounted the history in an article last week, and U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., has mentioned that history in the past on the Senate floor.
Byrd, in fact, usually gives a Mother's Day speech every year at about this time. Here's an excerpt from this year's commemoration, given on Friday:
On this one lovely spring Sunday, the nation heeds the biblical admonition to "honor thy mother." It is an opportunity to make up for those times all year that we may have overlooked our own mothers' contributions to our well-being, or snapped at her well-meaning advice and loving attempts to straighten our collars and smooth our hair. Such is the lot of mothers -- to be essential but so often unappreciated. Mothers are like water -- without a mother, life could not exist, while not enough mothering can stunt growth like a plant in a desert, but too much mothering can be as smothering as floodwaters on a field of corn.Motherhood is a delicate high-wire act, balancing love and discipline, care and independence, attention and self-reliance. It is time consuming, often stressful, unpaid, and with no promotion and little recognition. It is a Sisyphean task. Yet mothers persevere, rising each day to begin anew, building families with every meal they prepare, every schedule they coordinate, every book they read with their children, every dirty sock they collect and transform into clean and folded laundry.
It takes strong women to do it well and to keep up the effort over the many years of childrearing, for this is not a job that one can hand in a resignation letter or shop around a resume to find a better position. It is a job that is truly what a mother makes of it, for good or for ill. "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world," observed W.R. Wallace.
Maybe I have West Virginia on the brain because that's where my own mother still lives. I was not the easiest of children to rear, but Mom did a fantastic job "balancing love and discipline, care and independence, attention and self-reliance," just as her senior senator so aptly said mothers must do.
Byrd noted later in his speech that "mothers remain a constant in the lives of their offspring for years afterward, sometimes actively involved and sometimes waiting in the background in case they are needed." That certainly has been true of my mother in innumerable ways.
One in particular came to mind this day, as our own three young children (7, 5 and 2) awakened their mother with breakfast in bed and singing greeting cards. I remembered fondly the trip that both Mom (and Dad) took with my wife, our two oldest children and me two years ago last month to adopt our youngest, Catie.
Those days will forever rank among the most special in my life (even though I had to travel home on a day when I was horribly ill). And thanks to the blogosphere, I can relive them every day at Catie Come Home.
Thanks for the memories and your lifetime of dedication, Mom. I love you. Happy Mother's Day!
Posted by Danny at 12:37 PM | Comments (0)
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Several days ago when I wrote about how blogs blow things out of proportion, I based my analysis on the latest netroots attack against Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn. That prompted one reader to ask, "Any evidence from the popular blogs of the right on this?"
As if on cue, right-wing bloggers answered for me that very day, in the form of hysteria about the Army allegedly trying to shut down blogs by active-duty military personnel.
Reacting to a melodramatic Wired article about broad "operations security" regulations that included references to blogs, the fans of milblogs (and the military) decried the Pentagon as a would-be censor whose dimwitted attempt at regulating free speech would kill the best public relations tool the Army has in the war against terror.
The breathless blog headlines included: "The End Of Military Blogging" (Blackfive); "The Death Of Combat Blogging" (Mary Katharine Ham); and "The Army Disarms Itself" (Michelle Malkin).
Other high-profile bloggers who scolded the Army for the move included Hugh Hewitt, Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine and Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.
All of the chatter on the blogs grabbed the attention of mainstream and specialty media. Stories appeared in Slate, News.com and Fox News, as well as on National Public Radio and WTOP, an NPR affiliate in Washington.
The AP and UPI wire services hyped the story further -- to the extent that even foreign news outlets in Australia (here and here) and Great Britain reported on it.
Military.com picked up an AP article, and both Army Times
and Stars & Stripes reported the news, though with a more reasoned voice than found on the blogs or in some other outlets.
The controversy made great fodder for the second annual Milblog Conference, which occurred in Arlington, Va., just days after Wired published the story that started the blog swarm.
To be fair, not all right-leaning blogs fell for the Wired-induced hype. A blogger called ArmyLawyer took a closer look at the meaning of the regulations over at Mudville Gazette. And after Wired published a follow-up piece with actual comment from Army officials who said they had no intention of censoring or certainly killing milblogs, bloggers like Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters softened their previous criticism of the Army -- and raised questions about Wired's initial coverage of the story.
"What does this mean?" Morrissey wrote. "It means that bloggers will get trained in OpSec rules and regulations and then [be] allowed to police their own conduct. The key word here is 'trust'. The Army got this right today. Now, the question is whether Wired got it wrong in the first place."
