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Campaign ‘08: The Year of the Blog
The blogosphere, once compared to the Wild West, is now a key element of presidential campaign strategy. But will candidates reach out to blogs that don't necessarily share their views?
John McCain personally conducts regular blogger calls, sometimes sending out alerts only an hour or so before the call when he wants to discuss a hot topic. (I’ve missed a couple because of this.) At first these calls could be criticized as “preaching to the choir,” but McCain has done something that is, as far as I know, unique for a politician at his level. He has invited bloggers from the left side of the blogosphere to the calls, even though not very many of the lefties seem to want to come. Nevertheless, some environmental blogs were on the phone for a recent McCain blogger call concerning global warming. I have been told by sources inside the campaign that the candidate has every intention of continuing this open policy.
The Obama Campaign, however, has adopted a more traditional online approach — if the word “traditional” can be used for something so new — tearing a leaf from the Howard Dean playbook. Obama’s huge success at online fund-raising is well known, but he seems to take a more aloof stance when it comes to blogger calls or direct interaction with bloggers, preferring to make his presence felt online in careful written form. (He did this at the Huffington Post with his first response to the Wright controversy.) And, although the candidate preaches bi-partisanship, there has been no outreach, to my knowledge, to the right side of the blogosphere by Obama’s campaign.
Early indications are that this “split personality” regarding online media will continue at the conventions. Both sides are now credentialing blogs with an announcement already online of those selected at this juncture by the Democrats. The list shows representation from groups as disparate as the AFL-CIO NOW Blog and Bitch Ph.D., but not one that could be construed as right-of-center.
Sources within the Republican Party have informed me that they will credential left-leaning blogs for their convention, if those bloggers wish to attend.
Pajamas Media has applied for credentials to the Democratic Convention. No response so far.
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Roger L. Simon is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, novelist and blogger, and the CEO of Pajamas Media. His book, Blacklisting Myself: Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in the Age of Terror, was released in February 2009.
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24 Comments
1. David Thomson:Barack “Barry” Obama is going to ignore the blogging community as much as possible. His campaign deliberately avoids hard questions. Obama is marketing himself as a messiah of hope. Specifics supposedly do not matter. Blind faith is not so subtly required. Indeed, it is very fair to assert that Obama and his followers are indulging in mindless anti-intellectualism. They have literally much in common with the fascists of the previous century. Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s self hating Americanism and contempt for the West truly represent the underlying themes of the Obama campaign. He is not an aberration.
Jun 3, 2008 - 3:13 am 2. A. N. Pierson:If you don’t get credentialed for the REpublican Convention, we should not be concerned. I see from the list the Daily Kos will be there. They will inform of the “facts.”
Jun 3, 2008 - 5:46 am 3. AJ:Well put, Roger. Blogs tend to be full of facts and insightful commentary, so they lean right—which scares the vapid Dems, who’d prefer to be regressive and rely on MSNBC, NBC and the USA Today. No wonder they nominate unelectable candiates.
More here:
http://www.therant.us/guest/a_kaufman/2008/06032008.htm
Jun 3, 2008 - 6:41 am 4. ZEITGEIST:[...] — YEAR OF THE BLOG: “The blogosphere, once compared to the Wild West, is now a key element of presidential campaign [...]
Jun 3, 2008 - 8:12 am 5. John Samford:Only so far as they can be brought to heel. In Obamastan, the useful fool is the exalted citizen. If you are not a fool, nor useful, it will get very tough on you.
Jun 3, 2008 - 8:38 am 6. Lem:I still don’t think he can win the GE. Which will still leave a Democrat as President. McCain is a Scoop Jackson Democrat, so that won’t be to bad.
Remember Ohhhh…..BAMA hasn’t won anything. He couldn’t close the deal. It looks like he will force Billery to quit. That is not quite the same as winning.
As far as him wooing the CLintonistas, hell hath no fury like a women scorned. Ohhhh….BAMA has scorned about 10 million of them.
I argue that anyone that stooopid would make a poor President and isn’t smart enough to get elected.
