Blogging in a Vacuum

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Today’s been a busy news day for politics and PR.  From the news about Tim Russert’s testimony at the Scooter Libby trial to pallets of missing cash in Iraq.  But the biggest news is the John Edwards blogger scandal. 

 

This story is a perfect example of the dangers of entering any political race, not just the race for the presidency.  You are a moving target.  Opposing special interest groups (conservative or liberal) will dig for any and all evidence of your misconduct, as well as that of your associates.  And they play dirty.  You can’t anticipate what your opponents will use for fodder, but its best to play it safe and ensure that you and your staff have no skeletons in the closet, or if there are skeletons, make sure that you hide ‘em in the basement instead.

 

The first mistake, I think, is that Edwards and his campaign aides put too much emphasis on being seen as cool and reaching out to young adults online.  In focusing on this, they overlooked some campaign basics, including vetting your staff.  Edwards was smart in picking well-known bloggers, but he should not have overlooked their potential to rile up the opposition.  A simple search of the blogs’ archives could have prevented these headaches.  Unfortunately, blog entries stick around for a while.

Also, the move of hiring a blogger and “Netroots coordinator,” seems slightly patronizing and disingenuous.  It’s as if a bunch of men sitting around the table said “Aha!  We’ll reach out to the kids through these blog things they like so much.  Hire some bloggers!”

The development of the Edwards blogs was not organic, and I would think readers would feel like this was just another ploy for the campaign to spout its tightly scripted messages at them.  Not entirely trustworthy.  Personally, I would prefer to get my political information from an independent blogger.  But, it may be interesting to read candidates’ blogs to get a “behind-the-scenes” (or a simulated behind-the-scenes) look at the campaign trail.

Having said that, I do not believe that the complaints against these bloggers are valid.  As has been argued elsewhere, bloggers are not journalists.  They are not required to follow reporters’ standards of objectivity.   Ms. McEwan and Ms. Marcotte are entitled to their opinions.  In fact, that is what makes blogs so fascinating—they allow you access to others’ uncensored thoughts and opinions.

 

Also, I think the content and the language used in their controversial posts is par for the course on the internet.  Popular, mainstream blogs such as Gawker routinely use coarse language and touch upon controversial subjects.  But, there is no public outcry against this.  This is because blog readers are used to the freedom of the medium.  If it offends you, click your mouse, close the page and don’t read it.

 

But, bloggers should also be smart about what they say in their sites.  It’s important to remember that these are not private journals, but very public.  You never know who will be reading.  Also the internet has a long memory, so something you blogged about years ago can come back to haunt you.

 

Candidates who want to take advantage of these new communications tools should also be careful.  This isn’t the first blog scandal to pop up.  This past summer, Patrick Hynes, a paid consultant for Senator John McCain, failed to disclose this relationship and portrayed himself as an independent blogger.  However, there have been some successful relationships, Markos Moulitas kept up his blog, The Daily Kos, while serving as a paid consultant for Howard Dean in 2004.  But, Moulitas featured a disclosure about the relationship on the blog.

 

So, who is right?  I think everyone has made mistakes and that, at the root, this is just a conservative group trying to rally the troops against the left by citing the liberals’ vulgar ways.  I am sure there will be plenty more scandals before November 2008, and it will be interesting to see who is in the crosshairs next.

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Filed under Politics and PR, The Campaign Trail