But a blogger at RedState, which recently sent some of its own bloggers to Iraq to embed with troops, cautioned that milblogs may now become an endangered species because of the "Armegeddon nature of the reporting" on Wired, the blogs and elsewhere.
"Milblogs have been critical in maintaining both information on and support for the war in Iraq. We don’t have to rely on the usual bevy of disgruntled troops for commentary on the mission. We can get if from a lot of people who understand why we are at war in Iraq. An inartfully worded regulation and an inaccurate report may very well have destroyed that credibility forever."
Posted by Danny at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)
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It's a Frogger-like online game from Unity '08, an Internet movement that aims to recruit a bipartisan presidential ticket for the 2008 campaign.
Voters have to avoid "the parties, the special interests and the lunatic drivers trying to run you down" while you cross the streets on the way to DemocracyLand. Losers may get "shot" by Vice President Richard Cheney or be tortured by the infamous "Dean scream."
Good luck!
Posted by Danny at 08:56 AM | Comments (0)
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The controversy over the Bush administration's firing of several U.S. attorneys for political reasons has been one of the hottest news stories of the year. I've already noted that the story might have been forgotten were it not for the work of bloggers who refused to let it die, but other than that, I haven't had much cause to write about the brouhaha.
Until now, that is. The news that fired federal prosecutor Karl (Kasey) Warner of West Virginia may be yet another prosecutor who lost his job for political reasons is a blast from the past for me. I don't know Kasey Warner, but I knew his older brothers, George (better known as Buffy) and Kris, during my early days as a journalist in Morgantown, W.Va.
Buffy was a state senator for four years before moving to Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina to open a pub. He gained national attention in 2003 when he refused to evacuate the island and instead ride out Hurricane Isabel. Buffy died in 2004 after a fall on his yacht.
I knew Kris better than his brother because Kris was the campaign manager for Oliver Luck during Luck's 1990 House campaign against former Rep. Harley Staggers Jr. Luck, a former West Virginia University quarterback, had moved back to the Mountain State after his professional football career with the Houston Oilers.
I covered the Luck-Staggers race for the Dominion Post in my first full-time journalism job after graduating from WVU. Luck finished better than most Republicans in that part of the country but still lost the race. He is now the president and general manager of the Houston Dynamo in Major League Soccer.
Kris ended up becoming chairman of the West Virginia Republican Party for a while, and one of his other brothers, Monty, ran unsuccessfully for governor against now-Gov. Joe Manchin in 2004. Things have not gone too well politically for the West Virginia Warners since then.
And me? Well, my coverage of the Luck-Staggers race generated tons of good clips that helped me land a reporting job at Congressional Quarterly in January 1991. I was a news editor by the time I left there in 1997, spent the next three years in the fun-filled dot-com journalism heyday, and have been at National Journal since October 2000.
I planned to spend just a couple of years in Washington journalism to bolster my resume before continuing my career on the U.S. newspaper circuit. I loved the Lewis Grizzard book "If I Ever Get Back To Georgia, I'm Gonna Nail My Feet To The Floor" and hoped one day to write the sequel to that journalism autobiography, with me as the hero and West Virginia as the final destination.
Alas, it was wasn't meant to be. I still have a book in me -- the story of a redneck journalist in Washington who insisted on living outside the Beltway and thinking inside the box -- but it will be nothing like I envisioned 15 years ago. And I certainly never would have thought there would be a chapter or two about something called a "blog."
Thanks for joining me on this trip down memory lane. This leg of the journey is over. It's bed time now.
Posted by Danny at 12:53 AM | Comments (0)
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Some Thoughtful Media Criticism From A Blogger
Yes, I said "thoughtful," and frankly I was surprised to read it. Bloggers typically don't put much serious thought into their criticisms of the mainstream media; they just rant against the MSM machine. I was even more surprised to see the criticism at Daily Kos, a forum that might better be called the Daily Knee-Jerk.
Even Kagro X, the blogger who penned the entry, wasn't quite sure he had said anything profound. "I'm not sure exactly what the point of these observations actually is, but hey, that's my prerogative as a blogger," Kagro X concluded. "And if I'm no more clear-headed in my conclusions, nor advanced the ball any further than your average pundit's weekend brain dump, then so be it."
But by my reading, Kagro X's analysis of the constraints facing the typical journalist and the value that the expert blogger can add to the information age was right on the mark.
