what it is that we do, do

Once in a while because we're bloggers and because we can, we talk off topic.

We were delighted to see our friend and bloggy idol, David Goldstein of Horse's Ass.org in full color on the front page of the Seattle Post Intelligencer in a great story by Greg Roberts on political bloggers.

Roberts did a good job of describing how local bloggers helped 8th District Democrat Darcy Burner raise money that ultimately qualified her for some national funds from the Democrats.

(Darcy's is the Democrat up against the room temperature Dave Reichert, who runs for the middle in his moderate district, but whose Congressional record shows him staunchly aligned with the disastrous Bush policies and the disgraced Tom Delay leadership.

Bloggers love Darcy Burner because she's a former blogger and she understands the new media and uses it to great advantage in her campaign. 

But we had a problem with this in Roberts' story:

Blogs score their biggest hits when they break attention-getting stories that the mainstream media miss, such as Seattle blogger David Goldstein's reporting that Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the Hurricane Katrina disaster, prepped for his government career as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association.

Beyond that, there's a lot of partisan ranting. (emphasis ours)

Roberts goes on to quote some perfessers who collectively opine:

[Blogs'] rabid partisanship attracts mostly true believers, and they end up screeching to the choir. (emphasis, again, is ours)

"Blogs are good for motivating the base," [Perfesser] Shirky said. "They're not good for convincing swing voters."

Blogs proved themselves in the Howard Dean 2004 Democratic presidential campaign- their fundraising efforts made him viable for many months. Bloggers raised $60,000 in just six hours for Paul Hackett, a Democrat who nearly bagged a Republican congressional seat in a special election in Ohio last year.

As much as news organizations hate it, the blogs are most effective leading them, not the voters. So far, their greatest political feats have been leading the mainstream media to stories which the niche-diggers have been able to uncover as they sit at home in their underwear typing.   

We agree that Goldy got a lot of national traffic, and recognition- and did a heckuva job on his Brownie scoop; but that story paled in pure muscular political influence when you compare it to his exposure of 2005 County Executive candidate Dave Irons' physical violence against his mother.

Even though many in the mainstream had heard about it from Ma Irons for years, Goldy blogged it, then the PI and talk radio picked it up, then TV. Irons' campaign was baked in the last week- a swing from a week earlier when polling put him and Ron Sims in a Rossi/Gregoire situation. And it was all about mother-beating, an allegation never challenged by Irons after his defeat.

Another example is when Stefan Shmerkanksy of the right-wing Sound Politics led the media (including, importantly, talk radio), in the 2004 post gubernatorial election reporting. He and talk radio effectively controlled the news by dribbling out numbers, tying Gregoire to the hapless King County Elections Dept, and putting her ratings into the shitter by convincing voters that she stole the race from Rossi. She still hasn't recovered.

There are more examples, including the Swiftboat obfuscations against John Kerry; the downfall of Trent Lott's Senate leadership after bloggers reported what could be considered racist sympathies in a speech honoring Strom Thurmond; and the exposure of the falsified CBS reports on George Bush's military record that obscured the fact that he shirked military duty.

Bloggers most decidedly led the coverage in these stories, and there are more.

Reporters read blogs at a much higher rate than the average voter- and probably always will. As long as reporters don't have the time and their organizations lack the money to get into the nooks and crannies that we can and will.

The lefty bloggers' organization can be traced to the efforts of the talented bloggers and experienced activists at Northwest Progressive Institute, Evergreen Politics, and On The Road to 2008. 

Stefan Sharkansky told Roberts that he "sees his role as more advocate than activist, although he has urged his readers to buy tickets to occasional fund-raisers for GOP candidates." He and his merry band are satisfied, apparently, with " partisan ranting," and "screeching to the choir."

The Republicans' stodgy lack of activity reflects the ennui they suffer in Washington where they have been having a bad 30 years.

Comments

[sparky]

I have friends who still discount blogs as being more rumor than fact. or that middle america does not read them, therefore they are not valid.

I learn so much every day from the three or four blogs I check on on a sometimes hourly basis on some days.
Sure, some things end up as being rumors, but I love the dialog, I love talking to people who are as passionate about issues as I am--the singing to the choir part, I guess. But some on the left are still apologetic that they get their breaking news from the blogs even though the blog gets it from breaking news, eye-witnesses, etc.
It has made it impossible to watch television news, however, because you realize how much content is left out and how serious the slant for the neocons is with some programs.

[Brian In lacey]

Hi LIz, I see we have are cowboy boot on the wrong feet again ! hooty hoo !

[joanie]

I think Dean's campaign was a lesson in the limits of the internet to do little more than raise money . . . Not that I like that but, as Liz and the article noted, blogs preach to the choir.

Most of my friends do not like talking politics and I do. So, here I am. There's an awful lot of ignorance out there but I don't see blogs solving that problem.

Michael said that he liked talking politics around the dinner table . . . well, this is one dinner table. My Kfal group is another. Hartmann's is another . . . it takes a lot of time to blog!

