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June 30, 2007Big Bucks For New Media Innovation
The Searle Freedom Trust wants to hear from bloggers, podcasters and video producers with great new media ideas "to foster research and encourage public policies that promote individual freedom and economic liberty" -- and its willing to pay grants of up to $250,000 for them.
"Proposals that may hold particular interest, the trust said in an online request for proposals, "include fellowships for bloggers who focus on government spending, tort reform or problems in higher education; projects that encourage emerging filmmakers and video producers and help them develop their talent; and podcasting."
As an incentive to write a proposal and submit it to John J. Miller, take a look at this funding for past ideas:
-- $100,000 for a think tank to produce “viral videos” on government intervention;
-- $100,000 for an organization to sponsor film and Web-video internships;
-- $75,000 for a Web site to host a contest of free-market videos;
-- $27,000 for a contest to encourage blogging on campus issues by college students;
-- And $100,000 for a think tank to produce and market a video on an issue central to its mission.
Pitches are due by Oct. 1 and will be considered at the trust's December meeting. The guidelines state that proposals "should include a project description, budget and supporting materials, including a list of key supporters. Evidence of an organization's nonprofit status is also required."
Posted by Danny at 03:37 PM | Comments (1)
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Rep. Miller Breaks New 'Web 2.0' Ground
Cross-posted at Tech Daily Dose
Rep. George Miller is getting some bipartisan blog love for a new interactive campaign against the Iraq war that is engaging voters via blogs, online social networks, podcasts and Web video.
Both Republican new media strategist David All and self-avowed "lefty" Colin Delany of e.politics mentioned the effort, as did the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.
Technology Daily is on top of the story, too, thanks to our e-government/Web 2.0 expert, Aliya Sternstein. You can read her story from yesterday PM Edition in the extended entry.
Rep. Miller Starts Interactive Web Campaign On Iraq
By Aliya Sternstein
Online social networks have become virtual mouthpieces for candidates this year but have rarely been used by elected officials to follow through on promises once elected -- that is until now.
The technology shop at the House currently lets all members use Facebook, a social network popular among young voters, for official work. Californian George Miller, who is chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee, recently received permission from the office of the House chief administrative officer to start an Internet "campaign" against the Iraq war using Facebook, video-sharing Web sites, blogs and a video podcast, among other new media platforms.
The "Ask George" initiative, which officially began Wednesday, is a multi-network, multi-platform, virtual town hall. Miller's office is collecting all questions submitted to the so-called Web 2.0 sites that are tagged with the subject "askgeorge." The keyword lets staffers easily retrieve questions from across the Web universe with one search query.
Miller, who also chairs the Education and Labor Committee, plans to respond weekly, through his video podcast "MillerTV," to questions and comments about what actions the Democrats are taking to end the war.
Separately, Miller's office has designed a video player for Facebook that the site's members can add to their profiles and share with friends. The "MillerTV" player will carry the latest "AskGeorge" videos.
Before Ask George went live, Miller's staff and the CAO ensured that all aspects of Miller's Web onslaught would comply with House requirements for Web use.
The House's main Web dictum is "security and availability," CAO Communications Director Jeff Ventura said. "All we ask is that we're allowed to evaluate any software that is interfaced with our architecture to determine that it poses no security threat and has scalability."
The office wants all members to be able to partake in the benefits of innovations created by other members, he said. "It really is equal opportunity computing."
That said, "Creating a really sexy Web site's difficult for them," Ventura said. "It's our estimation that less than 3 percent of members' offices are doing things as robust as what Miller's team is trying to do."
Leslie Harris, the Center for Democracy and Technology's executive director, said she hopes other members, committees and Congress as a whole will follow in Miller's footprints online to create more transparency. "You are encouraging civic dialogue," she said. "I think that's critically important as well."
Miller Chief of Staff Daniel Weiss said some people already have responded by e-mail to address policy issues besides Iraq. "And some people have responded to say they disagree with the congressman's position on Iraq," he added.
Steven Clift, chairman of E-Democracy.org, said: "Any candidate for Congress that wins using interactive tools must represent using those tools. Today, most politicians turn off real online interactivity the moment they gain power. That must change or they will be changed."
Posted by Danny at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)
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The IBM Center for the Business of Government has issued a report titled "The Blogging Revolution: Government In The Age Of Web 2.0." I'm flattered that the work I have done here at National Journal merited about a half-dozen mentions/footnotes in the report.
Like most everyone who blogs or writes about blogs, the authors couldn't resist the urge to coin words with "blog" in them. Hence we get "blogoneers," defined as "pioneering leaders" in the government blogosphere.
My greatest hits in word innovation include "blawgmakers" (lawmakers who blog) and "blogway" (as in "Inside The Blogway," nifty image and all)
Posted by Danny at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)
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BlogNetNews has been ranking the most influential blogs by state. If you blog in the following states, see if you made the list:
-- Arizona
-- California
-- Colorado
-- Connecticut
-- Delaware
-- Florida
-- Georgia
-- Illinois
-- Indiana
-- Iowa
-- Maryland
-- Massachusetts
-- Michigan
-- New Hampshire
-- New Jersey
-- New York
-- Ohio
-- Oregon
-- Pennsylvania
-- South Carolina
-- Tennessee.
-- Texas
-- Utah
After New Jersey's rankings were published, BlogNetNews founder Dave Mastio discussed them in an interview with Kelly Heyboer, a blogger for The Star-Ledger in the state.
I'm eagerly awaiting the rankings for my home state of West Virginia.
UPDATE: Mastio thought it might be helpful to include for my readers a description of BlogNetNews. Here's how he summed it up in an e-mail to me: "BNN brings together the most insightful and most read local and state political bloggers into a single state-focused page designed to give you a window into what is going on across that slice of the blogosphere. ... Think of BNN as the front-page summary of the state and local political blogosphere."
It sounds like a valuable tool for every blog watcher on Capitol Hill who wants to know what the influentials back home are saying about lawmakers.
Posted by Danny at 09:46 AM | Comments (5)
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Readers of Beltway Blogroll have been learning all about the power of the blog and the rise of blogs in policy and political circles for two years now. The Politico just discovered that power this week.
The Politico also has been running profiles of top bloggers in a recurring feature dubbed "BlogJam." Blog subjects have included Althouse, Americablog, Robert Bluey, The Carpetbagger Report, Mary Katharine Ham, MyDD, Political Animal and RedState.
Readers of National Journal's The Hotline may be thinking to themselves, "Seen it, done it, been there." The Blogometer has been doing blogger spotlights since 2005. This year's have been focused on key state and candidate-oriented political blogs like Blue Hampshire, Calitics, The Crunchy Republican, Evangelicals for Mitt, Obamarama, SC Politics and Silver State Libertarian Leanings.
Hmm, I wonder where The Politico gets all those great bloggy ideas? Think about it while you read the latest round of blog bits:
-- I have had plenty to say lately about the impact of conservative bloggers on the immigration debate. Mark Tapscott of The Washington Examiner has some thoughts on the subject, too: "the right side of the blogosphere went to work, marshaled the facts, succinctly communicated those facts to millions of people who weren't typically concerned about politics, and focused the resulting public outrage like a laser beam on wavering senators."
-- It's not the most compelling topic (unless you're a farmer), but MyDD has been doing some serious blogging about the farm law up for renewal by Congress. One of the regular contributors is Dan Owens, a rural policy organizer at the Center for Rural Affairs in Lyons, Neb. Yes, it's a scary thought: Policy blogging has made it to the heartland, flyover country, the Great Beyond the Beltway.
-- Republican new media consultant David All offered this unsolicited advice to any Republican presidential campaign that wants to be a little mischievous for the CNN/YouTube debate of Democratic candidates July 23: Submit an "honest, thoughtful, articulate and presidential" video question that "real Americans want answered" and force the Democrats to answer it.
-- Newspaper columnist Kathleen Parker, who has a split personality when it comes to blogs, doesn't think America should be pining for a hip president: "[H]as it really come to this? Presidential candidates making spoofy-goofy home movies to win votes?" On that point, I agree with Parker; Republican new media strategist Patrick Ruffini does not.
-- Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine is not impressed that AOL is now using blogs as a news publishing tool. Neither am I. As Jarvis said, "Can we stipulate that the blog tool is just a publishing tool and it’s not news when somebody uses it."
-- Contortionists for Barack Obama.
-- What happens when you mix softball, politics, policy wonks and a little competitive needling on a blog? Bluey Blog has the answer -- and it ain't pretty. I'm thinking that the think tankers might want to sell tickets to the rematch Aug. 8.
Posted by Danny at 09:07 AM | Comments (0)
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Bloggers Celebrate Another Immigration Win
I noted a couple of weeks ago how conservative blogs have been shaping the immigration debate. They helped stall action on the bill at the beginning of this month and then again today.
Heather Greenfield, one of my senior writers at Technology Daily, has been covering the story all week. Here's an excerpt from this afternoon's news:
Conservative bloggers, who lashed out at senators supporting the immigration bill and urged readers to call their senators, celebrated the failure of what they see as an amnesty bill for illegal immigrants, which they call "shamnesty."At the blog Little Green Footballs, more than 200 people responded with cheers minutes after news of the bill's failure was reported. "See what can happen when the American public gets it together and lets Congress and the president know how we feel," one reader wrote.
Right Wing News featured a dancing Snoopy dog, and conservative blogger Michelle Malkin thanked senators that opposed the bill, as well as "loud folks" on radio talk shows and blogs.
Calls to senators crippled the Capitol switchboard Thursday hours before the vote, and the Capitol police are investigating e-mail and telephone threats to some Republican senators who supported the measure.
Earlier in the week, Heather wrote an entire story about the role blogs are playing in the debate. Go to the extended entry to read it.
Reprinted from Tuesday's PM Edition of Tech Daily
Blogs Badger And Berate Senators Over Immigration
By Heather Greenfield
Conservative bloggers have unleashed a major campaign against the Senate immigration bill, which the chamber voted 64-35 on Tuesday afternoon to return to the floor for debate. A vote on the bill itself is expected Thursday or Friday.
The bill outlines a path to citizenship for 12 million undocumented foreign workers, and it aims to tighten border security and increase the number of visas for highly skilled workers. Bloggers and radio talk-show hosts on the right have been among the most strident critics of the measure.
Over the weekend, John Hawkins of Right Wing News outlined an action plan, asking readers to contact their own senators, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee to say they will not support any senator for re-election in 2008 who backs what the critics see as amnesty for illegal immigrants.
"They're going to give tens of thousands of criminals a permanent Z-visa that will allow them to stay in this country for life, they're going to demographically flood the Republican Party out of existence, and they're going to leave the borders wide open for another 9/11 if this bill goes through," Hawkins wrote.
He added that there is no such thing as a "good" Republican who supports the current legislation.
On Tuesday, Erick Erickson of RedState identified a half-dozen senators for his readers to call to oppose the immigration bill. Erickson said the legislation would do little to improve border security, and would make a mess of the temporary-worker program and repeat mistakes of the 1986 immigration law with an amnesty program.
In a separate posting at RedState, Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation listed the top 10 defects of the measures.
At Captain's Quarters, Ed Morrisey said an amendment expected to be added Tuesday would remove "the incentive for self-reporting, the only real benefit the Z-visa program offers."
Blogger Michelle Malkin has been tracking the Senate's "shamnesty" debate in detail as it occurs. At one point she offered various phone numbers for readers to call Norm Coleman, R-Minn., to urge him to vote against continuing the debate.
The grassroots lobbying extends beyond the traditional practice of calling lawmakers to also creating online videos against senators who support the bill. Mickey Kaus, a writer at the online magazine Slate, suggested that campaign.
On Monday, the Hot Air video blog owned by Malkin produced a video against Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who is helping negotiate the bill. The video ends with gang members thanking Graham for his help in getting into America.
Kaus mentioned another video called "Come Home Lindsey" at the Flektor video-sharing site but said it wasn't mean enough.
The White House, meanwhile, has been lobbying Republicans over the past few days to pass the immigration bill. But House Republicans emerged from a caucus meeting Tuesday and announced support for a resolution asking Senate conservatives to oppose it.
Posted by Danny at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)
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John Edwards Keeps The Haircut Story Alive
Since the first round of campaign finance reports went public almost three months ago, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has been ridiculed mercilessly in the blogosphere and in the press because he paid $400 each for two haircuts.
Edwards' defenders have tried to turn the tables on his critics for obsessing over a trivial matter, but even Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos, the most prominent of the liberal bloggers, has chastised Edwards and his campaign over the haircut blunder. While blaming the press for driving the story, Kos said the haircut "really was a disaster on way too many levels to completely ignore and shrug off."
With that in mind, why in the world would Jonathan Prince, Edwards' deputy campaign manager, have sent a fundraising e-mail that draws more attention to the haircut? Titled "Haircuts And Hatchet Jobs," the e-mail solicitation blasts "political mercenaries and the chattering class" for attacking the messenger in personal ways because they don't like his message.
"Like many of you, I've been with John since 2004," Prince wrote. "The same folks who are attacking him now went after him then. ... Last time they attacked his hair; this time it's his haircut. But it's the same sad game."
As a PR move, the pitch is foolhardy. It keeps the haircut story alive another day -- or week, or month. It's also questionable as a fundraising tactic. While the e-mail might motivate Edwards supporters to back their candidate with more bucks to fight his enemies, it also might make them think twice about bankrolling a candidate who can afford $400 haircuts.
"I'm willing to bet that most of the small-dollar donors Edwards has solicited don't have that much [money]," Kos wrote. "For them, that $20 or $50 or even $100 contribution is a big sacrifice. Yet given the choice between taking out his own checkbook or having his campaign pay for the $400 the haircut cost, someone made the choice to put this on the contributors.
"More than anything, it's this that offends me about this incident. People expect their money to be well spent by campaigns, not used as personal slush funds for whatever luxuries they may want."
UPDATE: Today, senior Edwards adviser Joe Trippi issued a follow-up e-mail appeal for cash, directing his ire in part at conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, who linked to this entry yesterday.
Yesterday, Jonathan told you that the folks who benefit from the status quo are attacking John personally because they don't want the country to hear his message. And you know what happened when we called them out? The attacks started pouring in.That same day, the Ann Coulter-wannabe Michelle Malkin blasted John on her blog. Fox News has been bashing him around the clock. And Coulter herself said, "if I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot."
Liberal blogger Kari Chisholm of Politics and Technology, meanwhile, disagreed with my analysis of yesterday's Edwards e-mail: "The e-mail, of course, was criticizing the media's obsession with the haircut story," he wrote in response to my posting on Facebook. "I've not been reading their latest e-mail missives ... but I read that one."
If the standard is that more people will read the e-mail, I suppose he has a point. But my argument was that Edwards unwisely kept the attention on his haircuts when that misstep, albeit arguably just a symbolic one, has caused him nothing but grief. Of course if all publicity is good publicity, then the Edwards team will prove to have been quite shrewd in resurrecting the issue.
Posted by Danny at 11:03 AM | Comments (24)
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Sports blogs are the hip thing now -- so hip that the athletes themselves, unlike politicians who still generally fear the blog, are doing the writing themselves.
But that's not necessarily a good thing, according to sports columnist Mike Wise of The Washington Post:
Blogs are essentially the home now of athletic self-indulgence, a broadband cry for help. Whatever two neurons happen to be snapping at that moment comes out unfiltered, the message sent straight to the masses -- which usually means other self-important bloggers who tell them what they want to hear. (These people save their innermost thoughts for their swell blog friends while disconnecting from their families.) For the athlete, it's cheaper than a posse or a therapist.
And what's worse, it means sports writers like Wise are "flat-out dispensable." "After centuries of being told the pen is mightier than the sword and legal fees, they finally get it," Wise said. "The athletes and sports personalities of the new millennium have now eliminated the middle man. The flacks and hacks have been edited out."
The athletes aren't alone in the sports blogging community. The fans play a role, too, especially at fan-based sites like the SB Nation blog network -- which, by the way, was started in part by political blogger Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos.
