Our friends at Progress Missouri sponsored a progressive summit in Columbia, Missouri on December 5th and 6th. On Saturday morning we participated in a panel on new media titled “Evolution of the Interwebs and Social Media” moderated by Pamela Merritt Progress Missouri’s Communication Director with AFSCME’s Alexandra Townsend, Courtney Cole, and the ACLU’s Mustafa Abdullah.

Our moderator started the session by asking the audience to raise their hands if their primary source of news was online, then Twitter, then Facebook, and finally, “dropped off at the front of your house.” Only one person in the audience raised their hand at the mention of old print media.  

Our most awesome, excellent, and humorous panel moderator, Pamela Merritt.

We were asked our preferred platform for alternative media. The panel’s individual responses varied based on the needs of their audience. My response was blogging, for the long form content. The quotes which follow are mine.

“…There’s so many big stories and so many important things to do I think that the, the most important thing is that we continue to tell stories, and we give people information.”

AFSCME’s Alexandra Townsend.

“…I’m always appalled at old media when they say that there’s, there’s vague things about what’s on the record or off the record. The reality is, it’s on the record all the time unless you say it’s off the record. And I identify myself all the time. When I’m doing the blog stuff I have this [photo ID on a lanyard]. Any body talks to me, it’s on the record unless you go, I don’t want this to be on the record and then we agree. Or, you know, don’t talk to me…”

Courtney Cole.

In response to a question about voice:

“…You have to be, believe in something and generally, if you believe in something, we’re pretty angry that things are the way they are…”

“…We should punch up, not down. And, and we constantly try to punch up. But, I, I put it this way….we should comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable…”

ACLU Program Associate Mustafa Abdullah.

“…One of the things that I, I find is that, that people, ordinary people are, are taking to the social media sites of public people and really letting loose. And, I mean, it’s not, it doesn’t appear to me to be organized. It’s just people saying, I see this, and they’re going, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard…and I’ve seen it all across the political spectrum…”

We were asked for a closing comment:

“…Whatever you use…information is power. That’s it.”

Previously:

I <3 Columbia (December 6, 2014)

I <3 Columbia – part 2 (December 6, 2014)

Progressive Summit in Columbia, Missouri – December 6, 2014 (December 7, 2014)

Today, at the Pitch:

Rex Sinquefield-backed PAC Grow Missouri trying to pay local reporters to blog for them

Posted by Steve Vockrodt on Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 4:07 PM

….Alex Stuckey, the statehouse reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, received an e-mail from some functionary who starts the message by fawning over Stuckey’s work for the newspaper, followed with an offer to have her pen entries for Grow Missouri’s website, with or without a byline. The going rate was $250 per dispatch.

Other reporters, including St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum, received similar offers, which were posted on their Twitter feeds and roundly lampooned….

People get paid serious money (well, at least to us) to write for blogs? That’s actually possible?

If there are any billionaires reading this – we can be bought. For the right price…  

We hate meta. But sometimes in the course of blogging…

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) held a campaign event in Warrensburg yesterday evening. I attended so you didn’t have to. Actually, it wasn’t very clear from the newspaper blurb under community announcements in the previous night’s paper and the advertisement (without a disclaimer) in last night’s paper that it was a campaign event. There were campaign signs stacked outside and inside the ABC Building, where the event was held, when I arrived. It was then very clear that it was a campaign event.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r), at a campaign event in Warrensburg – August 22, 2014.

See, we do post photos that most public figures would consider to be aesthetically valid and a positive representation.

We always wear our blog photo IDs – that’s so people at the events we attend are under notice that we’re there and we’re covering what’s happening. It also means that everything is on the record. And that on the record thing? If you don’t want it on the record, don’t talk to us.

I keep a digital recorder running at all times (past experience is a good teacher).

Last night I walked in with my gear about fifteen or twenty minutes before the start time. I got some confused looks and halfhearted greetings. A few minutes after I walked in a campaign staffer politely asked me who I was. I told him (for the second time). He stated that it was a private event – I could stay, but if I disrupted it I would be asked to leave. Apparently because Show Me Progress is a lefty blog. I asked him if he read us. He replied that he didn’t read our coverage of Representative Hartzler, but he had read other things (see the logic in their world?). I told him that the announcements didn’t make it clear that it was a private event. Actually, the quarter page newspaper ad stated, “Please Join us for an Ice Cream Social with Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler!” and “There will be an opportunity to Meet and Visit with Congresswoman Hartzler to ask questions and get feedback in a fun and casual setting! We hope to see you there!” There was no disclaimer on the ad. The staffer did invite me to have some ice cream.