I especially liked this part, where he nicely captured the challenges of being a journalist:
Journalists are, I think, by the nature of their business, limited in their ability to bring a mass audience "the Truth" in doses sufficient for everyone. What I mean is that they're limited in several critical ways, most of which are beyond their control:1) Personal knowledge/understanding/expertise in ever-changing subject matter -- they are, of necessity, generalists
2) Space constraints -- even if they wanted to report on every intricacy, most traditional media don't have the time or space for it
3) Deadline pressures -- even if they knew everything there was to know and had the time/space for it, they couldn't get it all done by 5 p.m.
I have found all of those limits to be true throughout my 16-year journalism career -- and never more so than in my current job as the editor of National Journal's Technology Daily.
Our reporters have more knowledge, understanding and expertise of technology policy issues than anyone in the field, but each of them has a broad beat, forcing them to be generalists within their areas of expertise. That sounds like a contradiction, I know, but it's true.
The e-government reporter, for example, covers everything in the e-government realm -- and also is our expert in health information technology, education and labor. Our politics reporter also covers tech-related lobbying, science-related issues like competitiveness and tech matters emanating from the entire Bush administration, plus she writes our weekly "People Column." And we have one reporter who covers all tech issues in all 50 states and another responsible for keeping tabs on tech issues in other countries.
As for space limitations and deadlines, most of our daily stories are capped at 500 words, and the turnaround time on the typical news story is two to three hours after an event begins. We publish an AM Edition, a daily feature and a PM Edition, and we have other recurring features like topical backgrounders on issues ranging from telecommunications to privacy.
In short, we produce thousands of words a day, multiple times a day, on short deadlines. The demands of the job are great, and my reporters rise to the challenge daily. But they rely on experts -- the kinds of techies who now write blogs -- to help them do their jobs.
That's one reason we instituted an AM feature called "Blog Bits" (a spin-off of my own "Blog Bits" here) that calls attention to what techies and others are writing about tech policy issues in the blogosphere. I love the blogosphere because it helps us help our readers.
So to all you bloggers out there who are the kinds of experts that Kagro X rightfully praised, please keep doing what you're doing. We journalists may gripe about "bloggers" collectively at times, but most of us really do appreciate at least one blog out there and usually many more.
That's why we have our own now, like this blog and Tech Daily Dose, the one written primarily by one of my senior writers, Andrew Noyes, and others on the Tech Daily staff.
Posted by Danny at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)
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Pat Cleary, The Beltway Blogfather
Pat Cleary was one of the first Beltway bloggers I met after launching this site nearly two years ago. His official title is senior vice president of communications at the National Association of Manufacturers, but everyone who walks in Washington blog circles knows him as the "blogger-in-chief."
Cleary gave himself that name sometime after launching The Manufacturers' Blog (since renamed ShopFloor) in November 2004, but "Beltway blogfather" might be a more apt description. Cleary's online influence has extended far beyond NAM headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Although he calls himself the "oldest blogger on earth," Cleary ranks among the early adopters of blogging in the Luddite-heavy Washington policy corridor, and he has preached the power of the blog at every opportunity. In March, for instance, Cleary was among the featured speakers at the annual Politics Online Conference, and last fall he appeared at a blog conference hosted by RightClick Strategies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
No one inside the Beltway, least of all me, knows better than Cleary the potential of blogs and other new media to shape public policy. That's why I featured his insights at length, and suggested that we photograph him, in January 2006 when I wrote about "The Rise Of Blogs" for National Journal magazine.
So I wasn't surprised this morning when I read this at ShopFloor: "After 10 great years here at the NAM, the blogger-in-chief will be packing up the saddle bags and heading a few blocks away to join Fleishman-Hillard as director of digital public affairs."
The job seems made just for Cleary. He has done wonders in bringing NAM into the Web 2.0 era, and now he will be trying to perform those same wonders for Fleishman-Hillard's public affairs clients. In his own words, Cleary will be "doing online advocacy and corporate positioning in the association world and the manufacturing sector."
Other PR shops with Washington branches have been moving in that direction.
In 2005, RedState co-founder Mike Krempasky joined Edelman to work for clients such as Wal-Mart. A few months later, Edelman and NAM co-hosted a blog seminar. And a consultancy called Issue Dynamics Inc. has its own "blogger relations" unit.
With Cleary on the job and preaching the digital gospel full time as of next month, Washington's policy wonks could become much more interested in blogging and other new media very quickly.
Posted by Danny at 11:13 AM | Comments (1)
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The Makings Of A Blog Brawl
Josh Trevino, one of the early "elite" bloggers on the right but one who has not been as prominent of late, has just picked a fight with two Republican bloggers who have much higher profiles. Oh, and I'm guessing that the left's leading bloggers aren't going to be too happy with Trevino, either, because he maligned them as well.