Thanks to Brian Nutting, my first editor at Congressional Quarterly in Washington, I learned early in my career that sports and politics have a lot in common. He was a sports editor in Utah before turning to political journalism, and he brought his sports training to bear in making sense of voting records and other political statistics about Congress. Those numbers were the substance of many compelling analysis stories.
So as old and new media converge, sports and political bloggers, including athletes and politicians, would do well to study each other's work for examples of how to do blogging right.
Posted by Danny at 09:46 AM | Comments (0)
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Ban Or Embrace Blogs: The Question For Candidates
The presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., banned an Ohio blogger from covering an event he had traveled all the way to New Hampshire to see.
The restrained but on-the-mark reaction at Daily Kos: "It's stupid to keep people out of events because they have a blog. In today's world, everyone has a blog, or writes at blogs, or has a MySpace or Facebook page, or participates in online forums like bulletin boards. ... As for bloggers, don't say that you are bloggers. I'm not sure what benefits you get from announcing it to the world."
The encounter has revived the question of whether bloggers should be treated as citizens or journalists, or as citizen journalists, when attending campaign events. It's an especially relevant question now in light of the OffTheBus citizen reporting planned for the presidential campaign -- an effort that already has prompted criticisms about fairness.
On the Republican side of the blogosphere, meanwhile, Fred Thompson may be angling for the unofficial honor of "blogger-in-chief" if he decides to jump into the 2008 presidential race: "Thompson has been the most active campaign blogger by far, and those who know him say he writes nearly everything himself -- not always the case in modern politics."
And on both sides of the blogosphere, the "Internet guys" who work for campaigns don't want to be called Internet guys anymore.
Here are more blog bits to digest:
-- Are the blogosphere and viral video good for politics? Not so much, if you ask some of Washington's insiders. Yet the anonymous "Digby," one of the netroots' own, accepted an award on behalf of the entire left blogosphere last week. (Read the transcript of Digby's comments.)
-- Bloggers and talk radio have gained enough clout in the immigration debate that key senators are taking steps to reshape the bill in an attempt to win support from the commentariat on the right.
-- "Social networking, blogging and online video technologies have taken the political world by storm. But in Washington, members of Congress are forced to watch this race for online superiority from the sidelines."
-- The YouTube video-sharing site is co-hosting a presidential debate with Democratic candidates next month and taking quesitons from citizens to ask the candidates. PrezVid has the what proprietor Jeff Jarvis calls "the picks of the questions"; 10 Zen Monkeys (whatever that means) has the "five sorriest questions." The debate also has sparked curiousity in journalistic quarters.
-- The latest issue of Mother Jones has an article titled "Meet The New Bosses" about the influence of bloggers on the left. I'm quoted briefly in the article. At least one blogger (at TalkLeft) didn't care much for the article.
-- The power of the blog has reached the developing world: "Africa's bloggers are coming of age, thanks to fastexpanding Internet access and a growing awareness of the power of the medium, creating a public space in countries where traditional media still face repression."
-- The Sunlight Foundation announced more mini-grants for Internet projects designed to bring transparency to government.
-- Howard Mortman an "unknown blogger"? Hey, I, Danny Glover, know who he is, so he must be somebody.
Posted by Danny at 08:33 PM | Comments (2)
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A few months back, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was the target of a negative video attack by an anonymous YouTube user who favored Sen. Barack Obama, one of Clinton's rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. The producer of that video, Phil de Vellis, eventually was outed as the employee of a firm consulting for the Obama campaign and lost his job as a result.
Now the tables have been turned, with an anonymous supporter of Clinton getting some attention for a blog that is unfriendly toward Obama. The site, dubbed Hillary Is 44 because of its goal of seeing her elected as the 44th president, has been online since mid-April but is getting noticed now because it merited a critical mention in an OpinionJournal column about Clinton by Peggy Noonan.
It is rather mysterious. It does not divulge who is running the site, or who staffs it. It is not interactive; it has one informative voice, and its target audience seems to be journalists and free-lance oppo artists. ...Encouraging readers to send in "confidential tips," its primary target and obvious obsession is Barack Obama: "Senator Barack Obama (D-Rezko) is busy lately lying about President Bill Clinton" and "attacking entire communities." "We have written extensively on Obama, and his indicted slumlord friend Antoin 'Tony' Rezko. We have repeatedly warned David Axelrod, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama that this story is not going away." The Obama campaign is "still posing as innocents incapable of doing anything unsavory even as evidence mounts that unsavory is their favorite dish." "Dirty Obama Smear" and "Obama's Dirty Mud Politics" are two recent headlines.
This appears to be the subterranean part of Hillary's campaign, the part that quietly coexists with the warm, chuckling lady playing the jukebox with her husband.
Noonan provided no evidence to support her suggestion that Hillary Is 44 is somehow part of the Clinton campaign, and the site includes a statement that it is not affiliated with Clinton's presidential team. But the Obama incident earlier this year shows that some connection, however remote and perhaps unknown to the campaign, is plausible.
It also wouldn't be the first time that purportedly independent blogs have caused problems for their preferred candidates. Such blog scandals surfaced last year in Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Texas and Virginia.
Stephen Bainbridge, a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, noted of Hillary Is 44, "The anonymity of the site raises a legitimate inference that there is some connection to the campaign."
That anyone would suspect, without strong evidence, a link between a campaign and a random, anonymous blogger is unfair. But politics in the information age has become so ugly that suspicion is the norm. Forget "trust but verify;" these days, people would much rather assume and villify, and then wait for somebody to prove them right -- or wrong if they can.
Posted by Danny at 02:18 PM | Comments (7)
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Federal Agencies In The Blogosphere
We summarized three different blog-related stories in the AM Editions of Technology Daily yesterday and today. One was about a new feature that links to federal blogs (hey, isn't my blogroll good enough for everyone -- guess I'll be adding to it).
Here are the TD summaries, with links to the original articles included:
1) A new feature on the USA.gov Web site provides links to archived and active blogs from federal agencies, Federal Computer Week reports. "What blogs are really about are engaging the public with the government," said Bev Godwin, director of USA.gov. "There are people that read blogs more than they go to Web pages and so it's a way to get your information out, whether it's about safety or Library of Congress or anything else, into the blog community." Many federal agencies have looked to blogs to expand their online presence and become more user-friendly. According to the General Services Administration, despite the benefits of blogs, agencies also must address the time, legal and confidentiality challenges of the medium.
2) The government standoff by convicted tax cheat Ed Brown has attracted online support through his blog, The Boston Globe reports. The man and his dentist wife, Elaine, have refused to pay $625,000 in taxes because they will not acknowledge the legitimacy of the U.S. government. Brown said he won't leave his mountain compound alive. Others have joined him and brought supplies. Stephen Monier, a U.S. marshal for the New Hampshire district, said the government is serving warrants but does not intend "to engage in a violent confrontation with the Browns."
3) Information technology managers should start to embrace so-called Web 2.0 technologies like blogs, collaborative "wikis," video mash-ups and online social-networking sites because younger employees will begin to expect them in the workplace, according to a vice president with Cisco Systems. InformationWeek reports that Marthin De Beer spoke earlier this week at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston about incorporating the technologies on the job. "It would be like someone from my generation not having access to e-mail and instant-messaging," De Beer said.
UPDATE: I've added an "Agencies" section to the blogroll that includes most of the links found at the USA.gov blogs page. I'm including them here, too:
-- CDC: Health Marketing Musings
-- GLOBE: Chief Scientist's Blog
-- GPO: Future Digital System Blog
-- Library Of Congress Blog
-- NEA: The Big Read
-- National Air Force Museum
-- ONDCP: Pushing Back
-- Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog
-- Smithsonian: Eye Level
Posted by Danny at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)
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Bloggers To Get Credentials For Candidate Forum
This bit of good news on the credentialing front comes from the Media Bloggers Association, of which I am a member:
PBS has set aside a limited number of media credentials for bloggers who wish to cover the upcoming "All-American Presidential Forums on PBS" hosted by Tavis Smiley, to be held June 28, 9-10:30 p.m. at Howard University in Washington.
Bloggers have until Friday (10 days more than the mainstream press had) to contact MBA President Robert Cox about getting credentials. The participating bloggers will have wireless Internet access in the media room and "will have the same post-event access to candidates as other credentialed media."
