On Being "Fair" To Democratic 2008 Candidates In the Blogosphere
by Chris Bowers, Mon Jun 11, 2007 at 12:15:57 PM EDT
Two months ago, in a post comparing blogosphere standards to journalistic standards, I wrote the following:
These demands are hogwash. Compared to other medias, front-page blog posts are living documents, and should be treated as such. Further, bloggers are not just reporters, but rather active participants in progressive politics. We have no obligation to provide equal time and non-editorialized coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign. Even if we did approach the campaign in that fashion, it would lessen the blogosphere as a medium. Blog posts are the start of conversations, the start of investigations, and are not outside the political process in any way. We are part of an ongoing process, not an end result simply reflecting on that process. If you want us to follow candidates on the campaign trail with embedded reporters who stenograph press releases and statements from campaign spokespeople, then you are not appreciating one of the most important distinctions between the blogosphere and other medias. Of course we editorialize. Of course we make posts without contacting every campaign on which we are writing. Of course we pose unanswered questions in our writing if the research required to answer those questions would take several hours or even several days. This is all acceptable because we are not making our proclamations from the top of a mountain and then engraving those writings in stone tablets. We are taking part in an interactive, ongoing and transparent political thought process. And if you are reading this blog, so are you.
Those who demand objectivity and a lack of editorializing might also want to question why they think negative posts about their favorite candidate are supposedly damaging to their candidate. Do they think that most readers of MyDD are a bunch or rubes who will simply believe whatever Matt and I tell them to believe? Do you think they are incapable of processing viewpoints contrary to their own? Do they think people who come to MyDD are looking for the same type of information they would find in the New York Times or on CNN? Editorializing, taking an active role in Democratic politics, and instigating conversations are all main functions of the progressive blogosphere. In fact, they have always been more primary to the role of the Democratic blogosphere than reporting has been. People who come to blogs know this. Do the people who complain about how their favorite candidate is covered on a given blog know this?
Every campaign and every registered user of MyDD has the right to respond to every post made on MyDD. That is how "equal time" is generated on large community blogs. If it was instead created by making sure we called every campaign for a comment about every blog post we were going to make about that campaign, and / or by never editorializing on any campaign, then the blogosphere would be an extremely staid, boring, and infrequently updated place. Of course we should be fair to candidates, but we do so by putting our opinions out in the open, by holding public conversations, and by updating our thoughts as we go. If we acted in any other fashion, then we just wouldn't be the blogosphere, not to mention that quite a few partisans would still think we are treating their candidate unfairly anyway.
Welcome to the living, open world of the political blogosphere. Keep posting comments and diaries. Engage in the process. Engage in the conversation. Just stop thinking we are just an online version of traditional, established media, and that canards such as equal time and objectivity should apply in the same manner here as they do elsewhere.
In fact, overall, the only points where we are in disagreement on all of these principles that is not directly connected to our lack of pretense toward "objectivity," is whether or not we should ask subjects of our posts for comments and responses before making a given post. And, in the end, I think that means that the only places where friction actually occurs is when people fail to appreciate the interactivity of the blogosphere, and consider blog posts to be the equivalent of articles published in newspapers or magazines. The notion that it is somehow a violation of trust and responsibility to not have all of one's facts sorted out, and all comments from all sources already prepared before the initial publication of a blog post fails to appreciate that a blog post is an ongoing process. Comments are added at the end of blog posts. Posts themselves are frequently edited and updates. Often, blog posts are made in response to other posts, and a discussion ensues. Unlike articles in other mediums, which are fixed to a far greater extent, a blog post is a living, evolving, entity. If all comments, edits, responses and updates to a blog post where published simultaneously with the original post, the blogosphere would be a profoundly static and lifeless place.This passage seems increasingly relevant to me the further along we move in the 2008 campaign. Basically, I am frequently stunned at how many readers of "short head" progressive blogs seem to demand complete neutrality on the 2008 Presidential race from "short head" bloggers. Further, I am stunned by how many people who are internet savvy enough to read progressive blogs on a regular basis consider front page posts on blogs like MyDD to be the equivalent of television segments or newspaper columns. There seems to be a strange notion that that the progressive blogosphere must somehow be "fair and balanced" on the 2008 campaign, and that we should simply report, while our readers make up their minds based on that reporting. This seems to be the instigating sentiment behind the diary currently on the top of the recommended list, for example.