[joanie]

Sorry Sparky! That was you and not Liz that posted the "preaching to the choir" thing! I'll pay more attention next time. :)

[sparky]

well, if you went to bed before midnight....
How can you do that and function with 1st graders??

[Scrilla]

It's partisan. Period. Denying doesn't make it so. You( and other bloggers) have an agenda, and that's why you blog. Occasionally you include reportage, but it becomes a launching point for your own opinions. That wouldn't wash in newspaper (or monthly magazine).
Even blogs that use a "staff" are universally like-minded.
I was KICKED OFF DailyKos because I challenged the king douchebag himself. To your credit, you don't bar opposing viewpoints.
However,"Beyond that, there's a lot of partisan ranting," puts it rather well.

[joanie]

That's so funny! I was going to kid you last night about being up after 10!

Actually, I have a substitute this morning . . . am going in for the afternoon; but, I am a night person and it is hard sometimes!

[blathering michael]

I don't deny my partisanship- but bloggers of all persuasions look for niche stories that buttress our points of view. And we're often able to dig into corners that reporters can't get to. (newsrooms are being shrunk and dissolved all over the place these days since the accountants and mkting dep'ts are taking over the news operations).
My biggest scoop on the blog had to do with exposing Mike Webb, a liberal talk show host's legal problems. I couldn't ignore that story despite his politics were close to my own...
I wear two hats here, I'm a declared partisan on the blog, now but I also write for a living for those newspapers and monthly magazines, where I can't be partisan.

[sparky]

wow..it must have really been something to warrent being actually kicked off Daily Kos....or did the posters troll rate your post to get it bumped? There is a difference....

Lots of people there disagree strongly with Markos

[sparky]

It occurs to me that only we progressives feel this strange "guilt", or are told we should feel it for preaching to the choir, by supporting and agreeing with each others' opinions ( not that we always do).

Does anyone know of a SINGLE rightwing talkshow host or columnist who feels the need to apologize to his or her listeners, or ponders whether he or she should not push the Republican talking points?

I will apologize for "partisan ranting" when I hear Sean Hannity, Michele Malkin and Ann Coulter say they need to consider the other side of the story...

[sparky]

Joanie I am using up all my Internship sub days for the next three weeks...I think I teach 2 more days and the rest I am administratoring..I get to be The Decider! (interject insult about public education from Lump here)

Today I am home typing papers and sneaking looks on the Internets.

[Fremont]

"I will apologize for "partisan ranting" when I hear Sean Hannity, Michele Malkin and Ann Coulter say they need to consider the other side of the story..."
Amen (to quote you), Sparks! The problem is the agony we would have to suffer while listening for the apology...assaults on our collective intelligence (Not the NSA kind)!

[sparky]

Just saw Goldy on TV concerning the closure of his daughter's school in Seattle...

[joanie]

I don't know, Scrilla, "The Nation" and "Mother Jones" suit my politics just fine. I'm sure the Weekly Standard, the American Spectator and National Review have a market as well and it ain't me. . . I wonder why?

You're kind of a drive-by poster; you shoot from the hip and not always accurately.

I wonder what magazines/papers you actually think are totally neutral . . .

[Mike Barer]

Goldy gets credit for derailing Dave Irons Jr's campaign right when it started gathering steam.

[safdsasd]

so can we put to rest the notion that this is a blog about seattle talk radio?

the only scoops you've had were the prell bit (which is where most of your traffic probably came from) and the mike webb debacle

One station. Hardly any mention of FM talk or sports talk.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. Nothing wrong with being a third tier political blog, other than that they are a dime a dozen.

You had a nice niche going, to bad you had to muck it up with political mumbo jumbo.

[sparky]

Michael are you going to go hear Stephanie Miller, Laura Flanders, Thom Hartmann and Mike Malloy?
Maybe you could finagle a quick backstage interview....

[joanie]

Nobody is stopping you from talking whatever radio-talk you want? So, talk it. I tried to do some KJR sport stuff once but it fell flat. I imagine the board meets the needs of the people who post on it.

Guess it isn't the board for you.

Also, since a lot of talk radio is political these days, seems like an apt topic to me.

So, what's the beef?

[KS]

BTW - I also noticed that the article about Blogs & Darcy Burner cited 2000 readers/ day for the leftwing moonbat blog Horsesass.org and 4700 readers/ day for the rightwingnut blog Sound Politics.com.

[joanie]

What's the point, KS?

[KS]

No point - it was an FYI. Make of it what you want, whether it be the numbers or the blog.

[joanie]

Well, how about conservatives all jump to the same talking points while liberals tend to think for themselves?

[RedRachel]

The only person liberals think for is Lucifer because thats were all the things you worthless peaces of trash beleive in started. Nothing you beleive in will get you in heaven. WHICH IS GOOD because the last thing I want to do is see all of you ugly (I dont know for sure but I defanantly picture all of you as being ugly) faces in the next world. I hate all of you but satan loves you so GOOD FOR YOU!

[Fremont]

Dear God, please take ReRa away....