Why political candidates still don't respect bloggers.

[brainshrub]

From: www.brainshrub.com/candidates-respect-bloggers

CANDIDATE: Hello, I would like to move that elephant-shaped, 600 pound boulder off your front lawn.

BLOGGER: That's great! I've been waiting for a politician with the courage to move that rock, especially since it's covered with fire-ants.

CANDIDATE: I'm happy to hear that, but I'll need your help. Care to donate some elbow-grease or money to the project?

BLOGGER: No, I'm broke and it must be 102 degrees outside right now. But I'll do something even better - I'll write about it on my blog.

CANDIDATE: Umm... blogs haven't been shown to be able to move elephant-shaped boulders. Do you at least know how many people you can motivate to come and help me move that thing?

BLOGGER: No. In fact, most of my readers aren't even in this neighborhood. However, lots of people on the internet will applaud your efforts as you struggle to solve my problem. Just watch out for the poisonous snakes that live under the rock.

CANDIDATE: On second thought, I think I'll try to move the donkey-shaped boulder across the street on the property of that corporation.

BLOGGER: Hey! Where are you going? Why don't you respect bloggers?

On a national scale, it's easy to see the effect that blogging has. Look at Kos or DU as case-examples.

But on the local level, how can bloggers measure their effectiveness? Do bloggers have a place at the table when it comes to local elections?

Is blogging nothing more than a lazy way to do activism?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. Excellent point.

Goodwill alone does not win elections. Often, it barely registers at all. Candidates need money to win elections in our system - that's the bottom line.

[msongs]

6. and here I thought candidates need VOTES to win elections :-) nt

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

9. Have you ever seen a non-incumbent win with a meager campaign?

I haven't. You can't educate people about your candidacy unless you have money. And if the only one telling people about you is your opponent, you have no chance to win.

[SteppingRazor]

2. As a journalist, my biggest problem with blogs is lack of oversight...

any blogger can get on, throw out any sort of innuendo they want and, through the magic of the blogosphere, it becomes confirmed fact on hundreds of other blogs overnight. Usually, such stories are then, eventually, shown to be false. But, as with poorly reported newspaper stories, the correction doesn't usually get the same play as the initial story. And unlike newspapers, there's no editor, copyeditor and proofreader looking over blogs to make sure they don't screw up. Instead, you have to rely on other blogs -- which is kinda shaky ground.

As for blogs being lazy activism, I don't agree with that. I think its apples and oranges. Then again, so are blogs and actual journalism, which sort of gives amiss to my above-stated beef.

[brainshrub]

11. Here's a fact that many journalists overlook:

I understand the criticism that blogs don't have a formal oversight mechanism for quality. However, blogs are a self-regulating system. In the long run, people don't take blogs seriously that don't back up their sources or post corrections in the post that created the controversy. (Which is not physically possible on print.)

99.99% of the blogs are pure crap; but newsprint journalists aren't competing with the 99.99 - they are competing with the .01 that strive for excellence. People surfing blogs for hard news tend to gravitate toward bloggers who strive for credibility and objectivity.

I have a degree in journalism, but I dropped out of the industry after getting disillusioned with the corporate control. IMHO blogging has rescued journalism.

Note I didn't say that blogging IS journalism. It is a new beast with it's own style.

[bryant69]

3. There's an element of truth in that

But obviously it's not an either or proposition. A blogger can blog about it on his website and give $$$ to help out the local candidate and attend anti war rallies and man call centers and so on and so forth. Are all bloggers doing that? Some are and some aren't. I could probably do more, myself.

I also don't know that Blogging and Activism are necessarily the same thing. Sometimes they clearly are, other times they aren't as closely tied. It's the difference between having a discussion about something, and going out and doing something. Both can be valuable exercises, but they aren't the same thing.

Finally, the real reason that politicians don't like Bloggers is that they can't control us. That's why the Mainstream media isn't keen on us either.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[PerceptionManagement]

4. Every snowflake in an avalanche.....

Candidates ignore blogs at their own risk. Blogs are an influence tool. They are not a boulder removal tool.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

5. IMO, politicians ignore bloggers/internet at their own peril

People forget. It's a fact of life. But the power of the internet/blogs is the ability to "remind" people about what their reps. have been doing over time.

Santorum is an example. He's playing Mr. Moderate now in Pennsylvania (election year, and all that) but, the web won't let go of the real Rick Santorum. You know, the guy who wedged himself into the Schiavo fiasco (in the state of FLORIDA), the man who lives in Virginia but used PA tax $ to pay for his kid's cyberschool education, the man who wrote a book denouncing working women, the man who voted 100% of the time with the Bush administration, etc. etc.

[lonestarnot]

7. NOT WHEN YOU DO IT ON THE SIDE!

Think of it as a side job! And believe me I'm NOT lazy! Follow me around for a day and then evaluate!

[Vinnie From Indy]

8. LOL!

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to see it, does it make a sound?

If you have a problem and don't know it, is it still a problem?


I disagree. The rise of the blogosphere and the decline of newspapers is simply a result of smart people understanding that they are being lied to by powerful interests. Granted, this did not happen overnight. There has been and still is an ongoing paradigm shift in the business of news. With that in mind, blogs are able to do what traditional forms of information have never been able to do. They deliver information and connect the consumers of the information at the same time. The ability of all consumers to engage in almost real time feedback makes blogs a potent tool for activism. I believe that blogs have the potential to activate and connect more people than any other media yet developed. Candidates that ignore or denigrate blogs are like buggy whip salesmen at the dawn of the automobile age.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. You're comparing apples to oranges.

Bloggers provide information and are good for ordinary people to activate through networking. So it's something to supplement what already existed. For example, when Lieberman pissed everybody off at that last judge appointment, his local opponent benefited with donations from people in the other 49 states. So, we're helping Connecticut to rid itself of it's 160 pound ugly rock.

So, you have part of the picture, but not all of the picture. Politicians won't attract us through the ordinary methods because most bloggers are here because they're jaded and cynical. However, a blogger or long-term contributor to DU who is in need of assistance can get their message across with our help if they need it. Take Katrina for instance.

You're forgetting the most important function that bloggers serve. Our system of government doesn't work because something very, very important is missing: a responsible media that will keep the people educated and informed. Our mainstream media spews government propaganda just like Pravda did, so our countrymen don't have the information they need to make educated decisions. That's probably the biggest service that bloggers serve. They are the 21st Century's version of a Free Press. Bloggers and the net hemisphere will never be popular with politicians, just like the free press wasn't popular in its heyday. And as the mainstream press was subdued, so should bloggers expect the same fate.

[brainshrub]

12. kick