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July 31, 2007I'm Starting To Like Billiam The Snowman
I met Wall Street Journal reporter Amy Schatz last week at the luncheon that Google and YouTube hosted for journalists and bloggers before the Democratic presidential debate in Charleston, S.C.
This morning, she quoted from and linked to my post about the snowman question in her story about how that video in the debate "turned 'Billiam the Snowman' into a cold, wet symbol of all that's good and bad about efforts by voters and politicians to use the Internet to reach one another."
Maybe that freezeball Billiam ain't so bad after all. Thanks, Amy.
Posted by Danny at 11:30 AM | Comments (1)
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As chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Tom Cole of Oklahoma makes it his business to elect Republicans to the House, but he also wants to see his party occupying the White House.
It's not surprising, then, that he has some thoughts on whether the GOP presidential candidates should subject themselves to questions from citizens in a debate sponsored by CNN and YouTube where voters. He shared those thoughts yesterday in an interview with CQ Radio.
David All of techRepublican clipped that part of the interview and created a YouTube video around it.
Cole, who this year has embraced blogs and other new media in ways that his predecessor resisted, admonished the GOP candidates to participate in the CNN/YouTube debate despite the risks that come "any time you engage in real dialogue."
"Republicans need to be prepared to [take] those risks," he said, "Why would you sit back fat and happy and be complacent after you got your clock cleaned, and we did in 2006."
He noted that the dominant news story among Democratic candidates over the past week -- whether it is advisable to have diplomatic talks with the leaders of rogue nations -- was sparked by a question from the similar debate they had in Charleston, S.C., on July 23. "Now if you're running for president, don't you think you ought to participate in the kind of debates that actually capture public attention," he said.
Cole also noted that the debate is a great chance for Republicans to show they are not afraid of new media. "This is an arena and a medium in which we have not participated as fully and as forcefully as I think we should. ... You know, this is a medium that is driving the Democratic Party right now. So I think to miss the opportunity to engage is a real mistake for any Republican candidate."
Posted by Danny at 09:11 AM | Comments (1)
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Writing A Broadband Bill Via The Blogosphere
That's what Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., has been doing for the past week. He continues this week with an appearance across the blog aisle at RedState.
Get the full report from Technology Daily's Web 2.0 expert, Aliya Sternstein, over at Tech Daily Dose.
Posted by Danny at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)
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A week ago tonight, Democratic presidential candidates gathered in Charleston, S.C., for a groundbreaking event in politics: a debate that featured online video questions submitted by citizens.
The debate about the strengths and weaknesses of the event have been raging ever since, with the big news late last week being that Republicans may not embrace a similar debate. The Huffington Post also caught up with the people whose questions were aired and offered some revealing tidbits, like the fact that one of the questions to Rep. Dennis Kucinich was asked by one of his supporters.
Here's a recap of some of the news and commentary from the past seven days:
-- The Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet: "We saw an old-school style debate for a YouTube audience." The problems that IPDI cited included candidates changing the subject from the actual questions that were asked and candidates criticizing each other rather than talking about their own views.
-- The word from White House Press Secretary Tony Snow (via Think Progress): President Bush isn't "big on YouTube debates."
-- Competing views of the debate from TalkLeft: Site founder Jeralyn Merritt reportedly "thought it was the best debate," but Armando Llorens, who writes under then pseudonym Big Tent Democrat, disagreed. "[I]t was a particularly silly exercise where attention-seeking gimmicks like [a] snowman, costumes and singing were the order of the day. Moreover, the actual questions were, at best, badly phrased routine questions we have heard a million times. ... But what really annoyed me was the conceit that CNN's slections represented some type of consensus view of 'what the people wanted to talk about.'"
Llorens also criticized a new debate proposal being touted by some bloggers on the right.
-- Two writers at Open Left loved the debate. Though Mike Lux criticized CNN's execution of the debate, he describe the concept as "democracy the way it was meant to be, just like in the polling place." Technologist David Alpert called the debate an Internet-inspired "gust of fresh air."
-- Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh (via PrezVid): "Above all else, this is a show. CNN is in this for ratings. They’re not going to turn over the all-important questions to these candidates to a bunch of dingbats who don’t know what they’re doing. ... The YouTube business is nothing more than the latest attempt by the Democrats and the media to extend the youth vote to the Democrat Party. Think of this as the 2007 version of Rock the Vote."
-- Writing in the New York Daily News, Micah Sifry of techPresident called for a "presidential debate 2.0," where online users would pick some of the questions and vote on the best candidate answers as the debate occurs.
-- Colin Delany of e.politics: "The big loser was traditional political rhetoric. Every time candidates veered off into talking points, I started to drift off myself, but when they spoke as they would in a normal conversation, I would tend to perk up and listen. The format humanized the candidates. With people asking unstilted questions, stilted answers felt hollow."
-- Frustrated by the "inane" questions that he said let the candidates stick to prepared talking points, Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters started a contest among his readers in an attempt to generate "intelligent, cogent YouTube video questions that will produce specific answers from our Republican candidates." He also dedicated an episode of CQ Radio to discussing the debate.
-- Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine engaged in a spirited debate about the debate with a British journalist. Jarvis concluded that television didn't mix well with the new media promise of online video. BBC Editor Kevin Marsh cast more of the blame on citizen media.
-- Conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt is adamantly opposed to Republicans participating in a similar YouTube debate. To prove his point about the "looney format" and "lunatic assumptions," he dedicated part of Friday's show to airing and answering some of the questions already submitted for that event. Hewitt added in a later blog post, "Skipping a CNN set-up camouflaged with YouTube videos is a symptom of wanting to win, that's all."
-- GOP e-politics expert Patrick Ruffini on talk of Republicans avoiding a similar debate: "This is a big mistake. The Democrats are afraid to answer questions from Big Bad Fox News Anchors, and the Republicans are afraid to answer questions from regular people. Which is worse? It's stuff like this that will set the GOP back an election cycle or more on the Internet. No matter the snazzy Web features and YouTube videos they may put up, if they're fundamentally uncomfortable with the idea of interacting with real people online, what's the point?"
Ruffini also took his cause at HughHewitt.com. Dean Barnett blogged about the issue there as well, challenging Ruffini's views about the value of online GOP activism. Of the debate format, Barnett added: "With goofy YouTube videos running cover for CNN’s agenda journalism, one can easily imagine several questions being asked at the CNN/YouTube debate that would never be asked, and indeed have no rightful place, in a mature political dialogue."
-- Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo ridiculed the suggestion that YouTube has a liberal bias. "'Liberal Bias,' whatever else it once was, now appears to be the new Republican code word for any venue or events not controlled by Republican commisars like Hugh Hewitt along the lines of President Bush's notorious Social Security town halls in which only certified flunkies who swore to a Bush loyalty oath were let into the room," Marshall wrote.
-- To Matt Stoller of Open Left, the reason that Republicans don't want to submit to voters' questions in a YouTube debate is simple: "Because they will get crushed."
-- Under a headline that referred to YawnTube, Michelle Malkin noted the unimpressive ratings for the debate.
-- Howard Mortman wants to see other online powerhouses like Amazon.com, eBay, Netflix, Peapod and Wonkette hosting presidential debates, with probing questions like "Why do you think that people who purchased your autobiography are also reading Dr. Seuss?"
Posted by Danny at 07:18 AM | Comments (3)
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That may sound like a contradictory headline considering my Friday gripe about the snowman question at the CNN/YouTube debate. But my rant was less about the snowman than about the CNN bigwigs who decided to air it. They needed a dose of keep-it-presidential reality when screening the questions.
But as I mentioned Friday, the idea that Mitt Romney or any other Republican candidate would use one snowman question to avoid a debate where citizens ask them questions via online video is ridiculous.
GOP e-politics expert Patrick Ruffini had it right when he said, "If you think this is about snowmen, you are sadly mistaken." It's about whether Republicans are afraid of the Internet -- and the people who see it as a great medium for engaging with their leaders.