We have never disrupted any of the many of Representative Hartzler’s events we have attended nor acted in anything but a professional manner. We have posted video, photos, and meticulous transcripts of what has transpired at Representative Hartzler’s congressional events. That probably doesn’t endear us to Representative Hartzler (r) or her staff.

Just the same, Representative Hartzler and her staff have always been polite to us when we show up. Okay, there was that one time in Buffalo, Missouri and that was early on and just one person, right after the Sedalia town hall video went viral.

Last night Representative Hartzler (r) worked the room, greeting those in attendance. She did politely say hello to me, and then moved on to the next person.

There haven’t been open public town halls with Representative Hartzler (r) in this area of the district in numbers comparable to 2012. That’s a polite way of saying “none” or close to it. Yet, this event was essentially a town hall, it’s just that it was a “private” (campaign) event. If you were deemed to be disruptive by your demeanor you would be asked to leave. That’s not exactly conducive to an open and free (and public) exchange of opinions and ideas with your elected representatives.

I was not the only individual in the room who was given a warning:

Campaign staffer: Hey, how’s it going?

Constituent: Howdy. And you are who?

Campaign staffer: I’m [….], I’m from, with the campaign. Um, I just want to let you know, um, you’re welcome to, uh, have ice cream, you’re welcome to stay. Um, it is a private event, though, so if you’re, I know you’re not a fan of Vicky, which is fine, um, but if you’re disruptive we’ll ask you to leave. So, that’s it. I mean, you’re, you’re welcome to stay. Everybody’s welcome. Um, but just don’t, you know, be [inaudible] or something like that. That’s it, so. But, you’re…

Constituent: And your name’s what again?

Campaign staffer: [….], I’m with the campaign.

Constituent: How do you know me?

Campaign staffer: I don’t actually, but some other people know you and you’ve got a Recall Vicky sign and all that, so.

Constituent: Yeah, that’s right.

Campaign staffer: And you’re, you’re welcome to come.

Constituent: I tell you, would you like to have a seat and visit?

Campaign staffer: Sure.

[….]        

And they did have a conversation.

If I had been asked to leave I would have. It was a campaign event, not a congressional one. And I’d still have interesting audio.

I acted as I always do – in as unobtrusive manner as I can as I photographed the goings on from a distance, and I was able to stay for the entire event. Apparently I wasn’t disruptive.

I did get to meet the guy who put up the homemade “Recall Vicky” sign along Highway 13 in rural Johnson County.

Oh, I didn’t have any ice cream.

This morning in Warrensburg General (Retired) Richard B. Myers, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented the Ike Skelton Lecture on the campus of the University of Central Missouri. He spoke at length, then answered submitted questions from the audience (read from the podium by Brigadier General Thomas Bussiere), and then took questions directly from the audience.

Earlier in the morning General Myers took questions from the media in a short press conference.

At one point a submitted question (and the general’s answer) touched on new media:

General (Retired) Richard B. Myers, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaking

at the Ike Skelton lecture on the campus of the University of Central Missouri on January 22, 2014.

[….]

Question:  ….in your time as Chairman the media has become more invasive and rabid in coverage . Now with the advent of social media has become even more so and many stories are being created and developed by non-professionals. What challenges, uh, do you see this creates in the public sector for both leadership and how would you advise future leadership to handle this?

Gen. (Ret.) Richard B. Myers: Well, I think future leadership, and I think the Air Force here does pretty well. The Navy does very well. Uh, the Army here, the Army does not do very well in this area. But this is the whole notion of communications. And, uh, I met your public affairs officer earlier. We were briefed on the little press conference we had.

Uh, I think those that are in charge of our public affairs or communications, uh, need to have a seat at the table, uh, for everything that goes on to include, uh, uh, planning for combat. They’ve got to be right there. And then they’ve got to participate when you’re in the middle of, uh, co, conflict or a, uh, bad event. Uh, they need to be there as well. Early on, not when the reporters are at the gates saying, we want to come in and talk to you. Uh, but well before that, all part of that planning. I think that’s the way, you know, you accommodate to the world we’re in today where the, where the news whips around very fast.