This is an excellent development. Will the YouTube video-sharing site do the same for the debates it is co-hosting with CNN in South Carolina and Florida? It should. And one of these days, maybe Congress will wake up and decide to credential bloggers, too.
Posted by Danny at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)
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From Jail To 'The Colbert Report'
Blogger Josh Wolf spent nearly eight months in jail for refusing to turn over a videotape to police investigating protestors at an anti-globalization rally, but hey, at least it got him five minutes of fame on "The Colbert Report."
He held his own with Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert, too, though it's kind of tough to make a reasoned case about free speech on a comedy show. Click the link above to watch the episode.
Posted by Danny at 04:26 PM | Comments (0)
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Emily Metzgar, a doctoral student in media and public affairs at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, e-mailed to tell me about research she is doing that focuses on the impact of blogs on state politics around the country.
Her work involves this online survey, which I just took. The survey required only 10 minutes or so. Go take it and help a graduate student in the process.
You can learn more about Metzgar, the "Queen Of State Blogs" who has a blog of her own, from an interview she gave to the state-government-focused blog 13th Floor.
Posted by Danny at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
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Two online specialists who worked for the 2004 Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry have decided to try their hand at journalism in the 2008 race.
Zack Exley and Amanda Michel have joined the OffTheBus new media team being recruited by blogger Arianna Huffington and journalism professor Jay Rosen. Michel will be the project director, and Exley will be a senior adviser and traveling correspondent.
As described by Huffington and Rosen back in March, OffTheBus aims to get citizens across the country involved in covering the leading presidential candidates over the next two years. The writers they recruit will have blogs dedicated to each of the campaigns.
"Of all the people we talked to and interviewed for this project, Zack and Amanda were the ones who really understood what we are trying to accomplish," Huffington wrote in a new post about the project. "They are prime examples of a new breed of young people who get politics, get the Internet, get journalism -- and see how citizen journalism can completely change the dynamics of the game."
Rosen said the two already have had an impact by convincing him and Huffington to make the blogging platform for OffTheBus more open than originally planned. The plans as of now, according to Rosen, include:
-- An open blogging platform with a filter-to-the-front-page system for culling the best stuff;
-- A corps of bloggers, some of whom may wish to track particular candidates or develop beats;
-- A larger pool of occasional collaborators for "distributed reporting";
-- A network of volunteer experts in areas like election law;
-- Disclosure forms and routines that describe contributors' political views;
-- And professional editors and writers to mentor and consult with the bloggers.
"I’m really looking forward to this," Exley wrote. "In 2000, I watched the presidential race as a … well … Internet crank ... publishing a parody site and making various other kinds of trouble. In 2004, oddly enough, I got to experience the race from the inside. This time, I’ll be observing as a journalist."
At least one blogger and former journalist, Rob Bluey of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Media and Public Policy (where I serve on the advisory board), is skeptical about "Political Operatives Acting As Journalists":
It’s an admirable goal, but Huffington comes at it with a partisan agenda. What’s confusing is the choice of liberal political operatives Amanda Michel and Zack Exley to lead it. ... I’m sure they’re both extremely talented, but I think it’s a mistake to put political organizers ... in charge of what strives to be an alternative form of journalism.Huffington could prove me wrong, but I fear this project could devolve into something far different from what’s being advertised.
Posted by Danny at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)
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UPDATE, 6/20/2007: I posted this a year ago. Beltway Blogroll celebrates its second blogivesary today, so I thought I'd bump the entry back to the top of the site for the benefit of new readers (and fellow West Virginians marking today's birthday of the great Mountain State).
Beltway Blogroll debuted here a year ago today. Newcomers to the site may want to read my introductory essay, "The Power Of The Blog," to better appreciate the mission of my work.
I also recommend "The Rise Of Blogs," my article from the January issue of National Journal magazine that a friend later labeled my "magnum opus on blogs." The magazine included a list of congressional "blawgmakers," a term I coined to describe lawmakers who blog. For an updated list, check the blogroll to your left.
One element of this blog is the column about the policy and political impact of blogs that I write every two weeks. The complete archive is available here, and a partial archive (for subscribers) is at NationalJournal.com, which began publishing the column in a more traditional online format in January.
By happy coincidence, my blog birthday also happens to be the birthday of the great state of West Virginia, where I was born. The Mountain State entered the union 143 years ago, amid the Civil War. We mountaineers have an interesting and controversial history, one that I recounted six years ago in my congressional history column for the now-defunct e-zine IntellectualCapital.com. You can read it here, via the Wayback Machine.
Posted by Danny at 09:15 AM | Comments (1)
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GOP Campaign Arm Embraces New Media
I consistently criticized the National Republican Congressional Committee last year for its backward online efforts and ignorance of the power of the blog, but it looks like the NRCC is finally coming around.
The campaign arm of House Republicans unveiled a redesigned Web site today, and it includes not only a blog but also a video center and a link to the NRCC's page on YouTube. The site further incorporates online social networks like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
From the opening blog entry by NRCC Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma (actually dated May 23), it sounds like Cole has learned the lesson that his predecessor, Thomas Reynolds of New York, never did.
"When we initially rolled out the Web site www.TheRealDemocratStory.com in March, we asked people to sign up to blog, and the response was so overwhelming that we created a platform for your voices to be heard," Cole wrote. "This new blog is just the beginning of our commitment to cutting-edge technology to defeat Democrats in 2008 and regain our Republican majority."
The NRCC also apparently realizes that just having a blog isn't sufficient. It has hired Josh Shultz as the new media director, and part of his job is to "oversee a team dedicated to engaging the blogosphere and holding Democrats accountable through the NRCC’s various platforms."
Thus far, Cole is the only lawmaker who appears to have blogged at the site -- and only on that first day -- so there is still room for new media growth at the NRCC. But at least the committee has moved past the Carl Forti era of "we know more than [unreliable blogs] do."
Posted by Danny at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
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That's the message of the Payback Project being spearheaded by John Hawkins of Right Wing News.
There is not much to the project's Web site yet except this ominous message: "If the amnesty bill in the Senate passes, we're going after any Republican senator up for re-election in 2008 who votes for it. Conservatives put these senators into office and if they won't listen to us, then we will replace them in the primaries with senators who will."
Michelle Malkin noted that Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is the first target. He is among the Republicans who helped craft the Senate's pending immigration bill and has been a leading voice for its passage.
Lump the right's war against immigration together with the "NRSC Pledge" not to donate money to Senate Republican candidates who criticize Iraq war strategy and RedState's ethics-related crusade against the House GOP establishment, and the "rightroots" are beginning to look and sound more like the netroots of the left every day.
Must be something intoxicating about being in the minority.
Posted by Danny at 09:43 AM | Comments (5)
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Liberal bloggers and the rest of the netroots community are in Washington this week for the annual Take Back America conference hosted by Campaign for America's Future.
"The progressive bloggers are here in large numbers, and they have taught us how to fight the right," campaign co-Director Robert Borosage said Monday, according to a report in yesterday's Technology Daily by our intern, Sarah Myers.
MoveOn.org Executive Director Eli Pariser spoke at Take Back America yesterday and said the grassroots support shown in the past year comes as the result of a deficit in leadership. "At first we looked for the leaders who were going to bring us out of that darkness -- and they didn't come, so we had to do it ourselves."
The liberal blogging community as a whole will be the recipients of the Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award for supporting populist candidates and criticizing the status quo. Ned Lamont, a favorite of the netroots last year in his unsuccessful quest to unseat Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., will present the award.
Today's events feature a morning panel discussion dubbed "The Blogosphere: From Ideas To Action." The speakers will be Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller, who just announced their departures from MyDD; Jim Dean of Democracy for America; Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake; and Oliver Willis. Isaiah Poole of TomPaine.com will moderate.
Blogger David Sirota, who worked for Lamont's campaign, also is on the schedule today, and Duncan Black of Eschaton will participate in a roundtable about media bias tomorrow, when the conference also will feature a dicussion on engaging the netroots via blogs and other technologies.