Ohhh….BAMA would make history if elected. Not for being the first black President, Billy Blue Dress has that one nailed down already. He will make history for being the first President that promised to raise taxes and then got elected. IF he gets elected.
McCain will make the typical Democratic promise to tax the rich, which is of course impossible since the rich can bribe Congresscritters to stick in loopholes. However, the suckers, er…..voters keep falling for that and as long as they do, give them more.
The only way to change all this is thru the internet. Those that don’t want to change anything know that will either co-opt bloggers or destroy them.
Ohhhh…..BAMA is a Marxist an they are not noted for being keen on other POV’s.
No wonder sharp observers can see cable television frequently cannibalizing blogs for up-to-date campaign analysis and other political reporting
You are not kidding.
During the Jeremiah Wright firestorm I made a comment on your blog asking how could Obama claim that he knew Iraq would turn out badly (so that’s why he voted against it) and at the same time say that he didn’t know about Jeremiah Wright’s ‘Jeremiahs’ for 20 years? Somehow he knew Saddam but not his own minister?
Lo and behold that same afternoon there was Fred Barnes on Fox News making the same comment.
Coincidence?… Maybe… But I rather think he plumed it from the blog.
Jun 3, 2008 - 9:38 am 7. Dave:“No wonder sharp observers can see cable television frequently cannibalizing blogs for up-to-date campaign analysis and other political reporting..”
You touch on a small, but significant point here…
the blogosphere is becoming, and has in past elections, THE SOURCE of breaking news for the MSM and other media. Sure, they then grab onto the story as if it was their own…but WHERE does it break? Someone’s blog, linked to other’s blogs, etc., etc. until it overwhelms the media and they have NO OTHER CHOICE but to cover it.
Oh, they can, and have tried to ignore stories or opinions/claims that they have felt were not “worthy” or “beneath them”, but they do so at their own peril, and simply reinforce the belief that they are simply irrelevent…much like newspapers are becoming.
And much like the intrenched recording industry is collapsing under the internet’s ability to distribute music, the “news industry” is being tranformed by the internet and blogs.
And I personlly could not be happier.
Jun 3, 2008 - 9:41 am 8. Lem:When Obama called a reporter ’sweety’ did it brake on a blog?
I believe it did.
Jun 3, 2008 - 10:22 am 9. BC:You clueless blockheads aren’t getting it — the mainstream news media is and has been in decline for a while, but as decrepit as it has become, it’s still head and shoulders journalistically above the scatterbrained, mob nonsense of blogger-based, news-like tripe. Whatever tiny amounts of “hard news” that does get broken amid the din of opinionated crap, well, usually ends up being “broken” in the wrong sense — misunderstood, misrepresented, deliberately massaged, or just so screwed-up and lacking key details as to be near worthless at genuine information.
Instead of a solid, responsible free press that at least tries to be accurate, that works hard to dig up the details and then attempts to put things into proper context, what we have now is “boutique news” — whatever your personal and political beliefs are, however nonsensical, there are now multiple outlets to cater to your fragile, touchy and increasingly screwed-up and polarized world view.
There is indeed a “transformation” going on, but not exactly for the better: The Information Age –> The Disinformation Age.
Hope this clarifies.
Jun 3, 2008 - 12:39 pm 10. Mary in LA:I’d be happier if he invited more bloggers from the right side of the blogosphere. We already know McCain is good at reaching across the aisle — how about reaching out to his own party for a change?
Jun 3, 2008 - 12:58 pm 11. Believer:Well, there you are. Thank you, Roger Simon, for revealing the ugly truth.
Beginning with “The Obama Campaign…” to the end of this article, every reader ought to seriously consider what the author has revealed.
Not a pretty picture. Not a surprise either.
A candidate not open to answering questions, unwilling to reach out to find common ground, and his party complicit with it.
Those early promises of healing and unity were just words. Division and dissatisfaction are more likely. Isn’t that what trails his campaign so far?