It's worth noting that overall, the Democratic CNN/YouTube debate was a positive development. Yes, there were low points. The snowman question was a misguided attempt at entertainment amid a serious event. The opening and closing questions -- How are you going to be different? What's to like and dislike about the candidate to your left? -- were softballs. The lone gun-control question featuring a man who called his assault weapon his "baby" arguably exposed CNN's bias by trying to portray all gun-rights advocates as lunatics. And the redneck question ... welll, 'nuff said.
But there were plenty of high points, too. The video montage of very personal healthcare questions was powerful. Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois have been bickering for days thanks to a citizen's question about diplomatic meetings with the leaders of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela. There were meaty questions about Iraq, genocide in Darfur, nuclear power, taxes, Social Security, education, religion, race and gender, and even obscure but interesting topics like reparations for slavery and including women in the draft.
Plus occasionally, the candidates provided meaty answers.
The debate certainly wasn't worse than any where only journalists grill the candidates, and snowman question aside, I think it was better. I'd like to see more such debates -- with Republicans, Democrats and more.
If Mitt Romney or any other candidates get questions they think are inappropriate, they can say so. Imagine the applause any of the Democrats would have received by prefacing the answer to Billiam the Snowman by saying something like: "Global warming is a serious issue, and CNN has demeaned the subject by having a snowman ask the question. But here's what I would do as president to address global warming."
Or if Republicans don't think CNN and YouTube deserve a second chance because they so royally botched the Democrats' debate, look elsewhere. There are plenty of other news networks and/or video-sharing sites that could plan a similar debate. Word has it that ABC already has a plan to one-up CNN, and Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters proposed a tweak in the format by CNN and YouTube.
The point is, don't ditch the format because of a few glitches in the first experiment. Improve upon it.
P.S. My wife just said, "When you have to write about forgetting the snowman," maybe I'm the one with the problem. Point taken ... but I'd already started waxing eloquent, so I had to finish the post.
Posted by Danny at 07:02 AM | Comments (1)
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Ten Minutes To Guess All Of The Presidents
Within five minutes, I had remembered all but three without any online help. The ones I couldn't remember -- Chester Arthur, Millard Fillmore and Rutherford B. Hayes -- are three of the most forgotten U.S. presidents.
Take the test here. (Hat tip to Andy Roth.)
Posted by Danny at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
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In June 2006, bloggers and mainstream media alike treated their audience to never-ending coverage and commentary of the first annual YearlyKos Convention. It looks like we're in for more of the same this week as the Daily Kos community gathers in Chicago.
For a taste of the coverage that seems sure to come, here's a preview from the San Francisco Chronicle:
The second annual gathering of the Daily Kos political blog starts this week in Chicago, and here's all you need to know about how influential the YearlyKos convention has become: Five top presidential candidates are going -- including front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, even though the Kos bloggers don't like her that much. ...Another sign of the growing power of the Daily Kos convention is that none of the attending Democratic hopefuls -- including Sens. Barack Obama and Chris Dodd, former Sen. John Edwards and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson -- are scheduled to appear at the Democratic Leadership Council gathering this weekend in Tennessee. The DLC is the moderate organization that former President Bill Clinton led for two years before beginning his successful campaign for the White House in 1992.
"It's hilarious that (Hillary Clinton's) not even attending her own group," said Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the Berkeley resident who founded Daily Kos in 2002.
The burst of fairly positive YearlyKos coverage last year was quickly followed by a rush of critical stories about the ethics of Kos and his friends. We'll see soon enough whether that pattern repeats itself this year.
Posted by Danny at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)
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Kingpin Kos: 'Remember To Be Polite'
I agree with the folks who think the Fox News crusade against JetBlue for its role in the YearlyKos convention next week is misguided, and the contention that Daily Kos is a "hate site" is ridiculous.
On the other hand, now that Daily Kos and other liberal blogs have launched a counter-crusade against Fox News and its advertisers like Home Depot and Lowe's, it is amusingly ironic that Kingpin Kos still has to send admonitions like this to his minions: "Remember to be polite when e-mailing. If your e-mail looks anything like the winger hate mail I'm getting, it won't be effective at all."
He wouldn't be writing warnings like that unless he knew his community was capable of generating the same kind of "hate mail" as Daily Kos critics.
Posted by Danny at 11:51 AM | Comments (2)
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Scoring Debate Points
I've shared my personal thoughts on "The Snowman Question" from Monday's CNN/YouTube presidential debate. Now here, reprinted with permission, is a fuller report about the debate that I wrote for National Journal magazine.
By K. Daniel Glover
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- What happens when a wild range of nonjournalists get to grill candidates in a presidential debate? After several weeks of hype, CNN and YouTube answered that question here this week in an innovative two-hour event that featured questions posed via video clips.
The result was a mix of serious and silly questions -- and serious ones in silly packaging, such as the snowman who asked the eight Democratic candidates what they would do about global warming "to ensure that my son will live a full and happy life."
Other questioners came across as plain scary. A Michigan man brandished an assault weapon as he asked the presidential wannabes what they would do to protect "my baby." New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson gave a polite answer about the importance of instant background checks for gun buyers, but Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware lashed out at the questioner. "I don't know that he is mentally qualified to be owning that gun," Biden said. "I'm being serious.... I hope he doesn't come looking for me."
Many of the debate questions were ones that professional journalists probably wouldn't ask. To Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois: Are you black enough? To Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York: Are you feminine enough, and would you ever be taken seriously as president in talks with Arab nations that treat women as second-class citizens?
The candidates were quizzed on whether they support reparations for slavery, think that women should be eligible for the draft, and have talked to their kids about sex. But the questioners also touched on more-traditional debate topics: the Iraq war, genocide in Darfur, health care, education policy, and alternative energy.
Some of the queries were framed with precision and effectively exposed the candidates' differences. A question about whether the candidates would agree to unconditional diplomatic meetings with the leaders of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela revealed distinctions among the three front-running Democrats -- Clinton, Obama, and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
"This YouTube debate really started showing separation on who's going to take on Washington," Joe Trippi, a senior adviser to Edwards, said afterward. Trippi and other campaign aides joined the candidates and traditional talking heads in praising the new format, which CNN and YouTube will use for a Republican presidential debate in September. "It really is the voice of the people," said Peter Daou, Clinton's Internet director.
But Andrew Rasiej, founder and publisher of a website called TechPresident.com that tracks the candidates' use of the Internet, gave the overall production a C. He said that debate host Anderson Cooper too often let candidates "pivot off questions and go wherever they wanted."
Rasiej also complained that CNN had chosen the videos. "It all felt like they were trying to sprinkle a little bit of Internet gold dust on themselves and make themselves look cool," he said.In an interview with Rasiej after the debate, Trippi agreed to consider involving Edwards in a debate that TechPresident would organize. Internet users would pick the questions, Rasiej said.
Dan Gillmor, who heads the Center for Citizen Media at Harvard University, favors an even broader revolution in presidential debates. He said that candidates should agree to debates on the Internet that stretch over several days. Gillmor also said that they should embrace one-on-one debates "instead of having a contest to see who can come up with a glib sound bite."
CNN Senior Vice President David Bohrman said his network felt compelled to filter the questions to avoid having the process gamed by particular campaigns or by people who would have preferred goofy questions or costumes. He also acknowledged that the number of video questions and candidates presented a challenge."I felt robbed on time," Bohrman said. "I wanted to hear from every candidate on every question. But then you would [have gotten] only four questions."
Nevertheless, he said, CNN is eager to try the format again, not just with Republicans in September but also during the general election campaign. The debate showed that "there's clearly a place at the table for new media in electoral politics," Bohrman concluded.
Posted by Danny at 12:28 PM | Comments (2)
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As noted in Technology Daily's AM Edition
California Sen. Tom McClintock this week used his blog to garner support for a Republican deadlock in the state's legislature, The Sacramento Bee reports.
His blog has allowed McClintock a chance to spread his message against what he sees as profligate spending by Democrats -- a task that has not always come easy to the Republican.
"For many years, McClintock has been somewhat isolated in the message he has consistently delivered," said Kevin Gordon, a consultant on education budget issues. "The difference is, this year he's got a technology-driven megaphone."