In a post at RedState, which he co-founded, Trevino chastised GOP bloggers who, to his mind, are all too willing to become strange blog-fellows with top Democratic bloggers. Trevino acknowledged that he once tried to form such alliances himself but argued that his bad experiences -- most notably the failed Online Integrity movement -- should be reason enough for his conservative colleagues to write off liberal bloggers.
"The issue now ... is why we continue to see well-meaning and intelligent members of the online right engage with, and thereby legitimize, the key figures in the opposite camp," Trevino said.
To buttress his argument, Trevino cited two recent examples of such right-left blog engagement: DomeNation, a new YouTube program on politics and technology hosted by GOP new media consultant David All and the "blogfather" of the left, Jerome Armstrong of MyDD; and the Open House Project, a call for more transparency in Congress that prompted Rob Bluey of the conservative Heritage Foundation to join forces with Matt Stoller of MyDD.
Trevino thoroughly trashed DomeNation as "predictably banal" and chastised All for helping create a venue where the first guest, Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, could engage in "gauzy and unchallenged self-promotion."
Trevino was a bit kinder to Bluey, a fellow RedState blogger, and the "worthy goal" of the Open House Project. Yet he said Bluey should not have invited Stoller to participate in a Heritage event to promote that goal because Stoller is "routinely pompous, condescending and dishonest in his public activities," and because he has played the hypocrite when it comes to engaging with the right in other forums.
Trevino concluded with this message to bloggers on the right: "[W]e should adhere to a rule of reciprocity and self-interest when we work together. That means not giving publicity and legitimacy to amoral operators like Stoller, who will drink our wine and then kick us in the shins; and it means not lending credibility to thoroughly discredited men like Armstrong, who benefits immeasurably by the sanction All gives him."
I'm guessing that All, Armstrong, Bluey and Stoller -- and probably quite a few other bloggers in both parties -- will have a few choice words for Trevino once they read his outburst. If they do, I'll link to them in the extended entry.
UPDATE
-- David All: "I recognize a technology, I figure out how I would apply it, and then I try and implement it. Tip-of-the-spear kind of stuff. I cook the spaghetti, then throw it at the wall and see what sticks. You play a different role in the movement which is equally important. You're right that the right and left shouldn't be joining hands and singing 'Kumbaya' in the halls of Congress. And you're also right that most of the time, we don't agree with 99 percent of what Stoller and Armstrong are saying. But that doesn't mean it's not worth listening and taking notes."
-- Bluey Blog: "Will I come back to regret my decision? I hope not. The Matt Stoller that I’ve come to know is someone who I’ve been able to work with constructively toward a common goal. Can he been an over-the-top liberal? No doubt. ... But I’m sure those on the left could say I’m a stubborn and close-minded right-winger. What I’ve enjoyed so much about the Open House Project is that it has created a dialog where we can stop yelling at one another and start conversing in a more civil manner. I can only hope that continues, not only on this project but others as well."
Posted by Danny at 03:25 PM | Comments (0)
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Joan Biskupic, who worked at Congressional Quarterly in the early 1990s when I started my career there and who won a coveted award for her coverage of the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings, spoke at a judicial conference this week about the role of journalists in covering the Supreme Court. Biskupic now covers the court for USA Today, and she is extremely talented.
But blogger/lawyer Ann Althouse , who heard Biskupic's speech, argued effectively in a blog post afterward that same-day analysis of Supreme Court decisions by blawgers like her is challenging the role of traditional journalists like Biskupic.
"As Biskupic said, there are very few regular reporters on the Supreme Court beat. These reporters cover all the cases, but law bloggers write about what they choose," Althouse wrote. "Some of us stick to specialized areas of law. Some of us write extensively when the case deserves it and say nothing about other cases.
"Why is it better to have the same generalist writing about all the cases and providing a steady stream of articles of the same length and depth?"
But what about training journalists to be bloggers? That's a great idea -- and one that at least one professor in Reno, Nev., is considering seriously enough to seek advice from technology expert Dave Winer. Here's a sample of Winer's advice:
You must bring Reno into your school. Open the doors. Go on the local TV and radio stations and explain what you hope to do, and tell them where and when they need to be. You will attract some amazing people from the community. ... And don't think in terms of curriculum. It'll be like an unconference -- no panels, no speakers, no audience. No students, no teachers, no classroom. Just news about the community, and make it inclusive, and everything that needs to happen will happen.
I like the concept in theory; I have doubts about it in practice, especially the part about the "unconference."