Let me give you an example. So you sit in the Pentagon, you hear the news, and it says, uh, Al Jazeera’s reporting that the U.S. troops, this is hypothetical, U.S. troops, uh, bombed a mosque [inaudible], fired into a mosque. So I call Tommy Franks, say, Tommy, they’re saying that you guys bombed a mosque, what the heck’s that about? He says, I’ll find out and get back to you. And, uh, what Al Jazeera would show you is, uh, you know, U.S. fire going into the mosque. That’s all they would show you. And Tommy comes back and says, yeah, they had a big weapons cache in there and we were taking heavy fire from the mosque and, uh, we had to retaliate, he said. Okay, it sounds fair. Where are the pictures of that fire coming from the mosque? Where are the pictures of the, the weapons cache? Uh, well, they’d get that to you maybe in a, in a month. Well that, that great news story was live for maybe twenty, twenty-four hours. [inaudible] Maybe, maybe couple hour, uh, days. But, it’s no longer around. So I think being more agile in how we address, uh, those kinds of situations, making everybody in the unit know that they can be this strategic corporal that by their actions can draw international attention. I think that’s the way you address that.

You can’t, you can’t address all those that are on the blogosphere with varying credentials. I mean, it’s like swatting flies. And you don’t have time to swat flies. So, let, let the flies buzz around.  Concentrate on those sorts of issues, uh, pick out those in media that you trust. And you can develop trusting relationships with media as well. And, and develop those so when something really goes wrong you have somebody you can turn to that’s, you have a relationship with that’ll at least give you a fair hearing.

[….]

General (Retired) Richard B. Myers.

Credentials. Those worked out so well for Judith Miller.

Well, this is interesting:

December 28, 2012

Journalist makes Missouri Scout end-of-year list

Yokley to cover state Legislature for The Joplin Globe

….Yokley said he does not think of himself so much as a blogger, but as a journalist.

In a recent interview, Yokley said: “Whenever I think ‘blogger,’ I think of partisan guys who sit in their basements and yell about things from the left or right. That’s not what I do….”

Oh, really? Don’t they teach you in J-school about avoiding that lazy default to tired cliches thing? Just asking.

In the good old days, before they taught him the secret handshake and the “all opposing views are equal” catechism.

It gets better:

Taunia Adams

Yesterday at 4:04pm ·

   What sets some people apart from others? A floor or two.

   

The Turner Report: New Joplin Globe state house correspondent: I’m not a blogger; I’m a journalist

   rturner229.blogspot.com

   

Tammy Fortysevenpercent Booth My hopes were never high for young Mr. Yokely. He was too easily smitten and eager to be liked by the people who are supposed to fear journalists to the extent that they behave themselves. Instead, he’s who Tim Jones would have hired if he was the one doing the Globe’s candidate search — a kid with stars in his eyes who will toe the mark and walk the party line.

Yesterday at 4:24pm

Eli Yokley You spelled my name wrong.

Anyway. Stay tuned.

Yesterday at 4:30pm

Taunia Adams Pretty big dis to all the bloggers out there.

Yesterday at 4:32pm

Tammy Fortysevenpercent Booth Sorry about that — I was going to edit and correct, but now there is no need. As for staying tuned…I will.

Yesterday at 4:32pm

Eli Yokley I have never taken on the title ‘blogger’ because I never considered the work I do blogging. I took on the title of journalist because I believe I’ve spent the last nearly three years doing real shoe-leather journalism that I felt was lacking in Missouri. With The Fuse Joplin and PoliticMo, I took on journalism as a public service, and with the opportunity The Joplin Globe has given me, I hope to continue in that same spirt

Yesterday at 4:33pm

Taunia Adams Cool. Why’d you take down the bloggers around you?

Yesterday at 4:34pm

Tammy Fortysevenpercent Booth Just remember why blogs evolved beyond the AOL chatroom stage…The traditional media has failed us miserably. That is why we all started doing the blogging thang — in my case eight years ago.

Yesterday at 4:35pm

Tammy Fortysevenpercent Booth And yes, I am offended at the sniffy “**I’m** not a blogger.” You sure as hell were, whether you want to own it or not.

Yesterday at 4:36pm

Shelley Powers Blogger is short for weblogger, which was derived, a long time ago, from the description for the software that allows people to easily publish online. Basically the same software that now powers every major online publication today.

Saying you’re not a blogger is like saying you’re not a typewriter or printing press.

Yesterday at 5:25pm

Dude, you don’t engage in a battle of wits with someone who was blogging when you still had Star Wars sheets on your bed.

Don’t forget to wave to us from the House press gallery. Oh, wait…

Ah, a process story. Meta, even.