Posted by Danny at 09:03 AM | Comments (1)
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The Role Of Blogs In Campaign Strategy
I never got around to mentioning this story from last week, but we had a blurb in Technology Daily:
Republican leaders are hoping that senators will learn from the "macaca" moment caught on film that helped in the defeat of Virginia Sen. George Allen last year, so they have issued guidelines for online campaigning to help them avoid the kinds of mistakes that sunk his re-election campaign.The Politico reports that the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee's guide to the Internet warns GOP members to always assume they are being recorded, to always record their oppenents, and to use Republican blogs to issue immediate responses to attacks. The guidebook reads, "The paradigmatic example of failure to do so is the 'macaca' moment," when Allen called a volunteer of his challenger a "macaca," which some people interpreted as a racist slur.
The guide also urges press secretaries to communicate to blogs first rather than the mainstream media. "It is critical that Republicans not let Democrats continue the edge" in being Internet-savvy, said NRSC Chairman John Ensign, R-Nev.
Some bloggers, of course, picked up on that last note, in part because the memo specifically named top blogs. Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters noted both the positive and negative aspects of the memo for bloggers:
It's a smart strategy. Bloggers can provide a more sympathetic ear to candidates looking to offer an explanation for a misstep, and the word will spread throughout the blogosphere quickly. It gives an advantage over going directly to the press, which the NRSC has demoted to step 8 in this new procedure.This provides a caution for bloggers, too. ... We have achieved some parity with our counterparts in the press, which is an excellent development, but we should also remember that we can be exploited as well if we don't watch carefully. Some campaigns have attempted in the past to float personal attacks through the blogosphere, and bloggers have to decide where they draw the line in engaging in that kind of activity.
Posted by Danny at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)
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Washington state thinks bloggers deserve a "shield" to protect their anonymous sources, but top law enforcers in this Washington remain opposed to the idea even after tweaks to a pending bill on the topic.
Here's a summary from Friday's AM Edition of Technology Daily:
The Bush administration still opposes legislation to shield reporters from being forced by federal prosecutors to reveal sources, even after the bill's sponsors added exceptions for national security, a Justice Department official said Thursday.CongressDaily and News.com report that one of the bill's sponsors, Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said it was changed in hopes of getting administration support for a federal shield law similar to those enacted in 32 states and the District of Columbia. The legislation would let prosecutors compel disclosure in certain cases, such as to prevent "imminent and actual" harm to national security or imminent death or bodily harm.
But Assistant Attorney General Rachel Brand said the proposal, which also would protect some bloggers, is too broad. "The definition is just so broad that it really includes anyone who wants to post something to the Web," she said.
That position is consistent with what a U.S. attorney told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 2005 hearing on similar legislation.
Like Washington state, the latest state to enact a shield law, Texas has been considering a shield law. But the issue of whether to extend the protection to bloggers has been an issue there as well. Earlier this year, the sponsor of the legislation said it could not cover bloggers and still win passage, and when the state House rebuffed the bill in late May, that issue reportedly was a concern.
Even though the measure was written to exclude bloggers, apparently not everyone was convinced, according to Jeremy Warren, a spokesman for Senate Democratic bill sponsor Rodney Ellis. "There was concern over language difference," he said. "The National Manufacturers Association felt that the bill would include bloggers."
Count Rob Port of Say Anything as one blogger who doesn't think bloggers (or journalists) should have a shield to protect sources -- because he thinks the sources should be willing to take the heat for leaking information to the press.
"If some bureaucrat or partisan politician feels there is a government secret that the public simply must know about, let that bureaucrat or politician attach their name to the leak so that the public can decide whether or not the leak was justified and whether or not the person in question should be held accountable for the leak under the law," he wrote. "That way anyone thinking of leaking will think twice, as opposed to the leaking 'open season' that would exist should shield laws come into existence."
Posted by Danny at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
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Andrew Noyes, one of my senior writers at Technology Daily, has the details over at Tech Daily Dose, and I've added a link to the blogrolls both here and there.
Posted by Danny at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)
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Bowers And Stoller Bid Adieu At MyDD
He doesn't say specifically what he'll be doing next, but Bowers' stint as lead writer and managing editor of one of the left's leading liberal blogs ended today:
This is not a decision I made lightly, or without real emotional anguish. It is not an exaggeration to say that MyDD has been my life for these past three years. For almost every single one of the past 1,141 days, I threw virtually everything in my being into making this blog work. As Matt [Stoller] filmed me saying in November, and as I wrote back in December, my existence has merged with the blog. When MyDD is doing well, I feel like I am doing well. When MyDD isn’t doing well, I feel like I have failed. I blog, therefore I am.
Bowers offered only a hint at what is to come for him:
In a little more than three weeks, I will be starting a new website with Matt and one other partner, Mike Lux of the Huffington Post. Expect to hear more on that in the coming days. ...As much as I have enjoyed writing about politics and elections from a partisan Democratic viewpoint, my political background is in the social justice movement and decidedly on the left. I want to write about more than just elections and political infrastructure, and I want to explicitly work toward building a progressive governing majority. ... Also, I want to do much more extended writing on single campaigns ... and join in discussions with a wider variety of individuals and organizations in the progressive movement. Structurally speaking, that means moving somewhat away from the rapid, chronologically backward scrolling format of traditional blogs.
Stoller hasn't had a similar front-page announcement yet, but Bowers' post implies that Stoller is leaving, too, and MyDD's Jonathan Singer said as much in a post about the site's future and the "great holes" to be filled by their departure as MyDD regulars.
With MyDD founder Jerome Armstrong largely in the background of the site these days and the site's two most prominent writers now leaving, it will be interesting to see whether MyDD continues to carry the same weight with the establishment or whether that moves with the bloggers.
In the journalism world, no one is irreplaceable because the brand is the institution, be it The Washington Post, Fox News or National Journal. But in the blogosphere the blogger often is the brand -- even at group blogs/online communities like MyDD. Many of the readers commenting on Bowers' announcement said they will follow him to the new site, and at least one said he might not check MyDD as regularly in the future.
The site won't lose its influence overnight; bloggers like Singer are still going to get invited to blog calls and nab one-on-one time with Democratic officials. Plus one of the great things about the blogosphere is how much easier it is for sharp thinkers and great writers to get "discovered" by readers and build fan bases.
But if a new generation of lead writers doesn't make a lasting impression on MyDD's engaged and astute audience quickly, the site stands to lose some of its cache to some other blogger/some other brand.
UPDATE, 6/17: Stoller posted his 3,263-word farewell at MyDD this afternoon. "I'll be coming back occasionally, but this site will no longer be core to my identity in politics, or really, in life. It's really weird. I mean, I'll be on another site, and many of you will come on over and read, and comment, and link, and complain. I'm not going to stop howling at the 2008 candidates, it'll just be at a differnet URL. So why is this really a goodbye? I don't know, but it is."
Posted by Danny at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)
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'Blogging Is A Way Of Getting The News'
This argument, made in a newspaper editorial after the NCAA booted a blogger at another paper from a baseball game for doing his job, is a milestone admission by a mainstream media organization:
Blogging is simply a quicker way of getting news than waiting for the end of a game. It doesn’t disrupt the game, and it’s a medium ground between print and live broadcast. It is neither print nor broadcast but combines aspects of both. The NCAA should review the case and make a reasonable ruling that live blogging during games is allowed.
Granted, The Muskogee Phoenix, where the editorial appeared, doesn't hold much sway outside its circulation area in Oklahome (if it has any influence there). But the newspaper's argument that blogging is a medium for breaking news is a big deal.
With MSM outlets embracing blogs as news tools, they can't help but make that argument. And once they make it for themselves, it will be harder to deny that anyone who uses blogs in like fashion, whether an amateur or a professional, deserves the same kind of treatment.
Doors will open to bloggers. They will get more credentials, as they should. And the media profession and its readers/listeners will be the better for it.
Let the convergence continue.
UPDATE: I'm guessing that Andrew Keen, the author of the new book "Cult Of The Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture" a, would disagree. He despises the interactivity of Web 2.0, the emergence of user-generated content, and what he called "a cacophany of amateurs" in an interview with National Public Radio.
Here is his thinking in a nutshell: "I prefer the wisdom of the professional" to bloggers and people who write content for the collaborative online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Posted by Danny at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)
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Not since the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination have Republican bloggers been as hostile to President Bush as they are now over immigration.
