Scalps

by Chris Bowers, Sat Feb 19, 2005 at 10:20:50 AM EST

If you had never been to a blog, these days you would probably think that the things blogs do best are push stories into the mainstream media as a means of discrediting specific individuals who the bloggers despise. Of course, not only is this a gross mischaracterization of what blogs do, especially on the liberal side of the aisle, but it also overstates the role of bloggers in taking these scalps: Dan Drezner and Kevin Drum are mulling a question that I had a couple days ago -- are blogs really bringing down high-profile targets like Trent Lott, Howell Raines and Eason Jordan, or is it something else?

The answer, I think, is that the role of the blogosphere is being dramatically overhyped. Here's why. Within any institution, there are a number of possible coalitions that could be organized against its leader(s) depending on what issues are relevant. The problem their opponents face is that, even if the leaders are unpopular, there is no easy way to coordinate on an angle of attack when the system is in equilibrium. But when a leader trips up and a blog-fueled media frenzy ensues, it shocks the system out of equilibrium and provides what Thomas Schelling, one of the giants of game theory, called a "focal point" that opponents can coordinate around to construct a new majority coalition. So when a leader goes down, the underlying cause is the coalition of forces pushing them out, which in most cases is only partly driven by whatever provoked the blogs in the first place.

The evidence suggests that this has been the case for almost all of the prominent "blog scalps," which capitalized on pre-existing discontent or vulnerability to push someone out of an institution where they were forced to answer to a constituency. Think of Howell Raines at the New York Times or Jordan at CNN. A similar process is going on right now at Harvard (though blogs have played a relatively minor role there) -- deeply rooted faculty opposition to Larry Summers' leadership has coalesced in an attack on his comments about female underrepresentation in math and science. If he goes down, will his comments have been the cause? Only in a very shallow sense. Or consider the flip side of this phenomenon. Many other public figures who've been targeted by blogs (Michael Moore, Ann Coulter, Maureen Dowd, Brit Hume, etc.) have ridden out the storm because they either don't answer to a constituency or have institutionally secure positions.

I completely agree with this, and would go even further. Not only are the role of bloggers in taking scalps over-hyped, if all blogs were doing was collecting a series of scalps or notches on our clubs, then really we would be doing jack squat. Taking out a few individuals does basically nothing to alter the institutions that produce the national political discourse. While pundits are understandably obsessed with this aspect of the blogosphere, since it seemingly poses a direct threat to other pundits and thus generates headlines, the real influence of the blogosphere lies in its role as a counter-institutional formation to the Republican Noise Machine and the Political Opinion Complex. The lefty political blogosphere serves not as a mechanism to discredit right wing pundits one by one (although that might be the purpose of the right-wing blogosphere). Instead, it functions as an alternative, independent and community-oriented outlet for the dissemination and distribution of political discourse. Further, it relocates the purpose of political opinion discourse not in mass-consumption and profit, but in agitation and coordination of direct political agitation. This isn't as sexy to write about, but it is the real reason for the rising importance of blogs. You can read more of my theories on this subject here and here.

Tags: Blogosphere (all tags)

Comments

9 Comments

Shadow_head_small
Is that the Republican Opinion Complex?
Actually, I think you are right on target.  I am not seeing too much headhunting in the left blogosphere.   No one seems to care what happens to Jeff Gannon, or just about anyone else for that matter personally, they are interested in exposing the hypocrisy and deception in the situation.  Britt Hume might be an exception to that.  I have seen a lot of calling for his head.  I personally hope he stays.  That way we can hold him up as an example of what "Fair and Balanced" really is every time the right starts carping on another journalist.