It appears that Representative Denny Hoskins (r – noun, verb, CPA) is a clueless pilgrim in the land of republican false equivalence. Here’s a recent Facebook post from our intrepid pilgrim, taking on the corporate media powerhouse which is Show Me Progress:

Denny Hoskins  IRONIC – I guess that is the best word I can use to describe my opponent. Her Treasurer’s husband is a blogger for a Pro-Dem Ultra Liberal website and likes to follow me around and takes pictures and record my speeches. Numerous people at the County Courthouse also state that a young lady has been going through my personal and business financial records/history at the courthouse.

Did I whine and cry to the media when this happened to me? NO! It’s a free country, I will always protect Freedom of Speech and our freedoms to be on PUBLIC land.

If she doesn’t like having her picture taken, then maybe being an elected official is not a good fit for her. – HOW IRONIC!

He’s also had a rough couple of weeks:

Uh, Representative Hoskins (r), you didn’t send the Senate a “balanced budget” (March 27, 2010)

There’s no accounting for such a legislative pummeling (March 25, 2010)

Representative Denny Hoskins (r): tracker, what tracker? (March 22, 2010)

Campaign Tracker: the worst job in politics and you still have to wear a suit (March 17, 2010)

Back to the Facebook post. Where to start?

Using all caps is the Internets equivalent of shouting.

You’ve got to be paying way too much for shoddy opposition research (or maybe it’s free). Your information is out of date.

I don’t necessarily like or dislike covering Denny Hoskins at public events, that just goes with the turf of blogging. I will say that it can sometimes be interesting. That’s what we do, we cover politics and government in Missouri. We’ve been granted media credentials at campaign, political, presidential, and vice-presidential events.

“…Numerous people at the County Courthouse also state that a young lady has been going through my personal and business financial records/history at the courthouse…”

We didn’t ask for the records that broke that story. Thanks for the suggestion, though, we’ll file it for future reference. That’s why they’re called public records. Is Denny Hoskins saying that he’s never been apprised of the public records concerning Jim Jackson or Courtney Cole? Just asking.

“…Did I whine and cry to the media when this happened to me?…”

Really, did you want to go so boldly on the record with that statement? Just asking.

To recap:

At Show Me Progress we cover campaign, public, and government events. We sometimes cover fundraisers when we get an invitation to do so. We either wear ID in the form of a photo credential or we present a business card with our contact information, clearly identifying our affiliation with this blog. Our identification informs those at the events that we cover that what they say to us is on the record. We utilize the public record, the Missouri Sunshine Law, as well as other public resources to access public information. Further, there’s nothing keeping Representative Hoskins from signing up on this blog and participating consistent with our user guidelines.  

A tracker, on the other hand, is a paid political operative who may or may not identify his or her associations/affiliations.

Show Me Progress: How are you doing?

Tracker: Hello. How are you?

SMP: Good, good. So, are you a tracker or something?

Tracker: Uh, you could say that I guess.

SMP: Yeah. I’m with Show Me Progress. [I handed him my business card. He took it.]

Tracker: Oh!

SMP: Yeah. So, so, where are you from?

Tracker: Uh, I’d rather not say.

SMP: Oh, okay, that’s cool. [sound of camera shutter]

Tracker: You like the license plate? [In response to me photographing the back of the car.]

SMP: Actually? Interesting.

Tracker: Um, hm.

SMP: Yeah, so, uh, so have you been doing this for long or working in, in politics and stuff like that? [crosstalk]

Tracker: Uh, yeah, I’ve been working in politics for a while. [crosstalk]

SMP: Yeah. Good, good. Uh, where are you from, just in, are you from Missouri or just?

Tracker: I’d rather not say.

SMP: Okay, that’s cool. Well, listen, have a good evening, all right?

Clear enough for you now? Or is that irony definition thing still a little fuzzy for you?

Besides, Missouri republican political blogs that aren’t a part and parcel to the top down hierarchical republican political establishment are a dime a dozen…oh, wait, sorry about that. My mistake.

I hate meta.

Yesterday the Warrensburg Daily Star Journal published an editorial which happens to mention “bloggers”:

3/18/2009 12:42:00 PM

Bloggers offer news, but scope too narrow

Jack Miles

Editor

…But bloggers, in general, are not journalists. Bloggers often offer one-sided opinions, not news…

…The best bloggers may be accurate, but what if they are not?

