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The
Day After Tomorrow
As
the 2006 elections rush to a conclusion, the stars
of the season – political bloggers – would be
wise to think about what lies ahead for their
vibrant, sometimes vicious community.
In
early 2006 Virginia's political blogosphere was
still regarded as a curiosity. Print journalists
begrudgingly acknowledged that blogs and bloggers
had impacted the the 2005 statewide and House of
Delegates races, but there was no consensus on the
likely impact of blogging going forward. No one
predicted the fast and furious rise of blogging
and bloggers to the pinnacle of politics in the
Commonwealth.
Blogs
added to the fireworks of the 2006 General
Assembly session, helping torpedo the promised
goodwill between the new governor and the House
Republican leadership by uncovering the off-color
comments made by a top gubernatorial staffer and
by highlighting Republican opposition to a
high-profile executive appointment.
Then
writer and
political neophyte Jim Webb threw his hat in the
ring against Sen. George Allen earlier this year.
His primary campaign effort was fueled by a band
of bloggers and blog enablers who crashed the
gates of the Democratic Party. Those bloggers and
their partisan opponents turned media and politics
in the stately Commonwealth on its head. To say
that blogs played leading roles in the brutal 2006
elections is truly an understatement. The keenest
political observers have resorted to doubly
crediting and blaming bloggers for fostering the
nasty tone of the campaign.
Now,
as Virginia’s political bloggers head into the
last night before Election Day, with visions of
Senate victory parties dancing in their heads, it
would seem like a good time for some practitioners
to ponder what the future holds for both the craft
and the crafters. The question is, "Where do
we go from here?"
In
the days following the 2006 election, there will
inevitably a "morning after" effect,
when the winners and losers start down an
existential journey of ecstasy or despair. Such is
life among the tin-foil posse. Unlike last
year’s statewide battles, this 2006 election
seems to have generated deep fissures in the
“citizen media” community along partisan and
ideological lines. The ecumenical nature of the
early movement, in which bloggers of all stripes
treated one another with courtesy and respect for
the good of the order, yielded to a harder-edged
partisanship this time around. Even the supposedly
more “thoughtful” corners of blogdom (this
writer pleads guilty) grew more strident.
To
that end, it's worth discussing whether
Virginia’s political bloggers can find any added
value from maintaining a sense of connectedness
that transcends fault lines, and if so, how that
can be accomplished.
There
are indications that the blogosphere can reunite
for the common good. The University of
Virginia’s Sorensen Institute held its second
Summit on Blogging & Democracy in the
Commonwealth with assistance from a bipartisan
team of bloggers. Then, just a few months later,
maverick Democrat Ben Tribbett, conservative
Republican Alton Foley and a cast of characters
from rural Virginia put on the Blogs United in
Martinsville for Free Speech. Both events, one by
the “establishment” and the other by the
“grassroots,” snagged corporate sponsors,
high-profile journalists, and notable political
figures.
Waldo
Jaquith rolled out the massive and popular
vapoliticalblogs.com aggregator, creating a
one-stop shop for blogging content, and Dave
Mastio blended his mainstream media and blogging
experience into the BlogNetNews.com/Virginia site,
which showcases both blog content and the MSM
stories that they chew on. Richmond’s Terry Rea
and Norfolk’s Vivian Paige conspired to hold the
“Weekend Without Echoes,” a thoughtful and
successful bid to generate reflective and original
content – if only briefly - in contrast to the
normal snarkfest. Finally, the nonpartisan
Virginia Blog Carnival, an early mainstay created
by conservative blog godfather Chad Dotson, is
still going strong. All of these moves demonstrate
that, when motivated, Virginia’s bloggers have
the energy, ingenuity and thoughtfulness to
collaborate.
In
offline conversations with several bloggers from
all over the spectrum, I broached the subject of
forming a loose confederation of bloggers – with
the working name of “Commonwealth Society of
Bloggers” (SOBs - pun definitely intended) –
that would advance a common blogging ethical code
and preserve some semblance of unity across
partisan and ideological divides. Put bluntly, the
society would cover our collective butts against
outside agitators seeking to do us harm.