Unconferences are a hot fad among today's brightest Internet thinkers, and they foster fascinating and innovative ideas for using technology. But unconferences are no way to train the next generation of journalists. You can't forgo curricula, and you can't completely abandon the traditional classroom if you want to teach people to report, write and edit.
Blogs and other Web 2.0 tools are just that -- tools. They are not skills, and they have no journalistic value in the hands of people without skills.
Now it's time to step off my soapbox. Here are some more blog bits for you:
-- National Journal Group has added another blog to its offerings. The NJ.com staff is now writing a news blog called The Gate. Bookmark it, subscribe, add it to your blogrolls -- however you want to do it, just read it!
-- In addition to her post about blawgers and journalists, Althouse tackled the question of whether blawgs may be having a negative impact on the judiciary because judges read them and may be influenced by them. Her view: "[I]t's such a lame argument to suggest blog posts are somehow like ex parte communications with the judge."
-- The Electronic Frontier Foundation is representing blogger Michelle Malkin and her video blog, Hot Air, in a copyright fight against Universal Music Group. The music company forced the YouTube video-sharing site to pull a Hot Air video report that criticized Universal hip hop artist Akon. EFF and Malkin, who also was subject of a Washington Times Q&A this week, argue that Hot Air's use of Akon audio in the report constituted a "fair use" of copyrighted material.
-- Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation sang the praises of David Almacy upon hearing the news that Almacy is leaving his gig as the White House Internet director. "Almacy has been extremely helpful when dealing with a White House press office that never before paid much attention to bloggers," Bluey said.
-- The activists/journalists behind a new project called MajorityAP are seeking press credentials to cover Congress. Bluey, who heads Heritage's Center for Media and Public Policy (for which I'm a member of the advisory board) thinks that is "sure to spark a fight with the elitist journalists who oversee the congressional press galleries." That's a pretty sound prediction -- but one that both Bluey and I hope might change with the creation of an Online Media Gallery.
-- Politics and technology experts David All, a Republican, and Democrat Jerome Armstrong debuted their DomeNation Internet television program on YouTube by interviewing Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. All asked Kerry if he would be willing to appear on conservative blogs as he has liberal blogs like Firedoglake. "Let's set it up; we'll do it," Kerry said.
-- A dose of mainstream, anti-blog elitism, all the way from South Africa: "Most blog sites are the air guitars of journalism. They’re cobbled together by people who wouldn’t stand a hope in hell of getting a job in journalism, mainly because they have very little to say. It’s rather sad how many people think the tedious minutiae of their lives will be of any interest to anyone else. It’s even sadder when someone reads them." And the reaction.
-- How much do the top bloggers earn? Check out this survey for some insight. Notice anything -- like the fact that politics isn't the best arena for making big money as a blogger? That doesn't mean there aren't jobs in politics and technology, though, and MyDD now has a jobs board to help Democrats find those jobs.
-- What's the difference between blogging and "serious" writing? I don't really care. I just want a job that pays seven figures for my writing!
Posted by Danny at 11:50 AM | Comments (0)
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In The Blog's-Eye: Rep. Poe And The KKK
Here's a good rule of thumb for politicians to follow if they want to avoid trouble in the information age: Never quote Nathan Bedford Forrest, the man widely reviled as the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
That was an unspoken and seemingly common-sense standard until this week. But on Monday, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, tested the boundaries of common sense by (mis)quoting Forrest on the House floor. Now he is under rhetorical fire in the blogosphere.
Think Progress has the video, and ironically, Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, who infamously painted Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut in blackface last summer, is among those condemning Poe.
"A Southern congressman uttering an approving quote from Nathan Bedford Forrest, who went on to become the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and was largely responsible due to his reputation throughout the South for growing its ranks exponentially, is completely unacceptable," Hamsher wrote.
In fairness, Poe was attempting to quote Forrest in his role as a Civil War general, not as a central figure in the history of the racist KKK. And as Instapundit Glenn Reynolds subtly noted, Democrat Robert Byrd from my home state of West Virginia was once elected the Exalted Cyclops of his local chapter of the KKK yet has served in the Senate longer than anyone else (48 years).
But sometimes context or points of comparison just don't matter. In the blogosphere, it is so easy to distort the former and dismiss the latter that the best course of action is to keep your mouth shut.
Former Sen. George Allen, R-Va., learned that the hard way with his "macaca" faux pas last summer, and now Poe is learning it, too.
Posted by Danny at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)
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CNN Frees Presidential Debate Video
This is a summary of the top story in yesterday's PM Edition of Technology Daily, as reported by senior writer Heather Greenfield.
