The Year of the Political Blogger 67
The New York Times is running a story about how political blogging has arrived as a widely-accepted form of reporting during this election year. In addition to the nationwide TV and radio audiences, the candidates are making efforts to get their message onto the increasingly popular blog network. In doing so, they've elevated bloggers to the level of traditional media reporters at the national conventions.
"The major political parties first gave credentials to bloggers in 2004. The Republicans allowed a dozen bloggers to attend their convention in New York, while the Democrats gave bloggers 35 seats in the nosebleed section of the Fleet Center in Boston. This year, the R.N.C. gave credentials to 200 bloggers as a means to 'get Senator McCain's message out to more people,' said Joanna Burgos, the press secretary of the convention. For bloggers attending the Democratic convention at the Pepsi Center in Denver, two types of credentials are offered. The first is a national credential, which offers the same access granted to members of traditional news media organizations. The second, more coveted credential is the state blogger credential. It allows one blogger per state to cover the convention alongside its state delegation, with unlimited floor access."
Of course, political blogs are abuzz today with the news of Obama's selection of Senator Joe Biden as a running mate.
Joe Biden's candidacy for VP predicted by Slashdot (Score:5, Interesting)
The GOP blew it in my case. (Score:5, Interesting)
I run the right wing political blog in Massachusetts and did not get credentials from the RNC. It is a community blog and so perhaps the RNC didn't like that a portion of the community doesn't like John McCain. But I filled out the form to be credentialed. All the RNC did was put me on their crummy email list so I get convention related spam.
A good development (Score:2, Interesting)
This will let the people who write about this stuff actually ATTEND the meetings they are giving their opinions about.
But I'd still say the overall trend of blogging is a negative one for journalism and disseminating quality information. At least from my experience, unless provided by a major news provider, blogs tend to be a means for someone to advance their opinion, as opposed to report the news (though they may call it reporting).
This decentralization has really deteriorated the quality of reporting as news outlets have had to slash their budgets. I really don't know how the news industry will recover, or if it will.
Lastly, who invents these stupid words anyway? I mean "the web" was cool, but it's just been downhill from there.
Re:A good development (Score:3, Interesting)
Yet, wouldn't it happen that you point out Fox news because you disagree with their take on the issues?
I'm looking for a conservative to complain about Fox News, and a liberal to complain about Micheal Moore. Until there are, in fact, many of these kinds of people, I'll always be skeptical about the advocacy for objectivity.
Irrelevant (Score:3, Interesting)
That's nice, but blogs are irrelevant to the election. Completely.
If you don't believe me, just ask yourself - when was the last time you changed your opinion or plans on who'd you vote for based upon something you read in a blog?
Blogs are just poor man's talk radio. People who listen to Air America are closed-minded liberals, just as people who listen to Michael Savage or Rush Limbaugh are closed-minded conservatives. They tune in to have their views reinforced, not to challenge their thinking. Same thing for blogs.
Influence presidential politics? Forget it. I'd wager less than 1% of Americans even read blogs, much less political blogs, and they tend to be the digerati, concentrated in blue states where the state's electoral votes are already pretty obviously going one way...
Hey, nothing wrong with 'em, of course - talk all you want! But if you want to influence politics (local or national), the best way is to first become a multimillionaire and then start giving money. Sorry, I misspoke - it's the only way.
Your state is too liberal. (Score:1, Interesting)
> I run the right wing political blog in Massachusetts
You're from too liberal a state. They only care about supporters in swing states and by the time Massachusetts goes red, they'll already have a landslide.
In other words, they only care about what they can get out of you. But hey! I bet you could get some schwag by signing up for their program that rewards you for posting blog entries & whatnot!
Re:Good PR, bad journalism. (Score:2, Interesting)
I think they stopped teaching and believing that stuff in the late 70's, early 80's. Walter Cronkite was the last of the old school network journalists.
The new breed journalists care much more about how well their hair and makeup look on tv and how much salary and air time they can soak up, while reading Edutainment and Factoids off a teleprompter. They also have no qualms about brazenly interjecting their own political biases into the mix.