During his 21 years in the legislature, McClintock has often been dismissed by critics as out of touch with mainstream voters, but his views on state issues are gaining a "fervent following on the Internet," the paper reported.
Posted by Danny at 12:21 PM | Comments (2)
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Reprinted from Monday's PM Edition of Technology Daily
By Michael Martinez
A man who used to manage the computer system used by Kentucky's executive branch told a federal court on Friday that aides to Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher blocked state employees from a blog for political reasons last year.
Michael Inman, the state's former technology commissioner, said in an affidavit submitted in the U.S. district court in Eastern Kentucky that Fletcher's office specifically targeted a blog written by a Democratic critic of the administration.
Inman's affidavit supports accusations made in a federal lawsuit submitted last year by Mark Nickolas, the author of BluegrassReport. Nickolas also managed the failed 2003 gubernatorial campaign of now-U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler against Fletcher.
Fletcher's administration has maintained that state employees were blocked from reading Nickolas' blog at work last year as part of a content-neutral Web-filtering initiative to limit distractions at the workplace. Other filtered pages included ESPN.com and various entertainment sites.
But Nickolas has alleged that the administration cut off access to his site in response to things he said online and in interviews with newspapers, charges that were backed by Inman. Nickolas' lawsuit notes that his blog was blocked after he was quoted in a story in The New York Times about Fletcher being indicted in a hiring scandal.
In his affidavit, Inman said former deputy Mark Rutledge, who has since become the state's chief information officer, bragged to him about blocking Nickolas' blog. Inman also alleged that Rutledge said to him that he doubted anyone would discover that the administration blocked the site because they "hid it in a bunch of other stuff."
"Based on my conversations with Rutledge, it was apparent that the state had intentionally blocked BluegrassReport.org and had blocked the category of blogs and other categories of Web sites to disguise that fact," Inman said.
Inman added that the decision to block BluegrassReport came directly from the governor's office as a result of Nickolas' criticism of the administration.
A Fletcher spokeswoman declined to comment on Inman's affidavit because the case is still pending. Fletcher, who was never charged with any crimes in the hiring scandal, is up for re-election this fall.
Nickolas recently moved to Montana and stopped writing BluegrassReport. He has launched another blog, Rocky Mountain Report, which focuses on politics in Western states.
Inman also said he was never told why he was dismissed last summer and replaced by Rutledge. He has been highly critical of the administration during the past several months. Earlier this spring, he accused Fletcher's administration of monitoring the e-mail accounts of state employees to measure their loyalty.
He told the court last week that he was "compelled to state the truth" about the administration and its explanation for why Nickolas' site was blocked.
"I believe the state has authority to block Web sites that cause disruption in the workplace," he said, in the affidavit. "I disagree, however, that decisions about which Web sites to block should be based on the official disapproval of the content of particular Web sites."
Posted by Danny at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
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Brave New Films thinks so and has plenty of evidence to bolster that view in this video mash-up of on-air Fox attacks against liberal bloggers. The closing message: "Sign up to become a Fox attacker. Tell the advertisers to stop endorsing Fox."
By way of reminder, Bill O'Reilly is the general in the latest attack, which is aimed at the JetBlue airline for aiding and abetting the enemy bloggers who will gather at the YearlyKos convention in Chicago next week.
Liberal bloggers also are attacking conservative blogger and Fox commentator Michelle Malkin, saying that she actually runs the kinds of hate sites that Fox condemns.
Posted by Danny at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)
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I was stunned Monday night when CNN let through its debate filter a question about global warming that a "snowman" had posted to YouTube for the Democratic presidential candidates gathered in Charleston, S.C.
The video was mildly amusing, and YouTube is the perfect forum for such silliness. But I hated that CNN aired the question for a few reasons.
First of all, it put to the lie CNN's contention that the network had to filter the content (rather than let Internet users pick their favorites) in order to avoid online videos that featured questions about cyborgs or people in costumes. Did CNN really see a distinction between someone asking a question in a chicken suit and putting a talking snowman in front of the camera? The average uninformed voter could have chosen a more informative question.
Second, using the snowman video to tackle global warming made a mockery of a hot-button policy issue. Debate moderator Anderson Cooper tried to explain that problem away by saying, "It's a funny video; it's a serious question." But the silliness overwhelmed the substance.
Only one candidate, long shot of long shots Dennis Kucinich, was given a chance to respond to the snowman. Moments later, Sen. Hillary Clinton interjected, "Anderson, you know, we haven't really seriously addressed this incredibly important issue of global warming and energy efficiency." While Clinton and the other two leading candidates, John Edwards and Barack Obama, discussed alternative energies in a follow-up question, the snowman was an unnecessary distraction.
Third, and most important, the snowman question undermined the seriousness of the occasion. It was a presidential debate, for cryin' out loud, and CNN's decision to give airtime to a stack of frozen water lowered it to the level of an Internet chat room. Now "Billiam the Snowman" has a Facebook group to explore his own presidential run.
It's all a big joke -- and it was from the start. It was more about expanding 18 seconds of obscurity on YouTube into 15 minutes of fame in the national spotlight than finding presidential solutions to global warming. The cavemen of Geico commercial fame will get their own television show this fall, and I wouldn't be surprised if Billiam the Snowman and his cold-weather friends got a call from Hollywood, either.
Billiam's time in the spotlight on Monday reminded of the infamous "boxers or briefs" question answered by another Clinton, the one known by the honorific "president" at the time. I guess all of us should be thankful that the snowman didn't ask the candidates whether they wear boxers or briefs when they get really hot from all the global warming.
As it turns out, I'm not the only one who thought CNN should have rejected the snowman question. It warranted this snarky observation from Ana Marie Cox of the Time magazine blog Swampland as she covered the debate:
8:26 PM: In the comments someone said the ROCK VIDEO was the moment when this debate jumped the shark. The hillbilly [question] was the moment the shark jumped itself. The snowman question was the moment that the crowd rose up and jumped up and down on the shark.
Now it looks like the snowman question may be a factor in at least one Republican second-guessing the planned CNN/YouTube encore in St. Petersburg, Fla., come Sept. 17. Mitt Romney told the New Hampshire Union Leader, "I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman."
He has not yet accepted an invitation to the GOP debate, and other Republicans appear wary, too.
Though utterly predictable for a party with a history of ignoring, fearing and attacking the Internet, It would be a shame if Republicans abandoned their own CNN/YouTube debate. As much as I hated the snowman question, neither it nor the other low points of Monday's debate (think "This is my baby") should become the excuse for even one candidate to turn against the most innovative and voter-friendly format to come along in 15 years.
But if that happens, CNN will bear much of the blame because it took upon itself the weighty responsibility of picking the debate questions -- and then embraced a cheap entertainment ploy more suited to MTV than "the world's news leader."
Posted by Danny at 07:03 AM | Comments (1)
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'Obama Girl' And Mike Gravel
Bet you never thought you'd see those two names in a headline, let alone a picture of the two together. But I captured the moment in Charleston, S.C., in the "spin room" after the CNN/YouTube debate Monday night.
Head on over to Tech Daily Dose to see that photo and others, plus our live-blogging of the debate, if you still care. I hope to get back to blogging here tomorrow.
Posted by Danny at 04:15 PM | Comments (0)
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Click On Over To Tech Daily Dose
I'm headed to Charleston, S.C., for the Democratic presidential debate being hosted by CNN and YouTube. I don't expect to post again at Beltway Blogroll until after I return to the Washington area next week.
But come Monday, please click over to Tech Daily Dose to follow our debate coverage for Technology Daily.
Posted by Danny at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)
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Blog Bits
I haven't had much time for blogging this week, so here are more blog bits to keep you busy:
The attempt by Fox News talk-show host Bill O'Reilly to embarrass JetBlue over its sponsorship of the YearlyKos bloggers' convention has begun to backfire. Liberal bloggers like John Aravosis of Americablog understandably are fighting back, but bloggers on the other side of the political spectrum are questioning O'Reilly's tactics, too.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., will be speaking at YearlyKos, and her campaign (sort of) jumped to the defense of Daily Kos, the Web site behind the convention.