CNN is winning praise for its announcement over the weekend that the network will grant unrestricted access to video footage from the presidential debates it will host in June.
The decision will let citizens use excerpts of the debates to make their points in online discussions or in relaying news. CNN is scheduled to host a Democratic debate June 3 and a Republican debate June 5.
In April, Republican and Democratic bloggers, online political consultants, and even some presidential candidates joined a bipartisan group called Free Debates to protest online usage restrictions on debate coverage. The appeal heightened last week as MSNBC, one of CNN's competitors, hosted a debate with Republican candidates but did not make the video freely available for distribution online at sites like YouTube.
Before the MSNBC debate, some 75 people, including Democratic candidates John Edwards and Barack Obama, had urged the Democratic and Republican parties to back open access to debate video. CNN is the only network to adopt the idea, so there is still pressure on the parties to act.
Earlier this year, the public-affairs television network C-SPAN made a decision similar to CNN's regarding use of C-SPAN's footage of House and Senate floor debates.
Posted by Danny at 09:09 AM | Comments (0)
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John Edwards And Me
OK, this post isn't really about John Edwards and me. It's about that other Danny Glover -- you know, the actor whose politics encourages people to send me nasty e-mails about calling the president a racist devil.
But I must admit that even I did a double-take when I saw the headline "Guest host Danny Glover gives a special message" on Saturday's podcast for Edwards' Democratic presidential campaign.
If you want to hear what the much more famous Danny Glover had to say, click here for the podcast.
Posted by Danny at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)
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I've watched with a mixture of satisfaction, great expectations and occasional bemusement as the mainstream media have made inevitable albeit cautious and reluctant moves into the blogosphere the past couple of years. Today definitely falls into the "bemusement" category.
The reason: I just read this piece in the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where the county columnist of the past five-plus years announced that he has been made the paper's new "blogs editor."
I'm glad to see another newspaper finally acknowledging that new media is the future of journalism, and it's especially heartening to see the Sun-Sentinel taking that future seriously enough to hire a full-time editor to the post.
But come on, the grey-haired county columnist who may never have read a blog other than the few produced by his own newspaper? A guy who felt compelled to explain to his readers what a blog is -- and came up with this definition: "That's short for 'Weblogs,' personal essays and political broadsides that proliferate all over the Net."? Who put "blogosphere" in quotes, like it's still in the new word category and not on equal footing with, say, "newspaper"?
I don't know Howard Goodman. I trust that he's a good journalist and deserving of professional advancement at the Sun-Sentinel. But I don't understand what MSM outlets like his hope to accomplish in the blogosphere by putting people who seem to know little to nothing about new media in charge of new media.
If newspapers are going to have blogs editors, they need to know the blogosphere. They need to read blogs, and they need to be bloggers. Otherwise, the papers will just be recreating their tiresome, dying publishing businesses in a new format -- and their decline will continue.
I wish Mr. Goodman and the Sun-Sentinel the best of luck in the blogosphere. I hope they get it right. But if they want to succeed, the first thing Mr. Goodman needs to do is hire a good assistant editor who actually knows something substantive about blogs.
UPDATE: The Star-Tribune in Minneapolis also has made a bone-headed new media move in canning the column written by popular columnist/blogger James Lileks and making him a reporter.
What is it about most newspapermen these days that makes them so backward in their thinking about the online world? Don Surber of the Charleston Daily Mail, whom I met while working as an intern at that West Virginia paper in the summer of 1989, aptly calls it "hot-type thinking in a digital world." Sadly, it seems to be a brain disorder without any known cure.
(Hat tip to Instapundit)
Posted by Danny at 11:49 AM | Comments (1)
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Reprinted from the May 2 PM Edition of Technology Daily
By Heather Greenfield
By the end of this year, most members of Congress will be using video-sharing sites like YouTube in some way, according to Karina Newton, the director of new media for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
She spoke at a New Politics Institute panel discussion Wednesday designed to give advice on how liberal politicians can make better use of Internet video.
Pelosi, D-Calif., now has 500 video postings on YouTube. She and Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., opened accounts a day apart nearly a year ago, but Kingston has not posted any videos in five months. Newton said the challenge for lawmakers is deciding what videos will be valuable, and that sometimes is surprising.
She noted recent video examples of a General Services Administration misconduct hearing; Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., bickering on the floor with a Republican colleague over executive compensation; and a moment of silence requested by Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., for troops killed from his former unit. The GSA hearing had 100,000 views, and the moment of silence, posted yesterday, has been seen about 12,000 times.