This issue, like the Iraq war with liberal leaders and their netroots upstarts, is the one that divides the activists from the party's establishment -- and may be the one that creates an unpassable chasm between the two.
From CNN:
Different conservative blogs have different pet issues -- government transparency, federal judges, Fred Thompson, to name a few.But no issue in recent memory has united conservative bloggers like the debate over immigration. Their frustration has culminated in a full-scale revolt against the Bush administration and a Senate bill that activists say does little to solve the country's border security problems. ...
It's increasingly clear from Web postings and interviews with top conservative bloggers that the immigration bill has done serious damage to the president's credibility among the conservative netroots, the grassroots bloggers on the Web. ...
Blogs and anti-immigration organizations used the Web to tap into the growing discontent over the immigration bill, using the Internet to organize phone and fax campaigns to urge senators to vote against the bill. It was a plugged-in show of force that would have been beyond comprehension a decade ago.
Posted by Danny at 10:12 PM | Comments (1)
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That's the best function of blogs, according to Ace of Spades HQ (via Instapundit), and the thinking applies to both the media and political establishment:
What blogs, talk radio and other non-establishment media are best at is fighting that dishonest meme and thereby letting people know that not only are they not alone, but in fact are part of the true, real mainstream majority opinion. And could, and should in most cases, prevail.
His theory is based on the assumption that blogs and talk radio represent the majority opinion, which is a stretch. But he's right that new media are very effective at fighting old media and the good ol' boys of politics.
Posted by Danny at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)
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Blog Credentials In College Sports -- And Congress
Some journalists were crying First Amendment foul earlier this week when the NCAA ejected a writer from a college baseball championship game for live-blogging the event. I disagree.
The league's decision was an ignorant and backward PR blunder, and it should be challenged by all means possible -- especially ones that will annoy the NCAA. But the First Amendment does not guarantee anyone the right to a press credential.
The reporter, Brian Bennett of the Louisville Courier-Journal, broke the conditions placed on receiving the credential, so the NCAA had every right to revoke it, even if it was unwise to do so. Some of Bennett's own readers said he was at fault.
"When you accept a credential, you also accept the conditions that go with it," a blogger at AOL's Fanhouse noted. "And when it comes to adjusting to new technologies, it's up to individual bloggers, whether we work independently or for a larger organization to explain to the party who issues the credential that they ought to make some sort of allowance."
The good news from this confrontation is that media professionals defended blogging as a form of journalism worthy of a press credential. So the next step for the mainstreamers at the Courier-Journal and elsewhere is to defend that right not only for themselves but for pure bloggers.
That's exactly what Robert Cox of the Media Bloggers Association (of which I'm a member) thinks should happen. "I would suggest the NCAA not only reconsider a policy which prohibits 'live-blogging' from NCAA events by credentialed journalists," he told Knoxville, Tenn., journalist/blogger Michael Silence, "but reach out to bloggers through organizations like the Media Bloggers Association to bring in qualified individuals and credential them to have more 'live-blogging.'"
And that's what I think should happen, too -- not just in the sports world but also in Congress. It's time for the elite press to ease the credentialing process and open the people's house to more of the people independently involved in a blog journalism movement.
Follow the lead of the United Nations and the U.S. court system.
Posted by Danny at 07:25 PM | Comments (0)
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... the city of Seattle for threatening its employees over the "serious issue" of burnt popcorn, or the Seattle television station that considered the "news" serious enough to dub it a special report.
OK, I pick the TV station -- but only because its other recent special reports include such meaty topics as the review of a "new vampire revenge movie," the death of a zoo elephant and Father's Day greetings from soldiers. All of those may be worth airtime, but special reports?
Anyway, back to the burnt popcorn. We have an old-fashioned solution here at National Journal: an old-fashioned popcorn machine, the kind they use at carnivals. I've been here going on seven years now and have seen nary a burnt kernel. Maybe Seattle should spring for a couple of machines.
Posted by Danny at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)
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Here's some hot news: National Journal Group and NBC News will expand the political reporting partnership started last year by embedding reporters with presidential campaigns. The venture promises lots of blogging, audio and video.
From our company press release:
Beginning this summer and reaching full strength as the campaigns swing into high gear, these campaign reporters will blog and file video, audio and text dispatches from the trail for NBC News, National Journal, The Hotline, CongressDaily, MSNBC, MSNBC.com, NBC Mobile, NBC Radio and Telemundo. ...Based on the success of NBC News’ campaign embeds from the last presidential election, this cycle of reporters will also be dedicated video-journalists, each of whom will serve as their own mobile campaign bureaus (reporter, producer, cameraperson and blogger), armed with the latest technology for both video and text. The “Decision 2008” campaign reporters will also provide viewers and readers with behind-the-scenes coverage and unprecedented insider access to news and information about the candidates and their top advisors.
Posted by Danny at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)
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More Blog Woes For John Edwards
Hard as they may try, the people trying to get John Edwards elected president just can't seem to get things right when it comes to the blogosphere.
The first mishap came earlier this year when Edwards' campaign, known for its embrace of and outreach to the blogosphere, hired two bloggers. Both of them quit within days after an uproar over harsh words they had written about Catholics.
This week, the Edwards team got another black-eye when a top aide slammed the netroots as a movement where "the only true tolerance they ever exhibit is for their own pseudo-intellectual arrogance." Predictably, the netroots are not happy about the criticism, as evidenced by retorts at Daily Kos, Eschaton and MyDD.
The aide in question, David (Mudcat) Saunders, later attempted to smooth relations with bloggers in a follow-up post at Time's Swampland. But Matt Stoller of MyDD would have none of his "fake apology."
"An apology requires a real self-examination, and understanding of what you did wrong, and a recognition and willingness to take the time and effort not to do it again," Stoller wrote. "If you think you didn't communicate your feelings clearly and that's the problem, you obviously have no idea why people are upset."
The controversy has blog watchers once again pondering what it all means for bloggers and campaigns. My own analysis squares nicely with the one voiced by Garance Franke-Ruta of Tapped.
"People who are working for presidential candidates ... are ill-served by engaging in anything but the most innocuous personal blogging efforts," she wrote. "They're likely to get their candidate in trouble if they speak freely but in a way that's off-message for the campaign, and then if they stop speaking freely to counter that, they come off looking like hacks or like they've been silenced."
Both Franke-Ruta and Adam Bonin of Daily Kos lamented that in today's Internet-driven campaign world, it is almost impossible for campaigns to say or do anything on their own time, including blogging, without it somehow being connected back to the campaign. But they hope that might change.
"This is a new world in which we're living, where folks associated with campaigns can self-publish to the world and are not only heard from when the media quotes them on a matter relevant to the campaign work," Bonin said. "We still have the power to shape these rules, and allow folks associated with campaigns to have some ability to speak on their own behalf, or to decide that they're always "on the clock" when it comes to anything they say publicly. Up to you."
Posted by Danny at 01:14 PM | Comments (1)
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Here is an excerpt of a story we ran in yesterday's PM Edition of Technology Daily:
A pair of female law students at Yale University has filed a federal lawsuit that accuses anonymous posters on an Internet discussion board of defamation. The plaintiffs, who filed the suit anonymously on Tuesday in a U.S. district court in Connecticut, where Yale is located, said they have suffered psychological and economic injuries as a result of "harassing and threatening" statements that were made about them on the AutoAdmit site.AutoAdmit hosts a discussion board where users post information about the admissions processes at undergraduate and graduate schools, including law schools. The plaintiffs are seeking punitive damages amounting to $245,000 and the permanent removal of the threads in which they were discussed on the AutoAdmit site.
According to the lawsuit, neither of the plaintiffs knew of AutoAdmit before being told that they were being discussed on message threads there. One of the women claimed that she failed to obtain a summer job because disparaging comments about her were obtainable through basic Web searches. The other claimed she was forced to leave school because of the physical and emotional damage that certain remarks on the site brought upon her.
The complaint cites comments about both women in which they were physically and sexually threatened. The plaintiffs also alleged that AutoAdmit administrators were told of the comments and refused to remove them. The suit further accuses the defendants of violating copyright law by posting images of one of the plaintiffs without her permission.