The convention's organizers, meanwhile, are all about "issues," not the horse race of politics, and they want voters to decide what questions the candidates at the convention should be asked next month.
-- Voters asking questions -- where have I heard that idea before? Oh, yeah: Democratic candidates will be debating in Charleston, S.C., on Monday, and voters will be asking the questions via online videos submitted over several weeks.
The Republican National Committee is trying hard to make sure its questions are in the mix. Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, one of the Democratic candidates, wants to make sure all of the presidential wannabes answer one question in particular -- about the Iraq war, of course. And Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., submitted a question of his own about instituting a "fair wage."
-- The presidential campaign of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., tries hard to be hip when it comes to the Internet, and Dodd TV is one result. But Marc Ambinder wonders "to what end?"
-- Does Republican presidential candidate John McCain, an Arizona senator, have a blog "sock puppet" working for his team?
-- As I've noted before, bloggers don't just try to influence those who run for office; sometimes they run for office themselves. Ron Shepston, a Democrat who blogs at Daily Kos is among them. He's seeking the House seat in California's 42nd District.
-- It's nice to have fans in the blogosphere, and now Minnesota Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty has a whole party of them over at Party Of Pawlenty, a new group blog.
-- Blogging and journalism: "[I]f blogs are a big, big part of the future of Web journalism, is this good news or bad? I'd say it's good news for punditry and bad news for other, deeper forms of writing." Plus a response about "The Limits Of Blogging."
-- Blogging without insurance may be bad for your health, but Chris Bowers of Open Left and others want to do something to help.
-- Conservatives have a new wiki called Media Mythbusters whose goal is to expose perceived liberal bias in the press. I wonder if they'll come after me because I just wrote about liberals who want to arrange health insurance for bloggers.
Posted by Danny at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)
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There's a new book out that trashes bloggers and other "amateurs" on the Internet, and some of the blogosphere's top professionals have been leery of even engaging the author, Andrew Keen.
Keen and the publisher of the book, titled "The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture," invited Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine to debate Keen's thesis. Jarvis put the question to his readers before ultimately deciding to keep the debate online by writing on his blog.
Dave Winer of Scripting News, who trashed Keen's book as "beneath criticism" after reading a draft back in February, noted in a comment to Jarvis' entry that he refused to debate Keen.
Winer wrote: "He’s trying to make a buck, and doesn’t mind being an idiot and hurting honest people to do it. ... The sad part of it is that there was a good book to be written here. Lots of negative stuff about blogs that could have been explored and debated. But that’s not what this book is."
Dan Gillmor, director of the Center for Citizen Media and the author of a book called "We The Media," appeared at an event with Keen not long before his book was released but clearly holds the tome in high contempt. He called Keen's work "a shabby and dishonest treatment of an important topic" that is based not on facts but on "falsehoods and demagoguery."
Plenty of other commentators have trashed Keen's book as well. They include Lawrence Lessig and Instapundit Glenn Reynolds, who reviewed "Cult Of The Amateur" for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Now add Will Hinton to the list of Keen critics. Although not one of the A-list bloggers, he was just as critical of Keen's book in a post about it last week. "I've never liked all the triumphalist talk about the Internet being the hope of humanity and all that nonsense," Hinton wrote. "But I dislike even more so-called experts and elites claiming a monopoly on "real journalism" and news."
He later interviewed Keen.
The good news for Keen, at least in terms of publicity for his book, is that just yesterday, he finally found an Internet celebrity (David Weinberger) who would debate him in a major forum (The Wall Street Journal).
I haven't read Keen's book and I'll be talking with him momentarily for an unrelated Technology Daily story, so I'll refrain from commenting. But in general, as regular Beltway Blogroll readers surely know, I'm clearly in the Dan Gillmor "We The Media" camp.
So in that vein, let me recommend another new book that I finished a couple of weeks ago: "We're All Journalists Now: The Transformation Of The Press And Reshaping Of The Law In The Internet Age." It touches on important subjects like the credentialing of bloggers and expanding "shield" laws to protect their anonymous sources.
The writing is a bit dry and repetitive -- not surprising since the author, Scott Gant, is a lawyer -- but it's still worth a read.
Posted by Danny at 09:43 AM | Comments (0)
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More Blog Buzz In Presidential Politics
Speaking of blog buzz in presidential politics, there has been plenty of it the past several days. Here is a recap:
-- Chris Bowers of Open Left credited bloggers and other Democratic activists with helping undermine the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Now he said it is time to turn attention to the GOP frontrunner, Rudy Giuliani, and "Google bomb" him. Bowers issues an action alert for the Google-bombing soon after.
McCain's campaign woes, meanwhile, include hits to his e-campaign.
-- Patrick Ruffini thinks unofficial candidate Fred Thompson may be popular online in large part because of his flattery of the GOP e-politics community: "I don't think anyone should decide who to vote for based on choice of medium, but I like it all the same. The base is dispirited. It feels like what it thought were its friends have tramped over it. And it needs someone to believe in again. In that kind of environment, a little flattery goes a long way."
Jonathan Singer of MyDD, on the other hand, said Thompson is running "a campaign about nothing." Adam Bonin of Daily Kos also criticized Thompson for unofficially seeking the presidency so he doesn't have to disclose campaign finance details.
-- The latest campaign reports show that Republican candidate Mitt Romney spent $300 for a makeover, which has MyDD's Singer wondering whether the media will make as a big a deal of that expense as it did about the money Democrat John Edwards spent on haircuts. And dog lover Ana Marie Cox of Time's aptly named Swampland thinks Romney should be catching more grief for allegedly being mean to his dog.
-- Republican candidate Ron Paul continues to generate online interest. YouTube interviewed him based on video questions from citizens, and RedState opted for a more traditional one-on-one audio interview.
-- In this frontloaded presidential primary cycle, it's a bit late to be starting an official campaign blog now, but Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., launched The Daily Brownbacker this week. I've included a link, but frankly, I wouldn't waste your time visiting the blog. It's typical campaign shovelware -- endorsement blurbs, promotional videos and other content of no value to people actually looking to learn something about the candidate.
-- TechPresident had kinder words for the campaign blog and Web site of Republican Mike Huckabee, also noting that Virginia blogger Vincent Harris of Too Conservative is part of the team.
And here are more blog bits not directly tied to presidential politics:
-- Methinks Jerome Armstrong is just a wee bit bitter that his top writers at MyDD, Bowers and Matt Stoller, jumped ship to start a new blog called Open Left, which debuted last week. I'm not the only one who thinks it. Armstrong's own readers took him to task for his "incoherent rant" against Open Left's founders. "This post is a 99 on the scale of lame," one wrote.
Ari Melber of The Nation wrote a piece about Open Left's mission and later posted his full interview will National Journal alum William Beutler.
-- Fox News talk-show host Bill O'Reilly scolded JetBlue Airways for sponsoring the upcoming YearlyKos Convention. That inspired conservative blogger Michelle Malkin to invite readers to submit images manipulated to linked JetBlue and YearlyKos.
-- "Blogosphere Day" is this week, and bloggers will be celebrating via the Democratic fundraising site ActBlue. Republicans don't have an effective fundraising counterpart, but some of them are working independently to create three different GOP online donation sites.
-- Wanna be a "progressive entrepreneur"? BlogPac is paying up to $5,000 each for five good ideas. Submit entries here.
-- GOP new media consultant David All said he has achieved all kinds of firsts with his Web design for Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, including creating the first statewide candidate blog for a Republican in the Show-Me State.
-- RedState blogger Jeff Emanuel will be leaving again soon for more "Frontline Reporting From Iraq." That might be one type of "spin" that Harper's Magazine had in mind in when criticizing a project that it said "seeks to bypass the traditional media and work directly with talk radio and bloggers."
-- Right Wing News has a sarcastic list of tips for Democrats wanting to appeal to liberal bloggers.
-- Brad Warthen, who blogs for The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., has penned the "Declaration Of Independence From Trolls" in the blogosphere.