Such
a joint effort is not unheard of. Conservative and
Republican bloggers previously formed the Old
Dominion Bloggers Alliance, while liberal,
progressive and Democratic bloggers set up shop as
part of the Leftyblogs.com/Virginia community.
Moving to a nonpartisan guild seems like the
logical next step.
The
past year has seen editorials and news articles
attacking bloggers and blogs, legal actions
brought against the Black Velvet Bruce Li blog,
and Will Vehrs – the veritable Godfather of
Virginia bloggers – goaded into the Chief Joseph
option. It stands to reason that an organized
effort would benefit any and all bloggers who
intend to stay engaged after George Allen and Jim
Webb (and others) have gone on their merry ways.
The association would be organized solely to
protecting mutual self interests, not to stop
anyone from blogging the way they'd like to.
The
threat of General Assembly action seems more
distant than in previous years, if only due to the
fact that so many legislators read blogs, run
blogs, or indulge in blog trolling anonymously.
But there are other reasons to pursue a formal
agenda. After all, if trial lawyers, used-car
salesmen, and political consultants can do it,
bloggers ought to at least consider the idea.
Richmond’s
libertarian heavyweight, Norm Leahy (One
Man's Trash), is a member
of the national Media Bloggers Association, “a
non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting
MBA members and their blogs, educating bloggers,
and promoting the explosion of citizen's media.”
He generally favored the idea of a state-level
association, saying, “I think this idea is worth
pursuing -- and the 'SOBs' does have a nice ring
to it. It does seem to me that I've seen something
along these lines elsewhere -- a code of conduct
that any blogger could agree to, link to and, it's
assumed, abide by. There also is the possibility
of adapting the Media Bloggers Association code of
conduct for our own uses, or a version of the code
which would suit our particular needs. A simple
page with a code, an icon and perhaps a list of
signatory blogs would be a good first step.”
Having
spent most of his career in the mainstream
journalism business, Jim Bacon (Bacon's
Rebellion) is well-versed in
the utility of media trade associations. He often
thinks about the long-term growth of blogging, and
he is “all in favor of establishing a
confederacy of bloggers to look after blogger
interests. He agrees that a code of conduct is a
good starting point.
"After
the first (Sorensen) blogger conference, I started
agitating for a statement of basic standards as a
way to establish the blogosphere as a credible
alternative to the Mainstream Media -- don't libel
people, don't repeat unverified rumors, that sort
of thing," Bacon says. With input from
readers, Will Vehrs drafted a draft of editorial
guidelines. "I gave it some spit and
polish, and posted it on the blog."
The
Bacon's Rebellion guidelines did not generate many
imitators. Bacon knows that organizing bloggers is
more difficult than cat-herding. Bloggers are by
nature individualists, he says. They are
anti-hierarchical. They don't like to be told what
to do. But he still thinks an association could
prove valuable. "At a minimum, an association
of bloggers could continue to put on blogger
summits and allow for the continued interaction of
the bloggers face to face.”
Anne
Dalton Boothe (Bad
Rose), who helped plan the Martinsville
event, was game for such an effort, offering,
“I'm all for an ‘honor among thieves’
society. Count me in!” Her partner in crime,
Alton Foley (I'm
Not Emeril) notes, “Anne and I have already
begun planning next year’s event. The more
virtual manner (for an association) sounds
intriguing.”
Anne
and Alton were joined by Ben Tribbett (Not
Larry Sabato), arguably
Virginia’s most influential and (in)famous
blogger and the lead instigator for the
Martinsville alternative to Sorensen. The Not
Larry Sabato creator said that the prospective
guild, “sounds like an awesome idea. Let me know
how I can help!”
Republican
notable, Shaun Kenney (ShaunKenney.com), who has regularly called
for unified codes of ethics of conduct in the past
offered that, “If anyone is interested or
inclined to help, I have reserved a URL -- www.blogcodeofethics.com/org/net for precisely this purpose - a
voluntary code of ethics with a button of some
sort one could post on their website…
self-imposed.”