Our story mentioned that blawger Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, has criticized the lawsuit. The case piqued the interest of other blawgers, too. Instapundit had a roundup earlier this week.
Posted by Danny at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)
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David Obey Is The New Ted Stevens
Sen. Ted Stevens was the butt of blogosphere jokes and target of blog swarm after blog swarm for the better part of two years when Republicans controlled Congress. But with Democrats in control, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., appears to be working hard to replace Stevens as Blogosphere Enemy No. 1.
Obey caused an uproar among liberal bloggers in March when he referred to the "idiot liberals" opposed to an emergency spending bill for military operations in Afghanistan in Iraq. Now he is under fire from bloggers on the right for moving to undermine Democrats' pledge to be more transparent about "earmarking" projects in lawmakers' districts for federal spending.
Bloggers are particularly irked by reports that Obey will only add earmarks to House-Senate conference agreements that generally cannot be amendmed on the floor. In the past, earmarks have been included in the separate House and Senate versions of appropriations bills and the committee reports that accompany them.
One explanation Obey gave for the change in course is that he and his staff need "extra time to evaluate the 36,000-plus earmark requests members have submitted to the Appropriations Committee this year." But Porkbusters, the group that so often has been a thorn in Stevens' side, has a solution to that dilemma: Let bloggers help evaluate the earmark requests.
"As you know, Internet technology has made research faster and easier than at any previous time in human history," says a petition being circulated online by Porkbusters. "By releasing your 36,000 earmark requests publicly, I and other taxpayers across the country could work together in a cooperative effort to determine which Members of Congress may have financial conflicts attached to their earmark requests, which local projects may be unworthy of federal funding and which may have value to the taxpayers."
Obey may well have learned from the "idiot liberals" brouhaha, for which he apologized, that it pays to keep some opinions to himself in an era when outbursts spread virally via the Internet. But when he hears about the petition, I wouldn't be surprised if he takes refuge in a smoke-filled room somewhere on Capitol Hill -- perhaps with Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss. -- to curse the "idiot Porkbusters."
Posted by Danny at 09:18 AM | Comments (1)
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I can't believe newspapers are still writing introductory stories like this about the blogosphere:
Four months ago, they didn't exist on the Poughkeepsie Journal Web site. Today, they're one of the ways the newspaper connects with people who want good information on topics they're into and want to talk to other people about them.I'm talking about blogs -- the five letters near the top of the list of the latest techno buzzwords. If you haven't heard, "blogs'' is short for "web logs.'' They're online resources of information for niche audiences that are written informally in a diary-like style.
Blogs haven't been a "techno buzzword" for, oh, at least three years now; they're as mainstream as you get today. It just goes to show how technologically backward too many journalists are. Some folks are already talking about Web 3.0, and some newspapers haven't even discovered Web 2.0 yet. That's sad.
Posted by Danny at 07:20 AM | Comments (0)
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How Blogs Shaped The Immigration Debate
It's always tough to gauge how much impact blogs have had on any given policy issue, but they clearly were a factor in last week's Senate setback for people who want to overhaul U.S. immigration law.
From The New York Times:
In the end, supporters conceded that they were outmaneuvered by opponents who boiled down their complaints to that single hot-button word, repeated often and viscerally on talk radio programs and blogs. "It's a lot easier to yell one word, 'amnesty,' and it takes a little more to explain, 'No, it's not, and if you don't do anything, you have a silent amnesty,'" said Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, a Democrat who backed the measure.
The blogs mustered enough clout in the debate over the past few weeks that the White House felt compelled to go online and counter criticisms of the bill. Two White House officials, Kerrie Rushton and Nicholas Thompson, blogged at RedState, and another official contacted The Corner. A diarist at the liberal blog Daily Kos took note of the interactions by a "panicked White House."
Rob Bluey of the Heritage Foundation, who blogged proliferously about the issue at both RedState and Bluey Blog, offered this analysis via e-mail: "This was a case of a grassroots revolt that took hold because American citizens could use blogs (not just RedState but also [HughHewitt.com] and Michelle Malkin, among others) to get news about the bill and organize opposition to it."
Posted by Danny at 10:27 AM | Comments (13)
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Republican new media consultant David All , whose company just last week started offering video production as a service to clients, has some tips designed to help candidates use, and keep from misusing, YouTube and other video-sharing sites:
1) Two-camera strategy at all times. 2) Watch the footage. Archive well. 3) Monitor opponent’s channel / organic search results. 4) Prepare known hit responses early / “flood the zone.” 5) Several different campaign YouTube accounts.
Visit All's blog, From The Trenches, for detailed explanations of the tips.
Posted by Danny at 08:29 AM | Comments (0)
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MSM Talking Points About Blogs
You've heard them all before:
-- Blogs are not journalism.
-- You can't write with authority unless you are a reporter.
-- Bloggers don't have editors.
But newspaper dinosaurs like Pete Hamill have been repeating those same tired and irrelevant criticisms of blogs for so long that I'm beginning to think there really is a mainstream media memo somewhere that I'm missing. Maybe the green-eyeshade gang won't show it to me because they think I'm one of The Others in the publishing world.
Ironically, Mr. Hamill (like so many of my journalistic brethren before him) exposed himself as an ignorant critic when he admitted that he would never stoop so low as to "squander reading time combing the blogs."
News flash, Hamill the Hypocrite: If you had done your reporting and actually read some blogs, including this one, you would know that there is plenty of journalism in our sphere. You would also know that a blog is just another communications medium -- like a Web site or a television station or those newspapers you (and I) love so much.
You're a talented journalist, but you've become too comfortable in your role as an author and "opinion maven." You should, to paraphrase your own words, get out of the ivory tower, go to the place and look at this wonderful "thing" we call the blogosphere.
I assure you that you will learn plenty. One very important thing you'll learn is that an MSM organization as revered as the Knight Foundation last month recognized a handful of bloggers by giving them real money in the first annual "news challenge" awards. The winners included:
-- Lisa Williams of Placeblogger to "make it easier for people to find hyperlocal news and information about their city or neighborhood through promotion of 'universal geotagging' in blogs" ($222,000). It doesn't get much more journalistic than "hyperlocal" news.
-- Amy Gahran and Adam Glenn of I, Reporter to "track Boulder, Colo.’s, implementation of a carbon tax" ($90,000). "I, Reporter" sounds an awful lot to me like reporting will be involved.
-- And nine bloggers who won $15,000 each to pursue their pet projects, such as "a centralized, user-maintained news system."
If you dig deeply enough into the blogosphere, Mr. Hamill, you might even learn a thing or two about "Moby Dick."
Posted by Danny at 07:39 PM | Comments (0)
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Who's Doing Blog Outreach At The White House?
I don't know the answer to that question, but National Journal tells its readers where David Almacy, who had been in that position, is now. Here's the story from this week's people column, reprinted with permission of the magazine:
It was the Barney Cam that first helped David Almacy fully appreciate the power of "viral marketing." As White House director of Internet and e-communications, he watched the Christmastime video of the presidential pooch, first posted on whitehouse.gov, make its way around the Internet.Almacy, who left his White House job last month, will be using viral marketing and other new media tools for clients of his new employer, Waggener Edstrom. Though the Seattle-headquartered public-relations firm is best-known for its work on behalf of Microsoft, Almacy says he doesn't expect to deal with the software giant. He will be based in D.C. as Waggener Edstrom's vice president of digital strategies for North America.
Almacy, 36, grew up in Bethesda, Md., graduated from Widener University in Chester, Pa., and got his first job with the broadcast division of the Republican National Committee. He gained further political connections and technical know-how during five years in marketing at C-SPAN and two with GovTech Solutions, a company that designs Web sites for Republican members of Congress.
In 2000, he and his wife, Julie Coleman (daughter of former Rep. Tom Coleman, R-Mo.) volunteered with the George W. Bush campaign in Iowa, which later helped Almacy land an appointment with the Education Department as a spokesman for a Hispanic education initiative (although he's not Hispanic) and as an adviser to Deputy Secretary Eugene Hickok.