-- To celebrate what it calls the 10th anniversary of the beginning of blogs, The Wall Street Journal interviewed 12 people about what blogs mean to them -- and what blogs they frequent most. I'd like this nugget about Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox: "Mr. Cox prefers not to specify any favorite blog because 'the way that some SEC followers hang on every agency pronouncement will lead someone to decide that monitoring the blog is both a new compliance burden and a guide to the hidden meanings of agency thinking.'"
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich also offered thoughts both political and journalistic about blogs, including a warning to Republicans that if they "remain out of step with their base for too long," they can expect an online activist insurgency from bloggers and others on the right. Ed Cone thinks the Journal's piece was "wretched" and uninteresting.
-- When I moved to Washington back in 1991, I quickly learned that abortion terminology matters. Journalists use less loaded words like "anti-abortion" and "abortion rights," but sources involved in that debate are constantly pressuring them to adopt their own lingo ("pro-choice," "pro-life"). These days, apparently, a similar debate is raging, at least in the gay rights community, over whether it's acceptable to use the word "homosexual." Gay blogger John Aravosis of Americablog takes exception to the word.
-- Michelle Malkin is irked that some stores in Texas have agreed to take pesos as payment for goods. There may be sound economic and/or legal reasons to fight the practice, but I'll just say this: When we were in Guatemala adopting our three children, stores their were happy to take either our American money or Guatemalan quetzales. It struck me as a very American-style, free-market approach to commerce.
-- Rob Bluey of the Heritage Foundation calls himself a blogger, but he likes to wear ties. Come on, Rob, everyone knows bloggers wear pajamas to work!
Posted by Danny at 11:34 AM | Comments (2)
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Rockefeller And Du Pont History In The Family
When Grandpa Tumblebug died a year ago, I mentioned my family's connection to the oil industry in West Virginia.
What I didn't know until this month, in preparation for the memorial service for Grandpa's older brother Leon Kerns, is that we actually have a piece of Rockefeller history in our family: a chair once owned by Nelson Rockefeller, a former governor of New York who served as vice president from 1974 until 1977.
Here's the story, as told by Uncle Leon's wife, Jennifer, in an e-mail to curious relatives:
Leon was the chief petroleum engineer for National Transit in Oil City, Pa., which is the oil and gas company the Rockefellers started. The company had kept Nelson Rockefeller's office intact as a showcase for the company. When National Transit sold out to Pennzoil and moved the operations to Parkersburg, [W.Va.], they were trashing all the old office furniture and equipment.Leon bought all of Rockefeller's office furniture, which included his barrister bookcases (glass front doors), rolltop desk and this chair. He also bought five other oak desks, one for each of his kids. We sold the bookcases to an antique dealer, and Bev bought the rolltop desk.
I kept the chair, which was black with age and the leather inset was rotten and in shreds. I just got it back from the antique dealer, who refinished and had Pat's Upholstry do the leather inset. I couldn't believe it was the same chair! I knew it had great potential and was thrilled with the results!
Here is a photo of the chair:
The Rockefeller chair is not the only "historical" one in the family. I have one of my own in our Northern Virginia home from my days as the associate editor of the opinion e-zine IntellectualCapital.com.
When our office was redesigned to make space for new hires, I called dibs on the fancy chair of our editor Pete du Pont, a former governor and congressman from Delaware and a 1988 presidential candidate. It's my office chair at home now (though I tend to do more work from my recliner with my computer in my lap these days).
So there you have it: The Glover/Kerns family is only one degree of separation from the Rockefeller and du Pont families -- or at least from their chairs.
Posted by Danny at 09:17 AM | Comments (0)
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Who's Behind Maryland's O'Malley Watch Blog?
The Maryland Democratic Party has leveled the following accusation: "Evidence is mounting that former [Republican] Gov. Bob Ehrlich and his new North Carolina law firm’s Maryland-based staff are the driving force behind a totally anonymous and controversial smear [blog]."
The site is called O'Malley Watch and takes a critical look at the administration of Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley, who defeated Ehrlich in November. In its release condemning the blog, the Democratic Party asked, "[I]s this a dignified way for a political figure to behave following his own defeat?"
O'Malley Watch responded to the allegation in true blog fashion: "Evidence is mounting that the Maryland Democratic Party (MDP) and the O’Malley administration wet their pants several times a day over the new phenomenon known as omalleywatch.com. ... The Democrats have failed to provide any evidence of untruths or smears promulgating from the Web site. It appears they simply prefer to cry and whine and blame Governor Ehrlich."
Ehrlich also denied any involvement with the blog.
Posted by Danny at 02:40 PM | Comments (0)
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Assignment Zero, a journalistic venture the involves professionals and amateurs, started its publishing phase with a series of stories in Wired. The articles focus on "crowdsourcing" and online collaboration, the very idea being pursued through Assignment Zero.
Here are links to the articles:
1) "Can Crowds Create Fiction, Architecture and Photography?"
2) "Open-Source Journalism: It's A Lot Tougher Than You Think"
3) "Creative Crowdwriting: The Open Book"
4) "Your Assignment: Art"
5) "Stock Waves: Citizen Photojournalists Are Changing The Rules"
All of the interviews conducted for the series also are available in blog format.
Congresspedia, meanwhile, has been expanding its own experiment in online collaboration. The site is a "wiki" project of the Sunlight Foundation that allows anyone to write and edit entries of policy and political topic. It now includes a legislation and issues portal that includes extensive background on the following topics:
1) Culture
2) Economy
3) Education
4) Elections and government
5) Energy and environment
6) Food and agriculture
7) Health
8) Infrastructure and transportation
9) Labor, immigration and retirement
10) National security and foreign affairs
11) Rights, liberties and courts
12) Science and technology
13) Social policy
14) Telecom, media and intellectual property
Posted by Danny at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)
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Beware The Blog Content Rip-Off
Someone just posted a comment to Beltway Blogroll that I'm not going to approve because it's advertising an Internet content rip-off. I'm not going to mention the name of the Web site or link to it, but I am going to issue a warning to fellow bloggers, who may be seeing similar appeals.
Here's all you need to know, bloggers: Before you agree to contribute to any Web site, read the fine print. And if it holds out the promise of "significant cash" for frequently viewed content, as long as you agree to relinquish all of your intellectual property rights without so much as a penny in hand, avoid the site like the plague.
If you're going to write for free, as many bloggers do because they are passionate about a topic, then at least keep the rights to what you write. Promises of online "celebrity" and "street cred" are nothing more than cheap appeals to ego. Don't fall for it.
Posted by Danny at 07:54 PM | Comments (0)
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Sarah Myers, one of our two stellar summer interns at Technology Daily this year, has alerted me to a Nielsen Company report that gauges media use by presidential candidates. It includes a section on "blog activity" that measures the "buzz" the candidates have generated.
Bloggers won't be surprised to hear that "Democrats have the early lead in the blogosphere, generating more ... online mentions in blogs and discussion by nearly a 2-to-1 ratio." Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has "the greatest buzz volume overall," followed by fellow Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona leads on the GOP side, followed by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas has generated enough online buzz to merit coverage in The Washington Post and finished fourth among Republicans in the Nielsen BuzzMetrics survey.
Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who has talked about the possibility of becoming the first "blogger-in-chief," arguably has been the subject of the most blogosphere buzz on the Republican side. He triggered another round this week with a guest commentary at Power Line. But he isn't officially a presidential candidate yet so didn't make it into the Nielsen report.
Rep. Duncan Hunter of California didn't finish in the top tier for GOP blog buzz, but he, too, has been active in the blogosphere. Blogger John Hawkins of Right Wing News, who is an Internet consultant for the Hunter campaign, provided the details in "The Duncan Hunter Blog Collection."
Here's one other interesting tidbit from the Nielsen study of blog activity, which covered June 15 of last year through the same date this year: "Buzz for each political candidate peaked immediately after their announcements for candidacy, then tends to level off."