Blog posts are alive in ways that posts in other mediums simply are not, and that should be taken into account when in an discussion of blogger ethics, responsibility, or accountability. The only reason you should be mad at a blogger for posting inaccurate information is if that person refuses to correct him or herself once evidence demonstrates s/he is wrong, or if that person did not even try to figure out the facts before publication. The only reason you should be mad at a blogger for not seeking a response from the subject of a post before publication is if that blogger refuses to listen to any comments or responses after the post has already been made. Those are two critical aspects of traditional journalistic standards that are simply handled in more interactive, open process ways in the blogosphere than they are in other mediums. And if certain wags refuse to recognize this, or if they refuse to cut bloggers slack in this regard considering the enormous pressures many of us are under to create new content, then they are either forgetful, or simply unaware of, the way the medium works. Or, they are just being jerks.
These demands are hogwash. Compared to other medias, front-page blog posts are living documents, and should be treated as such. Further, bloggers are not just reporters, but rather active participants in progressive politics. We have no obligation to provide equal time and non-editorialized coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign. Even if we did approach the campaign in that fashion, it would lessen the blogosphere as a medium. Blog posts are the start of conversations, the start of investigations, and are not outside the political process in any way. We are part of an ongoing process, not an end result simply reflecting on that process. If you want us to follow candidates on the campaign trail with embedded reporters who stenograph press releases and statements from campaign spokespeople, then you are not appreciating one of the most important distinctions between the blogosphere and other medias. Of course we editorialize. Of course we make posts without contacting every campaign on which we are writing. Of course we pose unanswered questions in our writing if the research required to answer those questions would take several hours or even several days. This is all acceptable because we are not making our proclamations from the top of a mountain and then engraving those writings in stone tablets. We are taking part in an interactive, ongoing and transparent political thought process. And if you are reading this blog, so are you.
Those who demand objectivity and a lack of editorializing might also want to question why they think negative posts about their favorite candidate are supposedly damaging to their candidate. Do they think that most readers of MyDD are a bunch or rubes who will simply believe whatever Matt and I tell them to believe? Do you think they are incapable of processing viewpoints contrary to their own? Do they think people who come to MyDD are looking for the same type of information they would find in the New York Times or on CNN? Editorializing, taking an active role in Democratic politics, and instigating conversations are all main functions of the progressive blogosphere. In fact, they have always been more primary to the role of the Democratic blogosphere than reporting has been. People who come to blogs know this. Do the people who complain about how their favorite candidate is covered on a given blog know this?
Every campaign and every registered user of MyDD has the right to respond to every post made on MyDD. That is how "equal time" is generated on large community blogs. If it was instead created by making sure we called every campaign for a comment about every blog post we were going to make about that campaign, and / or by never editorializing on any campaign, then the blogosphere would be an extremely staid, boring, and infrequently updated place. Of course we should be fair to candidates, but we do so by putting our opinions out in the open, by holding public conversations, and by updating our thoughts as we go. If we acted in any other fashion, then we just wouldn't be the blogosphere, not to mention that quite a few partisans would still think we are treating their candidate unfairly anyway.
Welcome to the living, open world of the political blogosphere. Keep posting comments and diaries. Engage in the process. Engage in the conversation. Just stop thinking we are just an online version of traditional, established media, and that canards such as equal time and objectivity should apply in the same manner here as they do elsewhere.
Tags: Blogosphere, Media, President 2008 (all tags)
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