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1) You’ve gone all schizo on us. On Saturday, you wrote that the power of the blogs is overrated. And yet here you sit on one of the leading blog sites issuing your dictates from on high. Are you telling us that you’re powerless?
Pretty much. The only power I and other bloggers have is that our ideas get read. If they’re good ideas and powerful stories, they can spread in a viral fashion. But unfortunately, I can’t snap my fingers and make John McCain or Chuck Hagel go away. Pity that.
2) But you guys, you bloggers, can whip up a storm over anything. Surely there’s power in that, right?
We can’t whip up a storm over everything. We can only whip up a storm over something that the mainstream media should have noticed but somehow overlooked. For instance, the response of the Huffington Post people to the attempt on Dick Cheney’s life was a newsworthy snapshot of the current left. That’s why once the blogs began talking about it, it quickly migrated to CNN. Same deal with the story about the Edwards bloggresses. It was a fascinating thing, something that a general audience would find interesting. That’s why the story crossed over from the virtual world into the real one.
3) But you can do that about any story. You can wield your power (or what you consider your power) irresponsibly. That’s why you love this.
It’s simply not true that we can push any story into the mainstream media. There are some stories that consume the blogosphere and never make a dent on the wider public.
4) Such as?
Take the Glenn Greenwald sock-puppet scandal. For days, this story provided endless amusement for the right half of the blogosphere. And yet obviously the story never made it onto CNN since no one in the real world has ever heard of Glenn Greenwald (except for Russ Feingold). The blogosphere is a pretty small place.
5) How can you say that? It’s huge!!!
No it isn’t. It’s probably a safe surmise that there are no more than 300,000 conservative blog readers. The number may be twice that in the progressive blogosphere. That’s still less than a million total. In a country of 300 million, those numbers are in an absolute sense just not that big.
6) So why do politicians and other prominent people care what bloggers think?
You know, I’m not really sure. I’d like to think they read this blog simply because they find a treasure trove of enjoyable and informative reading here. Unfortunately, that ain’t it. For the politicians, the right wing blogs serve as an early warning system. We tell them where the grassroots’ pulse is at any given moment. So, for instance, the Republican Party saw that supporting a non-binding resolution opposing the surge in Iraq would have been a maladroit play bordering on political suicide. Self-preservation kicked in, and the rest is history.
7) How about the politicians on the left? Why are they so into the blogosphere?
It’s a little strange. The left wing blogosphere is definitely more powerful than the right wing blogosphere. Unlike us, the lefties can raise money and summon volunteers. Additionally, they issue “ACTION ALERTS” – I love it when they do that.
When the entire left wing blogosphere focuses on a particular congressional race, it can make a big difference. It can also be a big help in getting a candidacy off the ground. Were it not for the blogosphere’s help, the bouncing baby Webb campaign that grew up to beat George Allen probably would have been stillborn.
But on the presidential level, these guys just don’t have that much juice. Hillary, Obama, and Edwards will probably raise a combined $200+ among them. At least. The blogosphere can’t make a dent at such levels unless it united behind one candidate and supported him monolithically. (I use the male pronoun advisedly – the Netroots will not be supporting Hillary.)
And yet the presidential aspirants pant after the blogosphere’s affections like a pack of love-starved golden retrievers. For goodness sake, John Edwards hired two of the blogosphere’s most extreme denizens to make a good impression on the netroots. Even when the move blew up in his handsome face, he still refused to fire the pair lest he offend the suddenly enflamed netroots.
8) So how should the presidential candidates use the blogosphere?
As a medium to get their message out. We can be especially useful when the candidate has something that should make the mainstream media but hasn’t. In those cases, we can get it on the MSM’s radar screen. That formula holds for both sides of the blogosphere.
9) Here’s what I don’t understand: You’ve often written that blogs will kill the newspapers. That sounds pretty triumphalist to me. And here you are describing how powerless the blogs are. Flip-flop!!!!
I never said the blogs will kill the newspapers. The internet will kill the newspapers. There’s a new way of gathering news other than waiting for a neighborhood youth to plop it on your doorstep in the wee hours of the morning. For those of you who read this site, I bet virtually every story in your morning paper has grown stale by the time you’ve got your newspaper in your hands. In the not too distant past, newspapers were the most efficient way of getting news that had more depth than you got on TV. That’s no longer the case. And that paradigm shift means the newspapers will have to adjust their product. So far, the industry as a whole has given little indication that it knows how to do so.
10) Do you personally feel powerful?
I feel honored that so many people read my stuff. I feel lucky that I can bring stories to the attention of such a large audience. I feel amazed that important people sometimes return my phone calls.
But powerful? No. Bloggers only can appear powerful. They can’t actually be powerful.
11) What’s that mean?
A guy like Kos or a gal like Arianna, they sit atop a movement but they don’t run it. Politicians run to kiss their rings because there are no other rings available and kissing rings (and babies and tushes) are what politicians do.
But Markos didn’t create the anti-Lieberman sentiment. He tapped into it. Although the distinction may be too subtle for a Democratic politician to grasp, there’s a world of difference.
Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com.
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