Posted by Danny at 11:07 AM | Comments (1)
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Republican bloggers love to mock the netroots, but they also quietly admire the political strength of Democratic bloggers and other online activists. It's a bit dated (June 14), but this burst of praise I just discovered from Jim Geraghty at On Tap illustrates the point perfectly and nicely recaps the successes the netroots have achieved in the past four years:
As much as we mock the netroots, they moved astoundingly fast after the 2004 mess to get control of the Democratic Party. They figured out what it would take to get their hero, Howard Dean, as chair of the DNC and did it. Two years later, not only did they get to take partial credit for the gains in Congress, but look at the other signs of their political influence: There are no more pro-Iraq-war Democrats left besides [Sen. Joseph] Lieberman, no Democratic presidential candidate wants them as an enemy (even Hillary), and no Democrat will appear on Fox News.We can argue whether these are worthwhile uses of newfound political power and influence, but the netroots figured out how to go from an easily-dismissed fringe often compared to the bar scene in "Star Wars" to a force that commands respect, even deference, in Democratic Party circles.
Posted by Danny at 07:30 AM | Comments (0)
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Introducing AirCongress ... And Other New Blogs
There has been an explosion of online audio and video focused on Congress, politics and public policy over the past year, and that makes it tough to keep track of it all. With that in mind, I launched AirCongress late last year to serve as a portal to online audio and video of, by and about Congress.
I've mentioned and linked to the site here sporadically since it's launch. Now with the permission of my editor at NationalJournal.com, I've added it to the blogroll on the left and am calling more direct attention to it here.
The site is a side venture of mine and as I emphasize in a disclosure at AirCongress, "The views expressed reflect those of the creators of that content, and not of the National Journal Group or its various publications, including Technology Daily." But it's a useful service for anyone whose work revolves around Congress and the federal government.
I encourage Beltway Blogroll readers to check it out, and if you produce audio and video that fits the mission of AirCongress, you can let me know by sending me links to your RSS feeds at danny@aircongress.com.
In addition to AirCongress and several recent links to federal blogs under the new "Agencies" header, other newcomers to the blogroll include:
-- Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Ill.
-- The BLT (Legal Times)
-- Blog for Rural America (Center for Rural Affairs)
-- Entitled To Know (National Center to Preserve Social Security and Medicare)
-- Transitions In Governance
Posted by Danny at 07:10 AM | Comments (1)
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The 'D.C. Madam' Has A New Web Site
The site, dcphonelist.com, lets anyone search the list of client phone numbers of "D.C. madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey "in the hope that many eyes will find that which the major media have not."
Why do I get the feeling that bloggers will be hitting the site regularly to try to expose the next political sex scandal ? And why do I think the creators of the site had bloggers in mind with this warning?
Please note that you can only search by phone number, and be mindful of specific dates. For some of the earlier records especially, it is entirely possible that the owner of a given number in 1997 is not the same person as the owner of that number today. In short -- be responsible.
CORRECTION: On my second reading of the site, I realized that dcphonelist.com appears to be independent of Palfrey, so I have corrected this entry to reflect that.
Posted by Danny at 03:14 PM | Comments (0)
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Reader alert: This post has nothing to do with the influence of blogs, the topic I usually cover here. But it is about a subject that is sure to be hot in the news and in the blogosphere.
I'm a country music fan, and Restless Heart is my favorite group. So when I read that the telephone number of Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, made the online list of "D.C. madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey, I couldn't help but think of the lyrics to "Dancy's Dream."
It's a Restless Heart tune about a religious man who committed adultery but kept it a secret. Although according to a statement, Vitter disclosed his "very serious sin in my past" to his wife and a marriage counselor, I thought of the song because Vitter is from Louisiana, and the other woman in "Dancy's Dream" is from New Orleans.
Here are some of the lyrics to give you a taste of the song:
Dancy has a demon livin' somewhere in his past.
A dark-haired Cajun angel was the devil dressed in black.
Was it really voodoo, or just weakness in the man?
The only time he ever fell was when she took his hand.
Oh, it's been so long, but it's still so strong;
Every night the devil comes and walks through Dancy's dream.
She takes him by the hand and leads him back to New Orleans.
The good man's goin' crazy somewhere in between,
The hymns on Sunday mornin',
And the sins in Dancy's dreams.
UPDATE: Bloggers are thinking out loud about what the Vitter story, and the existence of the online phone list, might mean for the political world. Here are links and excerpts:
-- Patrick Hynes of Ankle Biting Pundits, a consultant for the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., noted that Vitter has endorsed Rudy Giuliani for the Republican presidential nomination.
"[T]he Giuliani campaign needs Vitter when discussion of Giuliani’s abortion record start to dominate the public dialogue. ... But with Vitter now tainted good, the Giuliani campaign will not be allowed to use him to inoculate against attacks on Rudy’s record," Hynes wrote. Marc Ambinder made the same point at The Atlantic Online.
-- Captain's Quarters: "Palfrey has posted an enormous amount of phone records on line, and it won't take long for enterprising amateurs to start putting phone numbers together with names. Vitter might be the first elected official to get burned by his escort-business past, but he likely won't be the last."
-- The CarpetBagger Report: "The reason this is noteworthy has very little to do with a powerful politician carrying on extra-marital affairs, and everything to do with Vitter holding himself out as a virtuous family man, entitled to lecture those he deems immoral about 'family values.' Stupidity is one thing; hypocrisy is another. The prior is easy to forgive; the latter tends to breed resentment."
-- Don Surber: "Memeorandum has a list of links to liberal hypocrites getting on their high horse to condemn Vitter as a hypocrite. I am smiling. My position is the same: Adultery is wrong. Lying about it is wrong. Lying about it under oath is a felony."
Posted by Danny at 09:12 AM | Comments (1)
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Blog Power On Display In The Annals Of Congress
A recent report on the blogging revolution in government that included a handful of footnotes to my work here reminded me that I hadn't searched the Congressional Record for blog references lately.
When I finally did a search last week on references within the first six months of this year, I was surprised by how often blogs are making it into the annals of Congress these days. Several of the references, including multiple ones by Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa, laud blogs for their ability to serve as government watchdogs. Lawmakers also have quoted blogs to emphasize their viewpoints about the Iraq war.
Blogs most recently garnered attention when House Republicans last month criticized "pork" spending earmarks in appropriations bills and forced the Democratic leadership to change its stance on the issue. Porkbusters, a blog-inspired group whose primary mission is to curtail earmarks, created enough of a stir during debate about the fiscal 2008 homeland security bill to earn a plug on the House floor.
During floor debate on the bill, Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., quoted part of a Porkbusters petition offering to help Congress evaluate earmark requests. "[V]olunteers are now coming forward, and the American people are standing ready and they will be willing to help," Lamborn said.
Iowa's King added that "if the bloggers could see the things that are going on, they would weigh in on us, and perhaps that would be some of the regulatory function that the bloggers could perform."
Earlier in the year, lawmakers turned to the blogs for information during their debates about sending more U.S. troops to Iraq. In the Senate on Jan. 31, for example, Texas Republican John Cornyn quoted from the "Why I Joined" MySpace entry of Army Second Lt. Mark Daily, who was later killed in Iraq.
Hugh Hewitt and Michelle Malkin were among the prominent bloggers who cited Daily's words.
As the Iraq debate continued Feb. 7, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had this admonition for senators who might be tempted to respond to pressure from bloggers: "I know what it is like. I have been through this on immigration. Once your base gets mad at you, it is not pleasant, but you can't build policies around bloggers." (Graham has been under even heavier fire from bloggers in recent weeks because of his work on an immigration bill.)
Amid House debate in February, meanwhile, Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., inserted into the Record a quote from a military blog that warned: "If the Democrats block these troops, we're screwed. We need them." And Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Ill., separately quoted from another milblog.
While the Democratic netroots get more public attention than GOP blogs for their innovation and influence in political circles, thus far they have not received as much recognition during official congressional debates.
Even on the subject of the Iraq war, the topic that most animates the netroots, an online search of the Record yielded only one hit about blogs by a Democrat -- and a noncontroversial one at that. In May, Rep. John Salazar of Colorado highlighted a comment about an "immigrant soldier" on a site created to honor fallen soldiers.