Do editors force them to double-check facts? Must they seek opposing opinions?…

…Unlike most bloggers, mainstream reporters must deal with editors who question articles before the information is presented to the public. Editors also know that – not just in physics, but in life – for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, meaning reporters need to know that if there is more than one side of a story, those other sides must be presented. If a reporter is wrong, he must write a contrite correction saying so and if a reporter is wrong intentionally, he is unlikely to remain a reporter for long…

…Bloggers have value, but people who value democracy need to understand the narrow agenda and resources of bloggers are no substitute for the broad agenda and resources of reporters.

Where to start?

Okay, so it’s “National Sunshine Week”. And criticizing blogtopia (yes, skippy coined the phrase!) as inadequate has exactly what to do with the price of beer in Germany?

“…Bloggers often offer one-sided opinions, not news…”

Exaggerate much?

The Johnson County recount case is finally over – for sure, sort of

The Johnson County recount case is finally over – for sure, sort of – part 2

Did you miss this one? Or just ignore it?

Democratic Attorney General Debate in Kansas City, part 1

Democratic Attorney General Debate in Kansas City, part 2

Democratic Attorney General Debate in Kansas City, part 3

Democratic Attorney General Debate in Kansas City, part 4

Antonin Scalia in Warrensburg, part 1

Antonin Scalia in Warrensburg, part 2

Antonin Scalia in Warrensburg, part 3

Antonin Scalia in Warrensburg, part 4

I could go on and on.

By the way, was the Daily Star Journal there? If so, what was the coverage like?

“…The best bloggers may be accurate, but what if they are not? …”

If we’re not accurate then we’ll get hired as on screen talent for a cable news network. Or, we can change our name to Judith Miller and flaunt our Pulitzer Prize.

If one of us “frontpagers” were to do anything to damage the reputation of Show Me Progress I guarantee that there would be dire consequences for that kind of failure.

As for editorial control, we do not have prior review or prior restraint here. To posit the lack of an editor’s filter as a weakness indicates a woeful ignorance of the dynamic of the blog. If we fail we have peers and readers who will quickly take us to task on our own turf.

This is a collaborative effort among all of the “frontpagers”. If one of us were to do anything on the blog contrary to the purpose of this blog their tenure here would end swiftly.

“…Must they seek opposing opinions?…”

“…Editors also know that – not just in physics, but in life – for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, meaning reporters need to know that if there is more than one side of a story, those other sides must be presented…”

All opposing views are equal? Please. Sometimes blatantly stupid just doesn’t deserve the light of day. Sometimes. Sometimes it does.

The stenographer: all things being equal…

…Political stenography in old media must dictate false equivalence as a matter of course. It’s definitely time to convene another panel on blogger ethics.

…If a reporter is wrong, he must write a contrite correction saying so and if a reporter is wrong intentionally, he is unlikely to remain a reporter for long…

Uh, if we’re wrong we’ll run a correction. On top of that, if someone wants to comment on our posts all they have to do is register and post a comment. As long as they conform to our Posting Guidelines.

Question: Has the Daily Star Journal ever spiked or avoided a story because of worries about what it would do to advertising revenue? Just asking.

Question: Has the Daily Star Journal ever spiked or avoided a story because of worries about getting cut off by sources? Just asking.

“…resources of reporters…”

Tell that to the folks at McClatchy who’ve cut reporting and content in search of higher profit margins. Then get back to me with their response.

In the not so distant past the old media would never bother to mention blogs and bloggers. Heh. Now they do, usually along with muttered curses. I wonder why?

We’re here because the old media has failed so miserably. Not because all journalists are incompetent or don’t do great reporting, but because the media business model, the corporate news industrial complex, and bad choices have diminished the journalistic values that were once there in sufficient amounts to help preserve Democracy. So spare us the “preserving values” lectures.

As for blogs and bloggers? We’re not the enemy. We have the same ideals that the old media once possessed. We look for facts and we seek the truth. If the old media actually did its job we wouldn’t be here. We’re not the enemy, but we may be the future.

The Show Me Progress official laminated blogger new media ID, (lanyard not shown, not actual size)

There’s been much hand wringing of late about the breaking news exploits of blogger Mayhill Fowler. You know, along the lines of “how dare the great unwashed commit journamalism and show us up.”

Heh. You mean like this?:

Washington Journalism on Trial

By Dan Froomkin

Special to washingtonpost.com

Thursday, February 8, 2007; 1:34 PM

…And get this: According to Russert’s testimony yesterday at Libby’s trial, when any senior government official calls him, they are presumptively off the record.

That’s not reporting, that’s enabling.