Newton said the videos can be used for constituent communications, documenting events, advancing priorities like Pelosi's innovation agenda, and rapid response, which she described as "framing an issue before FOX or MSNBC does."
She mentioned video excerpts yesterday of Democratic floor speeches on the anniversary of President Bush celebrating victory in Iraq in 2003 as an example. Newton posted the video on Pelosi's blog, The Gavel, under a benign headline referring to Democrats on the floor. Daily Kos, a liberal blog, also posted the video under an edgier headline, "Quagmire Accomplished Day."
While morning floor speeches often are delivered to a largely empty chamber, the excerpts already have been seen 100,000 times.
In response to a question about who is watching all the videos, Dan Manatt, founder of PoliticsTV.com, said, "the key group other than activists and supporters is the media."
"YouTube has become a video PR newswire," Manatt said.
Jeff Weingarten, president of Interface Media Group, noted that unlike with television, the video "lives on forever." The content remains posted, whereas candidates or other people with messages previously needed advertising dollars to make that happen.
Panelists gave advice on the importance of "tagging" Web video with effective keywords so the material can be found amid an overload of postings. They also talked about ways to help others spread video.
Manatt said to get "as many friends as possible to rank it and link to it to get it to bubble up." Newton added that bloggers have been the best resource for spreading video.
Phil de Vellis, who produced a popular video mash-up of a 1984 Apple Inc. advertisement with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaking to drones, was asked about the copyright dangers he faced with that and his mash-up called "The Bank," which was a spoof of the TV show "The Office." He said political speech is strongly protected.
"I think both those videos were close to the line but on the right side of the line," de Vellis said.
Posted by Danny at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)
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Reprinted from Friday's edition of Technology Daily
by Aliya Sternstein
Online outrage over a popular Web site's refusal to allow posts containing hacker code has spilled onto a new blog maintained by the Library of Congress.
Digg.com, which lets anyone post and rank Web content, initially decided to remove posts of a software-cracking code that helps bootleggers illegally copy movies. The owners of the hacked software claimed that Digg had violated intellectual property rights by allowing the posts.
But that did not stop online proponents of more open copyright law from trying to distribute the code elsewhere. They chose the library's blog, which is less than two weeks old, as a target.
"We got about six or seven commenters who attempted to post [the code] and I wasn't going to entertain that," said Matt Raymond, the library's communications director and blog author. The blog moderates reader comments. "If people are intentionally trying to violate copyright, they cannot expect that their comments will be posted," he said.
On Wednesday, Raymond issued a warning on the blog. "Not only is it absurd and inappropriate that readers would attempt to use a government blog to break a federal law, but it is doubly so, in that the Librarian of Congress is the ultimate arbiter of so-called 'exemptions' to the section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that concerns technological measures that control access to copyrighted works."
He added, "Anyone who supports a particular anti-circumvention exemption [to the DMCA] that is not covered by the current rules should participate in the next triennial rulemaking."
Raymond said he is not interested in identifying the culprits, but the library's general counsel knows of the incident. In an interview on Thursday, he said the episode has taught the library what types of "kinks" might exist in the blog's policy and procedures.
"I guess you need to decide where you are going to draw a line," Raymond said. "Six or seven people who were getting their dander up over something that's happening in the blogosphere -- I don't know that it's worth my time to kind of sleuth" out who was responsible. "It was a minor blip in our comments, and most everyone else has been on topic."
Digg ended up being friendlier territory for the hackers. On a blog maintained by Digg staff, founder and Chief Architect Kevin Rose commented on the controversy Tuesday.
"[T]oday was a difficult day for us," he wrote. "We had to decide whether to remove stories containing a single code based on a cease-and-desist declaration. We had to make a call, and in our desire to avoid a scenario where Digg would be interrupted or shut down, we decided to comply and remove the stories with the code."
"But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you've made it clear. You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won't delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be."
Posted by Danny at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)
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The Myth Of Blog Campaign Power?
Every four years since the information age began and presidential campaigns started toying with the Internet, technology evangelists have predicted that this cycle -- 1996, 2000, 2004 -- will finally be the one where the Web makes the difference.
The 2008 campaign is no different. Book after book, article after article and now blog post after blog post have been written on the revolution to come. But will it ever come?
Barry Casselman of Preludium News Service is skeptical, to say the least, and the imagined power of the blog is at the top of his list of early myths about Campaign 2008. Casselman tackled the perceived blog myth in a Washington Times op-ed today.