Jun 3, 2008 - 2:05 pm 12. Media Mythbusters Blog » Blog Archive » Media Bias Roundup - 06/03/08:[...] Pajamas Media – Campaign ‘08: The Year of the Blog [...]
Jun 3, 2008 - 2:18 pm 13. george youssef:STATEMENT:PROPHET MOHAMAD MUST BE PUNKED.GEORGELICIOUS.__________________this is about the-islamic-bak-magic-satanism.every moslem has a bak and he uses it.
Jun 3, 2008 - 2:33 pm 14. John Samford:prophet mohamad ( bak be upon him) was once asked to report on his favourite phishing & spam.he spontaneously replied that there is something cooking on the net.he said that the islamic bak is being displayed on a network of blogs with a traffic sign like this one:hey ,my fellow moslem. kiss my big toe.O’dear.oops & he messed himself…find out more by typing islamicbak,one word ,and get the results from your search engine.excuse me,his mama is coming and i don’t want to start something i can’t phinish,i mean finish.GEORGE .========is this is 4 real.you bet.Alladin & Sindbad have betrayed us and gave the key of ALI BABA to moslems to dance on our graves in EGYPT
http://www.islamicbak.com
“Whatever tiny amounts of “hard news” that does get broken amid the din of opinionated crap, well, usually ends up being “broken” in the wrong sense — misunderstood, misrepresented, deliberately massaged, or just so screwed-up and lacking key details as to be near worthless at genuine information.”
Translation; It’s not being spun in the way the gatekeepers want it.
Jun 3, 2008 - 2:46 pm 15. rotwang:On a positive note… After some terrorist suicide bomber with a nuke does New York, the blggers will be there to comment on it while the MSM is radioactive particles drifting across the Atlantic.
Roger must be bored today. The blogosphere remains the unregulated Wild West of news reporting — fractious, fractured, and only slightly more reliable than a Magic 8-Ball. The “wisdom of the crowd” is an illusion, since (outside the established hierarchies and informal “credentialing” of the Web), it’s impossible to distinguish informed, rational voices from hip-shooting poseurs, conspiracy cons or agenda trolls with any degree of certainty. “Facts” that feed emotionally-invested positions are repeated and amplified, while news that doesn’t fit the favored paradigm gets squashed.
Blogs CAN be self-correcting, but the model is still more Wikipedia than inerrant, all-knowing hive-mind. Blogs can be smarter than the MSM, or dumber than a box of rocks; a wildly outlinked source of context and interaction, or a self-exciting feedback loop.
As for “right” blogs versus “left” blogs, information isn’t the issue. Both are self-selecting belief-reinforcement communities. At least in the short term, the wide-open vistas of the Internet remain the ground of competing tribal claims. That will change in time, but — like all new-media denizens — Roger is overselling the relaity, just a tad.
Jun 3, 2008 - 3:33 pm 16. Roger L. Simon:“I’d be happier if he invited more bloggers from the right side of the blogosphere. We already know McCain is good at reaching across the aisle — how about reaching out to his own party for a change?”
Mary, the vast majority of bloggers on those calls WERE from the right. I thought that would be obvious.
Jun 3, 2008 - 4:43 pm 17. Al & Del:If america vote for senator Mccain, they are all hypocritics. Because the retirement age is 65 and Mccain is 72, a man who needs to take a vacation in jamaica, eat some jerk pork and drink some red stripe beer. Change we believe in, yes we can (46) Barack Obama
Jun 3, 2008 - 6:02 pm 18. Edmund Jenks (MAXINE):If the candidates don’t drop by and visit the neighborhood, we will just kidnap what they say (and do) and make sure someone hears (or sees) it!
Jun 3, 2008 - 8:29 pm 19. Richard1:After tonight, I think McCain can use a good voice coach. Roger you know anyone you can send his way?
Jun 3, 2008 - 9:33 pm 20. ex-democrat:Thanks, Al & Del, for epitomizing so succinctly everything that is both wrong and repellant about those on your side of the argument.
Jun 4, 2008 - 7:57 am 21. Sandra:Blogs are like juries. (See 12 ANGRY MEN) What one man knows, the other 11 soon know.