For several more blog references from the Record this year, click here.
Posted by Danny at 07:12 AM | Comments (1)
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Rep. Steve King has been talking up the blogosphere on a regular basis this year. A search of the Congressional Record for use of terms like "blog" and "bloggers" during the first six months of this year shows that the Iowa Republican has praised the work of bloggers at least a half-dozen times, typically as justification for his proposals to bring more transparency to government.
Here are excerpts from King's comments on the House floor
Jan. 5 (second day of 110th Congress): "[L]et us say there is a crazy appropriation out here that got slipped into a bill. ... Let us just say that the blogosphere out there is lit up, that people go to their Web pages, and they scrutinize the work that we do. We need to give them a lot of access to do that because they are the next watchdogs on this Congress.
It used to be that the watchdogs sat in this gallery, and many do, and I am glad they are here. ... Well, now we are real time. ... [I]t is even better now because we have an Internet, we have a blogosphere. ... I submit that we should submit ourselves, Madam Speaker, to the scrutiny of the blogosphere; that we should have FEC reporting, campaign finance reporting in real time in a searchable, sortable, downloadable format that will allow anyone out there in America that has access to a computer or to the Internet to go click on that information."
Jan. 11: "I am for sunlight on everything that we can provide, and I am for real-time reporting. Every American has access to the Internet today. Whether they own a computer at home or go to the library, they can sit down to a computer. And I believe all of the records, the records of the lobbyists' contributions to members of Congress."
Jan. 30: "[T]his is an instantaneous information age if we give access on the Internet to the people in this country. ... We need to let them have real-time bloggers be able to access all of the bills that are filed, all of the amendments that are filed. They need to be able to track this whole process."
March 8: "I would love to see television cameras up before the Rules Committee as well, Mr. Speaker. I think that will help the decorum of the Rules Committee."
May 24: "[T]he language that I offered in the lobby reform bill that passed the floor today and was eventually included in the bill was the requirement that the information be posted on the Internet in a searchable, sortable, downloadable format that would allow the bloggers across the country to be able to go on the Internet and see what is going on with campaign donations and those activities between the lobby and the members of Congress.
In another statement about the lobbying bill that day, King said transparency in the legislative process "turns loose and activates the bloggers across the country. ... There will be new blogs that will open up. There will be others that will be activated and animated."
June 13: "If the bloggers could see the things that are going on [with pork-barrel spending], they
would weigh in on us, and perhaps that would be some of the regulatory function that the bloggers could perform."
Posted by Danny at 07:00 AM | Comments (0)
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As bloggers gain prominence in political and media circles inside the Beltway, as well as throughout American culture, they are getting more official recognition from lawmakers in the form of notations in the Congressional Record. Searches for January through June yielded the following hits (and more passsing references):
Jan. 17
Blogs were a subject of debate during Senate consideration of a lobbying reform bill, particularly a provision aimed at "astroturf groups."
"What happens if someone goes on the Internet and urges everybody who sees his blog to write Congress and then makes the mistake of hiring somebody and paying him to write that notice on the blog?" said Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah. "Has that not created a lobbyist for hire? Somebody finds out the man who created the message on the blog got paid and files a complaint. I don't know what the lawyers would do with it, whether he would end up paying the $200,000, but I do know what he would run up in legal fees to protect himself against that kind of situation."
April 12
While discussing the fiscal 2008 budget and tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, critiqued the opinions of bloggers at Daily Kos and entered two of the posts into the Congressional Record.
April 19
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, lauded the Supreme Court's Gonzalez v. Carhart decision that upheld a federal ban on so-called partial-birth abortion and condemned the "anti-Catholic venom" of one "citizen agitator" he quoted from Daily Kos in response to the ruling.
March 20
During a debate about assault weapons, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., cited a blog posting in opposition to the guns that hurt the career of longtime hunter and writer Jim Zumbo of Outdoor Life. The magazine severed its relationship with Zumbo, and the publication's blog no longer exists. Zumbo's controversial entry and subsequent apology were reprinted at Hunting Sense. "We all owe Jim Zumbo a debt of gratitude for his forthrightness, his honesty and his courage," Levin said.
May 9
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee noted in an insert into the Record that a blog, rather than the Homeland Security Department, discovered a security flaw on a Transportation Security Administration Web site that contains the personal information of air travelers. The insecurity, subsequently reported at the Security Fix blog of The Washington Post, existed for four months and eight days.
June 6
During a discussion about the efforts of House Democrats' "30-Something Working Group," freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania called attention to the role bloggers played in getting him elected and their subsequent interest in the working group. He specifically praised Philadelphia-based bloggers like Duncan Black of Eschaton and Chris Bowers, until recently of MyDD.
May 25
In a statement upon introducing a resolution, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., cited a soldier's comment at the Military Times blog in support of pay raises for the military. Kerry's resolution would express the Senate's view that basic pay for the armed forces should be increased.
Jan. 29
Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., touted the benefits of globalization by saying they "can be seen every single time that a Chinese blogger gets past government censors or a U.S. company trains factory owners in Thailand in worker rights and protections.
June 21
Upon recognizing the 18,000th Senate vote case by fellow Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois said, "Senator Byrd is a hero among bloggers and so many others because of his unyielding dedication to our Constitution and his obvious love of our nation and the principles for which it stands."
May 21
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., mentioned "some blog" he had read that, as McDermott did in his House speech, raised questions about the Bush administration's diligence in trying to solve the murder of gun-control activist and former assistant U.S. attorney Thomas Wales.
May 16
Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., encouraged fellow lawmakers to visit the blog about the Congressional Food-Stamp Challenge, during which lawmakers live on a $3-a-day food budget: " It is not easy eating on $3 a day," McGovern said. "But it is nothing compared to the hardship faced by millions of Americans every single day." Days later, he mentioned comments on the blog.
April 19
In extended remarks entered into the Record, Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia recognized Bob Keegan upon his retirement as deputy director of CDC's global immunization division, including his work in starting CDC Chatter, "an unofficial blog for CDC employees.
June 7
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, quoted from the comments to a Sioux City Journal blog entry in praise of former Rep. Wiley Mayne after Mayne died at age 90 on May 27. King said he entered the excerpts so history will record how Mayne inspired people "to go to the keyboard and type some words in to post on a blog."
Jan. 17
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-Va., honored NASCAR legend Benny Parsons after he died of lung cancer Jan. 16. "Even at his sickest moments," she said, "he had set up a Web blog for his fans, continually sharing his optimism that he would recover and that the will to fight is so important."
June 26
In separate written statements for the Record, Reps. Deborah Pryce and Patrick Tiberi of Ohio lauded Worthington Libraries for being selected "Library of the Year" by Library Journal, including for innovations like its teen blog and MySpace page.
Posted by Danny at 06:55 AM | Comments (0)
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The John Edwards Blogger Rule
The cover story in the current issue of National Journal takes a critical look at how the Internet has changed politics for the worse. A sidebar to the story posits "New Rules For The Information Age," and one of them is worth noting here because of its tie-in to the blogosphere.
It's called the "'Joey' Rule, and here it is in its entirety (notice the last line, which I've put in italics):
You don't have to be personally tech-savvy. For political practitioners of a certain age, this might be the most important principle of all. Howard Dean didn't use a laptop or a Blackberry in 2004. Ignore all the talk about bits and bytes and bandwidth.Just focus on applications -- the services, experiences, and results you need. Then find some 16-year-old computer jockey in your neighborhood ("Joey") and pay him or her (a small sum for you, a fortune for them) to buy the equipment that you need and to set you up with a turnkey system. Every two years, thanks to the pace of Moore's Law, go out and find another Joey to upgrade your system.
Pay attention, however, to what these young people do in your name. Call this the John Edwards (Honest, I really don't hate Catholics) Blogger Rule.
That last sentence is a subtle jab at bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwen, who quit the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Edwards only days after they became the subjects of first blog scandal of Campaign 2008.