The
idea of everyone adopting similar standards is
admittedly a challenge, particularly as bloggers
enter and exit the darker side of politics and
policymaking.
Recognizing
the difficulty, Vivian Paige asserts that the idea
“sounds good” but she warns that “It's going
to be hard to get the diehards on both sides (of
the partisan divide) to come together.”
Practically
speaking, sentiments seemed to coalesce around the
notion that the association would exist virtually,
possibly as a web page containing pertinent basic
information and providing an outlet for feedback
and group discussion.
Charlottesville’s
Waldo Jaquith (Waldo
Jaquith) explains that in his mind, “such
an organization could viably consist only of a
webpage containing a set of principles or
standards which any Virginia blogger may or may
not choose to endorse. In endorsing them, bloggers
may display a little icon on their sidebar
indicating their membership, such as it is. If
such a group ends up becoming something bigger or
more interesting, great, but something as simple
as what I've described would be a snap. I think it
would make a good launching point for more.”
Other
elements could include links to other joint
activities and events and a “membership”
roster. For it to be successful, at least at the
outset, such an association would have to minimize
costs to maximize its impact as most bloggers are
not compensated for what they do.
Looking
toward the future, Terry Rea (SLANTblog)
sees a grander vision
for Virginia’s community of public affairs
bloggers. As an acknowledged senior statesman and
experienced alternative media practitioner, Rea
takes a more intellectual bent. He says, “I have
given some thought to the concept of blogging
standards, how a group of bloggers might work in
concert to establish such, how to organize them.
Every time I’ve thought about trying to pull
some of the bloggers together -- bloggers with
something to say that I’ve seen as working under
some self-imposed code of ethics -- I have thought
that we’d need more than a desire to play fair
to make us a group with a purpose. To me, the
Commonwealth SOBs would have to be about more than
just a desire to push away from tacky bloggers who
specialize in dirty tricks, knowingly cheat to
gain advantages, and those who really have nothing
worthwhile to say. I think the SOBs would also
have to have some common desire to
create/encourage presentations on its site that
are aimed at benefiting the world beyond the
blogosphere. Ultimately, I’m more interested in
trying to reach the general public with
provocative ideas that didn’t have to go through
the mainstream media’s filter than I am in
merely trying to teach the blogosphere to be
good.”
In
the end, for any kind of bloggers trade
association or ethics forum to develop, the
community at large must take it up and it must be
voluntary. Any attempt to impose top-down thinking
and structure on this grassroots medium will be
met with resistance, and ultimately failure. It
requires the dedication of a few generous and
committed souls, and maybe an alpha dog or two to
push the envelope when necessary.
Those
who are skeptical of the necessity or the utility
of such a group would be wise to note that
associations of this type are wholly part of the
American democratic experiment. As Alexis de
Tocqueville wrote, “Americans of all ages, all
conditions, and all dispositions constantly form
associations. They have not only commercial and
manufacturing companies, in which all take part,
but associations of a thousand other kinds,
religious, moral, serious, futile, general or
restricted, enormous or diminutive… If men are
to remain civilized or to become so, the art of
associating together must grow and improve in the
same ratio in which the equality of conditions is
increased.”
Bloggers
have seen their craft flourish in Virginia,
turning a quirky, museum-piece political system
into a hotbed of “netroots” activism in just a
few short years. If we want to keep that system
moving forward and protect ourselves from
encroachment, maybe we should consider bowling
together and not alone.
Back
in August in a moment of reflection on the
Martinsville bloggers conference, I commented that
“in the free range marketplace of ideas that the
blogosphere represents, the invisible hands will
continue to exercise the power of the mouse-click
in determining which sites are worth reading and
which ones should be cast on the scrapheap of
digital irrelevancy. The Wild West element that
makes political blogging and bloggers infuriating
is also what… affords fresh eyes on politics and
policy. For those who call for ethical codes
or better self-policing, such elements will
eventually evolve, though they should be as
unrestrictive as possible so as not to choke out
fundamental creativity.”
Given
where the practice of blogging has come from,
where it is now, and where some of us want it to
go, it seem like a good time for that creative and
visible evolution to get moving.
--
November 6, 2006
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