Someone describes Michelle Obama as “rancorous” and we all say “yes!”. Perfect word to describe her (Freddoso?) NRO labels her Princess Ticked Off and we have her essence.
More importantly: veterans for freedom creates an Internet ad asking Obama” why haven’t you gone to Iraq in 800 plus days?” “Why are you willing to meet with dictators but not General Petraeus” and suddenly Obama decides to go to Iraq and will have to meet with Petraeus. McCain didn’t do that. The Republican Party didn’t do that. A small group did that. Shades of 2004, where a group of heroes, the Swift Boat Veterans, revealed John Kerry’s lies and fantasies and won the election for GWB.
Demopublicans and Republicrats are for global warming but Newt puts up a DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW online petition and capitolconnect does likewise and IF we take a few minutes to SIGN, we have a real chance of forcing politicos to change their minds. Never forget that a Congressman aware of the teachers’ unions power, attacked homeschooling on the floor of the House. The congress was flooded with more angry mail than they’d ever received on any other issue and that was that. Congressmen care about numbers: in the form of money and in the form of votes. An avalanche of mail gets their full attention just as a big donation does.
The internet makes it possible for a pissed off Harriet Christian to get a million hits on Youtube and let us know the caucuses were rigged, a story I didn’t see anywhere else. I know that caucuses favor Marxists who are willing to wait till everyone gets tired and goes home before voting (a favorite tactic of theirs) and discriminates against those who work or can’t get to the polls at night. And that’s HOW Obama won. That’s a story for bloggers to develop. David Horowitz is the expert on the techniques used by the hard left. He worked with these Obama supporters when he was a young Communist.
I would love to see a DRAFT BOBBY JINDAL petition online. Put Jindal up against Obama and Obama doesn’t look so shiny and special anymore. With McCain as an experienced military commander in chief to wind up our two wars and fend off sabre rattling China and Russia, Jindal could devote himself to the reform he does so well. Four years from now, we’d have a great President in Waiting.
If we’d had the Internet in 1992, the Reform Party would have won. Luckily, Newt Gingrich used our platform in 1994 and the Republicans won control of the House for the first time in 40 years.
The voters want CHANGE? Great!!! Let’s replace Democrat control of the House and Senate. They’ve had a year and a half and what have they done??? Tried to wrest defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq and fought off earmark reform.
The Republican Party’s intellectually sclerotic. The Democrat Party is in Obamamaniac “Blissie” mode. But bloggers are coming up with great ideas brilliantly and hilariously exprssed, So… Hold on to your laptops. It’s going to be a bumpy Summer.
Jun 5, 2008 - 8:16 am 22. Sandra:BC and others have attacked bloggers as know nothings. Hmm.
I have a Phi Beta Kappa key and only read people smarter than myself.
I read Victor Davis Hanson, Christopher Hitchens, Ann Coulter, Mark Steyn, and many more. I’m Mensa level IQ. 2%. They are the top 1% and they deserve respect, BC, you little punk.
Then, there are the bloggers with specialized knowledge such as those who exposed Dan Rather’s fraudulent documents.
I am soooooo tired of hearing that Obama has the educated voters and it’s the ignorant high school grads who oppose him. Obama has the college grads who had their synapses fried in college by “post structuralism” and Marxism. I prefer my literature and poli sci to be intelligible.
Obama’s “floating abstractions.” Lofty words without real life referents give me migraines. I look at his audience and I see 70’s type “blissies”. Are they stoned? They look it. This overaged children’s crusade will not win if we point out that the Emperor is naked — and full of b.s.
Jun 5, 2008 - 9:10 am 23. Believer:Sandra brings up a good point.
“An avalanche of mail gets their full attention…”
We conservatives have got our work cut out for us even if McCain is elected.
Most definitely if, God forbid, we have Obama elected (with both houses of Congress in Democrat control) — we’ll be working 24/7.
Jun 6, 2008 - 4:08 pm 24. mirc:thank you
Jun 17, 2008 - 9:46 am