NewsBusters recently resurrected the scandal in arguing that Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, was hypocritical in challenging conservative commentator Ann Coulter to stop using hateful speech when Mrs. Edwards was a key decision-maker in the hiring of Marcotte and McEwen.
"Since Elizabeth Edwards is the one responsible for hiring the two bloggers," Lynn Davidson wrote, "she is either so completely incompetent that she hired people for a presidential campaign sight unseen without even reading their Web sites, or she did check their Web sites before hiring and, at the very least, tacitly approved of their 'hatefulness and ugliness' which 'lowers political dialog.' You know, 'cause it's OK to use 'hate speech' as long as it's hating the 'right' people."
Posted by Danny at 07:02 AM | Comments (10)
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New Jersey Blogger Gets Press Pass Yanked
The New Jersey Law and Public Safety Department has yanked the press pass of a blogger who earlier this year was granted permission to officially cover the state legislature's activities in Trenton. State police cited "security issues" in reversing the decision.
The blogger in question is statehouse correspondent Jay Lassiter of Blue Jersey. The New York Times profiled him yesterday, after the press pass was revoked:
Mr. Lassiter -- who has never applied for press credentials from the New Jersey Press Association -- said he was told by the police that he did not qualify for an identification card because Blue Jersey did not have an office here. He can enter the statehouse to conduct his reporting, he said, but instead of circumventing security and metal detectors with an official ID, he must be issued a visitor’s badge.The new crop of blogger-reporters -- they have also cropped up at the capitols in California, Tennessee and Georgia, among other states -- have made legislators and journalists wary. Some of them do not consider bloggers worthy of credentials.
"A lot of these guys are fairly partisan, so I have concerns about opening the full membership to people who are not in a traditional sense objective reporters," John L. Micek, the president of the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association, told State Legislatures magazine in January.
"We couldn't be more proud of Jay for going where no blogger has gone before, right down into the thick of things in Trenton," Scott Shields, who was the Internet communications director U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., in last year's campaign, wrote at Blue Jersey. "Here's hoping he's reporting from the Capitol for some time to come."
(Hat tip to Jersey Blogs.)
CLARIFICATION/UPDATE: I attributed the decision about the press pass to the state's attorney general after misreading the blurb at PoliticsNJ.com. The attorney general is the head of the Law and Public Safety Department, but Blue Jersey editor Juan Melli e-mailed to say that he doesn't think the attorney general had any direct involvement in the decision. I've corrected the lead paragraph above.
I also added the word "officially" to the lead because Melli emphasized that Lassiter was covering the legislature before he received the press pass and will continue to do so. "In practice, this changes little to nothing," Melli said.
Maybe so in practice, but it's a symbolic setback for bloggers. New Jersey could have been at the forefront of redefining "press." Now they've moved to the back of a long line of other states -- and Congress -- who are bound by outdated traditions of journalism. That's a shame for New Jersey and the country.
Posted by Danny at 01:32 PM | Comments (2)
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The Wall Street Journal notes that conservatives have enhanced their voice online, thanks to bloggers and talk radio working together:
Political activism on the Internet -- and in the so-called blogosphere, in particular -- has long been considered a liberal stronghold. But conservative bloggers show increasing signs of their own coming of age.They took a major leap forward by playing a central role in scuttling the Senate immigration bill. Meanwhile, many of the most popular talk-radio hosts are now posting on blogs, and the frequent collaboration of the two media is creating a unified conservative voice that is likely to be an important factor in the 2008 elections.
... [T]he immigration bill marked the first time conservative Web logs could claim to have targeted and derailed a major piece of legislation. The triumph underscored their increasing influence and signaled that the balance of online power may be evening out in the political arena.
The confluence of blogs and conservatives' dominance on radio is an especially potent mix. Talk-radio and conservative bloggers don't always work hand in hand, but they have been effective when they do.
Posted by Danny at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)
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Mother Jones And 'Politics 2.0'
The Mother Jones article I mentioned in a recent "Blog Bits" post was part of a larger package on "Politics 2.0" that is generating some heated discussion in the blogosphere.
You can read the reactions at The Bivings Report, Left In The West, PressThink, techPresident, and even in numerous posts at MoJoBlog (go here, here, here and here).
The negative reaction from bloggers is pretty consistent with my quote in the article "Meet The New Bosses": "I've been surprised at how thin-skinned bloggers can be. You compare that with how they treat the mainstream media and how they'll go after them and attack them, but when anything at all is said about the blogosphere, they go off half-cocked."
Unfortunately, nothing else I said in a lengthy conversation with reporter Daniel Schulman made it into print, including the fact that I disagreed with his very thesis -- that an elite group of mafia-type bosses in the liberal blogosphere controls lesser bloggers and intimidates traditional power brokers.
Many bloggers, including at least one quoted by Schulman, have challenged the would-be bosses of the left blogosphere. And while this blog is dedicated to the proposition that blogs have and are gaining power, I also have noted that they have only as much power as the establishment is willing to cede -- at least until Election Day, when influential bloggers can redirect the "power of the people" to a new establishment.
All of which is to say that there is no Boss Tweed of the blogosphere, and I don't think there ever will be.
As I told Schulman, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos and his cronies may want great political power (despite their protestations to the contrary). They may even grab it one day and ultimately be corrupted by their absolute power. But the open, democratic nature of the online world will leave the door wide open for Kos 2.0 -- the Anti-Kos -- to fill the populist vacuum and become the thorn in the side of the new bosses.
Micah Sifry of Personal Democracy Forum and techPresident made much the same point when talking to Schulman. "It's true that Josh Marshall and Markos Moulitsas are very influential, but they are constantly held accountable by their audience," Sifry said. "If Markos makes a mistake, right there in the blog comments people are bashing him. He can't stray that far from accountability, the way that editors of the old gatekeeping institutions ... were inherently insulated."
Ironically, Mother Jones actually offered the "Meet The New Bosses" assignment to me, but I declined because I've cut back on freelance work (too many obligations at my day job and my own side project, AirCongress). I'll just say that it would have been quite a different article if I had written it -- or it would have been killed because I disagreed with the pre-determined thesis.
The point Jay Rosen of PressThink made about the "writing and framing" of the article -- the tone, in other words -- is a legitimate criticism.
That said, once again bloggers are going off half-cocked against a mainstream publication that decided to take a critical and important look at the work they do. Schulman did a decent job with his story. He gave voice to numerous bloggers, even those who had different viewpoints. And the overall "Politics 2.0" package raises some issues that merit consideration by bloggers, politicians, new media experts and journalists.
The magazine also deserves praise (and has received some) for its outreach to bloggers upset by the coverage.
So lighten up, bloggers. Listen for a change, and if you still disagree with Schulman and everyone else at Mother Jones, fine. At least you will have listened and reached a rational conclusion rather than just jerking your knee one more time.
FOOTNOTE: More commentary on the Mother Jones series at The American Mind and The Moderate Voice.
UPDATE: A similar discussion about the bosses of talk radio is raging in the Republican blogosphere these days in the wake of the Senate's immigration debate. Interestingly, Dean Barnett of Townhall noted Kos' influence and how Democratic leaders react to it to make a point about the relationship between talk radio and the GOP. Here's an excerpt:
In the Beltway’s eyes, Markos leads a movement of progressives in the blogosphere. But this is inaccurate, and Markos would be the first to tell you so. Markos doesn’t lead the movement. He stands in front of it and is symbolic of it, but the movement’s direction and interests flow directly from the people who compose it. The movement is a bottom-up thing, not something that a guy leads from the top.It’s probably comforting for Democratic politicians to believe that Markos leads the movement in the progressive blogosphere. That being the case, all they have to do is soothe the savage breasts of Markos and other rabble-rousing bloggers and then get back to business as usual. That’s why Democratic politicians are so unfailingly solicitous of the liberal bloggers.
But it doesn’t work like that. If Markos came out tomorrow and said he’s supporting Hillary, the people who read his blog would tell him to pound sand. They would keep reading his blog, but they wouldn’t open their hearts or their wallets for Hillary.
Posted by Danny at 07:21 PM | Comments (10)
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