He cited last year's campaign victory by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., in spite of blogs as proof that blogs lack power -- but he conveniently ignored that victories by two Senate Democrats heavily touted by blogs, Jon Tester of Montana and James Webb of Virginia, as plenty of proof to the contrary.
After dismissing the power of Democratic blogs, Casselman then oddly touted the power of Republican blogs -- Minnesota Democrats Exposed, in particular.
The site "has emerged as the most powerful political Internet presence there," he wrote. "Its carefully researched campaign against comedian Al Franken's putative effort to win a Senate seat there in 2008 has devastated Mr. Franken's public image almost before he began to run for the seat, and has seemingly cemented the idea that the entertainer is an angry, foul-mouthed parvenu instead of a serious-minded candidate.
"This blog is Mr. Franken's worst nightmare, and it has provoked many Democratic strategists to try to find another candidate against popular incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman."
Again, Casselman excluded pertinent information -- namely, that the GOP Senate candidate backed by Michael Brodkorb of Minnesota Democrats Exposed last year, former Rep. Mark Kennedy, was defeated. If Lieberman's win proves that Democratic blogs can't make a difference in campaigns, then Kennedy's loss surely says the same thing about GOP blogs.
Casselman's thesis falls on its face at that point, and he is exposed as a mere partisan rather than someone trying to objectively gauge the political power of blogs.
Posted by Danny at 08:24 PM | Comments (6)
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How Blogs Blow Things Out Of Proportion
When people who aren't bloggers (and some who are) say anything the least bit critical about the blogosphere, they open themselves to online villification. When the "enemies" of the blogosphere offer such criticisms, especially enemies named Lieberman, it's Joseph bar the door!
I noted the phenomenon of thin-skinned bloggers about a year ago when Think Progress lambasted Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for a perceived attack on bloggers. On Monday, Think Progress targeted Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn.
Several bloggers, including me, cited that Think Progress report to poke fun at Lieberman, and in fairness, Lieberman brought some of it on himself with his bizarre reference to the "vituperation toxicity" of blogs. But after reading an objective account of Lieberman's comments in National Journal's own CongressDaily the next morning, my perspective changed a bit.
Bloggers who reported on the "civility" event where Lieberman spoke made it sound like both he and House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, were bashing blogs. That's not the impression left by CongressDaily's coverage, which has no stake in how the blogosphere is portrayed.
Here's what CD wrote:
Lieberman said influential blogs, cable television and talk radio add to divisiveness by reinforcing polarized politics, but he said lawmakers have the ultimate responsibility to overcome those forces and work cooperatively with the other party."In the end, the problem is us. We have to lead," Lieberman said. "This is a question of whether we are going to lead or whether we are going to follow the core groups in each party."
Yes, Lieberman did indeed argue that blogs and other new media play a role in America's political divisiveness -- and he is absolutely right about that. But context is everything. Lieberman did not merely attack blogs. He criticized them as part of the political culture as a whole, including the politicians that he said ultimately are responsible for changing that culture. That is a reasoned argument and one that is fair to all involved.
So why did blogs get so worked up? Here are the reasons:
1) They hate Lieberman (at least liberal bloggers do), so anything he says is suspect.
2) That is especially true with anything Lieberman says about blogs. The netroots attack him relentlessly, so of course, his opinion of blogs is driven by animosity, not good sense.
3) Bloggers can do no wrong. Only politicians and journalists make mistakes, and any politician or journalist who dares criticize the Almighty Blog is worthy of condemnation.
Bloggers brought that uncivil mindset to the civility discussion, and it is precisely why they too often blow legitimate criticisms of the blogosphere out of proportion.
Posted by Danny at 12:01 PM | Comments (9)
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As noted in Technology Daily this morning:
The Open House Project, an effort designed to increase transparency in government, is proposing the creation of an Online Media Gallery that would give press passes to Internet-based journalists, including some bloggers.
Robert Bluey, director of the Center for Media and Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation and a participant in the project, advocated the creation of the gallery in a column in The Hill.
"This gallery would serve as a sister organization to existing congressional press galleries, adapting the rules of those galleries for individuals who operate exclusively on the Internet," he wrote. "The formation of the gallery would allow a committee of peers to establish new rules applicable for Web sites."
Such a gallery would "alleviate the problem that exists with access to lawmakers," Bluey added. "Currently, bloggers seeking to gain access to events in the U.S. Capitol must secure approval from a congressional office, letting staffers control the credentialing process and creating the potential to discriminate against certain bloggers whom members would like to exclude."
(Full disclosure: I am a member of the media advisory board for the center that Bluey runs.)
Posted by Danny at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)
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