That’s how you treat your friends when you’re having an innocent chat, not the people you’re supposed to be holding accountable…

Half the battle is in actually showing up. If you don’t put the resources into actually showing up you can’t complain when somebody else does. Nature does abhor a vacuum.

And why has this come to pass?:

LA Times Editor and Publisher Forced Out For Resisting Job Cuts: A Look at the Effects of Media Consolidation on America’s Newsrooms

November 16, 2006

…Basically what he was shown the door for was drawing a line in the sand about staff cutbacks. And the reason he was drawing a line in the sand was because he’s concerned that if the size of our staff is reduced, it’s not going to be just a matter of job reduction, but it’s going to mean that we are going to reduce the number of stories we’re doing, and that’s going to be a detriment to the community end and the people that read us online around the world and around the country. So, it’s a serious issue at our paper. And if you look at all these other papers, reducing staff is going to mean reducing coverage and that’s going to create a news vacuum that’s important to citizens of this country…

Back to Mayhill Fowler:

How Mayhill Fowler got online scoops on Obama and Bill Clinton

…In her first public remarks on Clinton’s outburst, Fowler attributed her success to persistence, serendipity and an acknowledged flouting of the old rules of mainstream journalism.

“Of course he had no idea I was a journalist,” Fowler said by phone from her Oakland home, recalling her close encounter with Clinton for “Off the Bus,” a citizen journalism project hosted by the Huffington Post website. “He just thought we were all average, ordinary Americans who had come out to see him. And, of course, in one sense, that is what I am…”

If our old media did its job there would be no demand for ordinary Americans to take up the slack.

For New Journalists, All Bets, but Not Mikes, Are Off

…Among the questions posed last week was this: in an era when anyone with a cellphone and wi-fi connection can make like Tom Brokaw, do the long-accepted conventions of engagement (like a reporter’s volunteering who she is without being asked) still apply?

“This makes it very difficult for the rest of us to do our jobs,” Jonathan Alter, a columnist and political reporter for Newsweek, said in an interview. “If you don’t have trust, you don’t get good stories. If someone comes along and uses deception to shatter that trust, she has hurt the very cause of a free flow of public information that she claims she wants to assist.”

“You identify yourself when you’re interviewing somebody,” Mr. Alter added. “It’s just a form of cheating not to.”

But to Jane Hamsher, a onetime Hollywood producer who founded Firedoglake, a politics-oriented Web site that tilts left, Mr. Alter’s rules of the road are in need of repaving. For starters, she said, the onus was on Mr. Clinton to establish who Ms. Fowler was before deciding to speak as he did. That he failed to quiz her at all, Ms. Hamsher said, was Mr. Clinton’s problem, not Ms. Fowler’s. As a result, Ms. Hamsher said, the public got to experience the unplugged musings of a former president (and candidate’s spouse) in a way that might never have been captured on tape by an old boy on the bus like Mr. Alter…

Didn’t somebody once call Tom Brokaw “Duncan the wonder horse?” The sense of entitlement on the part of the old gatekeepers is touching, don’t you think?

Mayhill Fowler and “citizen journalism”

“…This isn’t that new, really (just Google the term “macaca” if you don’t believe me). The category of people known as “journalists” is becoming more fluid than it has been in the past, that much is for sure. Some will argue that it’s a good thing – that it will prevent cozy journalists from missing stories like Kennedy’s philandering or Nixon’s alcoholism or the Bush government’s rigging of data supporting the war – and others will argue that it’s bad. But it is happening nonetheless, and we’d better get used to it. For what it’s worth, I think it’s good.”

Nixon was an alcoholic? I had no idea.

Here at Show Me Progress we have business cards. We also have ID tags with our site logo and our photos which we can and do wear on a lanyard. We ask for and get media credentials to events. Our photo IDs are not so much to advertise our site (though I suppose it works as well as anything else), but so when people talk to us at an event they know we are probably going to write about what they say to us.

At the Democratic Attorney General debate in Kansas City I was asked directions from a very nice lady. She saw my blog ID tag and asked me if I was with the press. I told her I was a blogger. See, it works.

And we intend to keep showing up. After all, it’s part of our name. And because nature really does abhor a vacuum.

Rhetoric, Ethics, and Intention

June 8, 2008

“…How might Clinton have reacted if she had asked: “Mr. President, what do you think about the article Todd Purdum wrote about you in Vanity Fair?” (This, BTW, is the rhetorical approach I’d expect from a professional reporter.)…”

Now that’s a good question.