But your point about the blogosphere acting as a counterpoint to the Republican Opinion Complex is valid.  With the channels of communication rapidly closing in the MSM due to consolidation, the blogosphere is one of the few remaining to the left.

by surfk9 2005-02-19 11:25AM | 0 recs
Shadow_head_small
and
bloggers have a Political Action Committee.
by blogswarm 2005-02-19 11:31AM | 0 recs
Shadow_head_small
let the blogs take the blame
. . . almost all of the prominent "blog scalps," . . . capitalized on pre-existing discontent or vulnerability

And of course a key part of the pre-existing discontent that fueled most of these high profile scalping resided in the traditional media.  When they help take a scalp, though, they have to pretend that they are not really involved. So, since almost anything significant will have been discussed in "the blogs"  they provide a prefect cover for the one-way media types to hide behind.

I suspect that there are really no more high profile people losing their scalps than there always have been, it is just that the blogs create an easy cloak behind which to hide the real source of these attacks and so it seems like they are the cause of something new.

by Fred in Vermont 2005-02-19 12:07PM | 0 recs
Shadow_head_small
Rage Against the Machine
I agree that the blogs' A number one usefulness to society is providing a counter to the Machine, whether that machine is the Republican Noise Making machine or the Mass Media Asleep at the Wheel machine.

Additionally, for those who wish to minimize blogs as mere character assassinating attack dogs, they need to ask themselves why the blogosphere's countless, more wonky articles concerning our country's terrible policies on drugs, AIDS, corporate welfare, etc. etc. are completely ignored by the MSM but the occasional head on the stick IS picked up.

It takes two to tango. If I offer you a meal of broccoli, carrots, or a deep fried twinkie, and you choose the deep fried twinkie, I won't suffer blame for the grease streaming down your chin.

by Bald Peanut 2005-02-19 12:09PM | 0 recs
Shadow_head_small
Meet Up + Blogs is the real political power
I see a synergy and dynamic coordination between blogs and Meet Up that could surprise everyone. In and of themselves, blogs are a lot of smoke and no fire.

I hesitate to use this flawed analogy, but nothing else comes to mind. The blog "chiefs" are nothing without the "indians" who visit them. The interaction between the "chiefs" and the "indians" is also a two way street. We don't have too many chiefs, because the chiefs are also indians and, to some extent, the indians are also chiefs.

What tens of thousand of indians do when they push away from the keyboard is where the real structural changes are going to occur. Meet Up and Blog Pac are only two examples of how the blogosphere is connecting with the real world to achieve real change.

by Gary Boatwright 2005-02-19 01:41PM | 0 recs
Shadow_head_small
They are destroying themselves.. Through lies..
I think that its easy to blame the messenger, but the bottom line is that these people have damaged their own careers.

Blogs are just the modern village commons. They tried to eiminate the city with suburbia and malls.. but that didn't work, and so now they are trying to isolate them..

Liars hurt themselves with their own lies..

by ultraworld 2005-02-19 02:35PM | 0 recs
Shadow_head_small
The years since Reagan really have been different.
Americans are in danger of becoming 'collateral damage' from the right's policies..

seriously..

by ultraworld 2005-02-19 03:22PM | 0 recs
Shadow_head_small
Well said
and I think Fred in Vermont is exactly right as well.

Nonetheless - blogs are an important force in (re)creating a democracy in this nation in that they help we grassroots type find support, educate one another,  and coordinate our efforts in ways we've really never been able to before.

by its simple IF you ignore the complexity 2005-02-19 03:25PM | 0 recs
4a2fab88-ed3b-47a4-8f14-3ec8a24504ac_normal
I sense a book in the writing by Chris
Anyone else?  

btw, Markos and I are in the process of writing a book and it's coming together as a creed on the current reformation of the Democratic Party, along the lines of the democratic reforms that have happened in the past by populist uprisings, ala Jackson, Progressivism, the New Deal (and I guess you could argue Goldwater's conservatism in there as well), but it's not historically driven, except by the most recent current events. Publishing date?  We are aiming for Spring of 2006.

by Jerome Armstrong 2005-02-19 03:58PM | 0 recs

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