[Dialogue] Recommended: "Their clout rising, blogs are courted by Washington's elite"

Sat Oct 29 15:45:59 EDT 2005

h-wainwright at charter.net recommends this article from The Christian Science Monitor

Colleagues, well someone may be onto the power of blogs.  Peace, Harry

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Headline:  Their clout rising, blogs are courted by Washington's elite
Byline:  Gail Russell Chaddock Staff writer of The Christian Science 
Date: 10/27/2005

(WASHINGTON)Beltway politicos, famously slow to adopt technology, are wooing blogs 
- all but Trent Lott.

"Bloggers claim I was their first pelt, and I believe that. I'll never 
read a blog," says the former Senate majority leader, who forfeited 
that title after bloggers Joshua Micah Marshall and Glenn Reynolds 
picked up a racially charged remark, drawing the attention of 
mainstream media (MSM) and his Senate colleagues.

Blogs (short for web logs) are websites that can be as basic as an 
online diary, or as fully fledged as a political community. And when 
the latter variety seizes upon a topic - creating a blog swarm - the 
results can be overwhelming.

>From former CBS anchor Dan Rather, stung by blog exposure over his use 
of forged documents, to the negative buzz about Supreme Court nominee 
Harriet Miers, political blogs aren't just reacting to the news: 
they're making it.

That's why politicians are eager to co-opt them - or, at least, engage 
them.

Last week, House Republicans convened the first ever "Capitol Hill Blog 
Row." In a small committee room in the Capitol, a dozen bloggers, 
selected by an informal poll of GOP staff, were provided soft drinks, a 
high-speed Net connection, and access to top Republican figures for 
half a day. Issues discussed ranged from how to cut government spending 
to the future of the GOP.

As a follow-up, Speaker Hastert is launching his own blog. "Blogging is 
the new talk radio," says Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean. "People listen 
to talk radio because the mainstream media is too liberal for them. It 
makes sense for the Speaker to get the Republican message out to them."

Blogs still rank well behind traditional television, radio, and 
newspaper outlets as a source of news, but they are gaining ground 
rapidly. The liberal blog Daily Kos attracted nearly 4.8 million 
visitors this July, compared with 3.4 million in January, according to 
Nielsen//NetRatings.

"The number of people who engage in political discussion or get 
political news from all online sources, including blogs, is 
skyrocketing and currently numbers over 75 million Americans," write 
journalists David Kline and Dan Burstein in their new book, "Blog! how 
the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and 
culture."

Movers and shakers in Washington, especially their younger staff, pay 
attention to blogs and, increasingly, seek to engage them. At the 
Democratic National Committee (DNC), chairman Howard Dean, who 
pioneered the use of the Internet to raise funds for his 2004 
presidential campaign, has set up an Internet Department to get his 
message out to the blogs.

"Sometimes there are stories that don't fit with our larger, overall 
national media strategy that we send out to encourage and motivate and 
engage people in the blogosphere," says DNC spokesman Josh Earnest. 
"It's hard to imagine how we could communicate with them so effectively 
without this new technology," he adds.

The nominations of John Roberts and Ms. Miers, the first Supreme Court 
nominations in 11 years, were also the first to test the power of the 
blogosphere to shape debate on a complex, fast-moving story.

"A lot of staff working on this read a lot of blogs," says Don Stewart, 
a spokesman for Sen. John Cornyn (R) of Texas, a member of the 
Judiciary Committee.

"[Blogs] have an effect on the questions that get asked about a 
nominee," says Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of 
Richmond.

A small cottage industry of judicial blogs tackled nominee's 
qualifications, records and documents, as well as commenting on 
hearings in real time. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking 
Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, aka the "cybersenator" and 
first Senate blogger, set up a dedicated blog to cover the Roberts 
confirmation hearings.

But activists on both sides of the aisle expect the Miers hearings to 
draw much more blog interest. "On the Roberts fight, the blogs didn't 
add much to the debate. But on this one, they're vital," says Manuel 
Miranda, a conservative activist who is leading a coalition opposing 
the nomination.

Influential blogs on Miers's nomination

* Bench Memos: The National Review's conservative take on the courts. 
(bench.nationalreview.com)

* SCOTUSblog: One law firm's perspective on developments at the US 
Supreme Court. (www.scotusblog.com/movabletype)

* Daily Kos: One of the liberal powerhouses of the blogosphere. 
(www.dailykos.com).

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