Almacy joined the Bush communications team in March 2005 and was put in charge of whitehouse.gov. He takes credit for overseeing the recent upgrade and redesign and for adding interactive features, such as RSS news feed subscriptions, On Demand video, and audio podcasts. "I just called the main number for Apple and said we want to start podcasting the president's radio address," Almacy says.
He was also the White House's liaison to the blogosphere, which, when he started, required him to monitor about 35 political blogs. Now, he says, there are about 35 blogs for every policy issue.
Working for Waggener Edstrom will definitely mean a change of pace -- one that his 4-year-old daughter, at least, already appreciates. When Almacy came in the door at 7 p.m. last week, she exclaimed, "Daddy, you're home in the daytime!"
Incidentally, I post both the White House and Democratic National Committee radio addresses weekly at my independent audio/video blog, AirCongress.
Posted by Danny at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)
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'Macaca' Sure Has Been Good For Jon Henke
Last year, blogger Jon Henke went to work for the Republican that many people in the party once thought had the best shot at being the 2008 presidential nominee.
That didn't work out so well because by the time Sen. George Allen, R-Va., hired Henke, Allen was trying to salvage the "macaca" mess he had made of his political fortunes. Henke was on a late-campaign fool's errand to use new media as the polish to remove the tarnish from a candidate seemingly determined to lose.
Perhaps Henke learned a lesson from that experience. This week, he started work, indirectly, for an undeclared candidate that more and more Republicans hope will jump into the presidential race: former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee.
In other words, Henke, who spent the first five months of this year spearheading new media outreach for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., hasn't been hired to sell spoiled goods to a skeptical electorate. He has been hired to promote a political underdog who has embraced the very new media tools that helped Henke make a political name for himself.
"Some months ago, after reading an excellent John Fund piece on Fred Thompson," Henke wrote at the QandO blog where he contributed before going to work for McConnell, "I had a conversation with Mike Turk. Following our conversation, he put together a post making 'The Case for Fred Thompson.' It is a compelling case, and one with which I generally agree."
Stay tuned to see whether this third political marriage is a success for Henke -- and for Thompson.
Three other notes related to Henke's announcement:
1) Both William Beutler of Blog P.I., a former colleague of mine at National Journal, and Howard Mortman, who worked at National Journal before I met him, will be working with Henke on the Thompson campaign. All three are part of the public affairs shop that Mortman runs at New Media Strategies.
Beutler disclosed his work for Thompson, and his "right-libertarian" political leanings, in a post at Blog P.I. Mortman opted for a lighter-hearted disclosure at Extreme Mortman: "How will this affect the Extreme Mortman blog? Simple. I will continue to ridicule the first and third 'Die Hard' movies, but 'Die Hard 2' is now off limits." (For those who don't know, Thompson, an actor, appeared in the latter movie.)
2) Shira Toeplitz of Hotline On Call, a current colleague of mine, penned a detailed "On The Download" entry about the rest of Thompson's Internet team, which also includes Turk as the "chief architect."
3) And Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation shared his thoughts on Henke's move and the Thompson Web team.
Posted by Danny at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)
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Ky. Prosecutors Investigate Republican Blogger
Reprinted from today's PM Edition of Technology Daily
By Michael Martinez
Another blog scandal has erupted in the Bluegrass State. Kentucky prosecutors announced this week the launch of a preliminary review into how a Republican political blogger obtained state telephone records that he posted on his site to damage Democratic candidates for statewide office.
The state attorney general's office is looking into how Brett Hall, a former spokesman for Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher, accessed records he mentioned in a recent post on his blog, KyPolitics.
Hall posted excerpts of messages left for now-State Auditor Crit Luallen by Democratic attorney general candidate Jack Conway. Conway uttered a disparaging remark about former U.S. Rep. Anne Northup, R-Ky., who last month lost Kentucky's GOP gubernatorial primary.
Luallen, who was working for former Democratic Gov. Paul Patton when the message was left for her, is up for re-election this year. Conway won the Democratic bid to replace Attorney General Greg Stumbo in last month's primary. Hall has removed the post that contained the excerpts of Conway's call to Luallen.
A Stumbo spokeswoman would not elaborate on the preliminary probe when asked for comment Wednesday. Conway and Luallen are calling for an independent investigation.
In a post earlier this week, Hall said he is committed to protecting his source. He previously told the Louisville Courier-Journal that he obtained the information through a public-records request but later acknowledged that was a fabrication.
He also accused "liberal" reporters of sensationalizing the story and blasted Democratic public officials for "attempting to criminalize something that is nothing more than an exercise of the First Amendment."
"What has transpired in recent days is the making of a political cooking show, complete with two Democrat constitutional offices working together to prevent further information from being published," he wrote.
Hall denied that Fletcher had anything to do with the issue. Fletcher overcame controversies of his own to defeat Northup in the primary. Fletcher was indicted last year in a hiring scandal but was never charged with any crimes.
"Not having talked with [Fletcher] at all about this or any other related topic, I can well imagine he is not pleased," Hall said. "You see, the [Fletcher] I know doesn't countenance the shading of the truth. But, try to convince the 'glass is half-empty crowd' of that."
Fletcher was at the center of a separate blog controversy last summer. Democratic blogger Mark Nickolas of the BluegrassReport accused Fletcher's administration in federal court of blocking state employees from reading the blogger's site for political reasons. Nickolas also managed the failed gubernatorial campaign of now-U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler against Fletcher in 2003.
In a post on Tuesday, Nickolas said he is having a hard time believing that Fletcher had nothing to do with Hall's predicament. "Another year, another Fletcher scandal concerning improper official conduct," Nickolas wrote.
Calls to Fletcher's office were not returned before deadline.
Posted by Danny at 04:43 PM | Comments (0)
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Gartner Research analysts are skeptical that governments will capitalize on blogs and other online social tools in the long run because they are unprepared for the risks of entering the virtual world, Technology Daily reported this afternoon.
At the G-Con Gartner Government Conference, Andrea Di Maio, a vice president at Gartner, predicted that by the end of 2010, more than 50 percent of governments will vacate Web 2.0 worlds such as Second Life, where agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have established a presence.
Di Maio said there are political dangers to embedding a government official in a "wiki," which permits anyone to modify Web content, or a blog or an alternate online universe. Di Maio cited an incident where the administration of British Prime Minister Tony Blair tried to engage British citizens online by seeking support for his proposal to establish a road tax. More than 1 million people petitioned online against the tax, he said.
Jeff Vining, another vice president at Gartner, said the alternate universe of Second Life opens a Pandora's box of ethical questions: What if a government official, in his avatar persona, speaks out against the president or engages in criminal activity like online stalking?
Also, government operations on file-sharing networks, wikis and other distributed frameworks create multiple points of online attack, he said. Agencies should "exercise great caution with virtual worlds."
Posted by Danny at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)
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I built a blog, of course. I diligently avoided blogging here at Beltway Blogroll for the better part of two weeks, but I just couldn't break the addiction entirely while on vacation over the Memorial Day congressional recess.
My blogging was of a personal nature this time -- it featured plenty of pictures of my wife, Kimberly, and our kids -- but with a political/historical twist that my readers here may appreciate. Kimberly and I recently decided to go on a mission by visiting the homes U.S. presidents.
We're doing it both for fun (to the parents anyway, as I collect presidential biographies and Kimberly loves gardens and homes) and educational value (to our home-schooled children). I thought our travels might serve as a useful and free Internet guide to presidential homes, so I decided to blog about them at U.S. Presidential Homes. Additional photos also are available at Flickr.
Our first stop, appropriately, was at Mount Vernon, the home of the nation's first president, George Washington. Several of the presidential homes are just a day trip away for us, so we plan to visit those as soon as possible. And I'm personally looking forward most to a trip to the Midwest for tours of the various boyhood and adult homes of Abraham Lincoln.
Hitting the California stops on the tour may take us some time, but that's where you can help. If you live near any of presidential homes and want to contribute to the blog, post your photos (new or existing) to Flickr and point me to them so I can add them to the blog. And if you want to post comments about your travels, I can arrange that, too.
(Cross-posted at another of my personal blogs, AirCongress)
Posted by Danny at 12:12 PM | Comments (0)
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