A tale of two tales

Posted at 3:56 PM on September 22, 2006 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)

You know, there's two stories going on regarding the TV ad...ummm...gate and the decision of the Kennedy camp to close the shutters and shield the kids.

There's the one in the mainstream media, which is.... pretty well reserved and not very "technical." (Go ahead, try to explain what "commenting out" items on a page means vs. "taking the site down") and relatively sedate.

And then there's the one on the blogs which is, to my way of thinking, much more entertaining. Maybe it's just that it's OK in the blogosphere to even have a personality that makes it so fascinating.

Not much more for me to weigh in on on this mess. Heck, I'm too busy watching the pies go back and forth.

But the best post of the day -- and not because he doesn't like liberals -- comes from the blog, Kool Aid Report. "Welcome to the Blogosphere, Distinguished Members of the Media!"

I often wonder when the wagons get circled during these times whether anyone who's not a blogger is watching?

Oh, by the way, I just finished the Senate poll numbers that will be released Monday morning. If anyone wants to know how to protect a Web site so data like that can't be culled, let me know. Sounds like a growth industry.

Kennedy's site hasn't really been locked down. And that's causing another pie fight.

This is all Al Gore's fault.

Comments (8)

Yes, it is fascinating, at least from a legal and theoretical standpoint. Aside from the ethics, there are interesting questions about the legality of things that happen on the web; at least I find them interesting to think about.

Posted by MN Politics Guru | September 22, 2006 6:02 PM

I'm starting to think maybe we shouldn't be looking to Washington for clarification of legal matters online. It kinda seems like they don't really understand... you know... it being magic and all.

Posted by Bob Collins | September 22, 2006 6:04 PM

Once again, Al Gore never claimed to have invented the internet.

Posted by Pat Smith | September 22, 2006 10:32 PM

You don't accept html tags, so here's the link by itself:

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

Posted by Pat Smith | September 22, 2006 10:33 PM

The internets are a series of tubes and we should welcome any input by people who recognize it as such. We're sure Ted Stevens spends plenty of time on the internets.

cp

Posted by Mr. Sponge | September 23, 2006 9:57 AM

Gore didn't claim to have invented the Internet, but he was certainly there when it was invented. Back in the early 1990's when Minnesota's own Internet Gopher was helping get the Internet started, it was Al Gore who came to this state and met with its developers.

But the facts never matter to the right-wing propaganda artists - all that's important is having a catchy soundbite and a sharp-edged meme with which to attack the opposition.

Posted by Albatross | September 23, 2006 5:07 PM

When you wonder if anyone cares, well, yes they do Bob. When an attack blog like Brodkorb's gets someone like you or Eric Black or Tim Nelson to "look" and comment, Brodkorb's attack post gets sanitized somewhat, and becomes easier for non-blog major media to pick up, even though they might reluctant to run with something from Brodkorb otherwise.

It's called getting played, and when you take these items without providing links or real time commentary to clearly establish context, you're sanitizing raw political attacks for wider consumption.

Bob, I'm a crank. A crank who swears a lot. Nothing gets laundered through my blog. Any investigation into my bona fides would just make it even more clear that I am an opinionated crank outside the Minnesota political mainstream.

That's not true of Brodkorb. He is a past paid functionary for the Minnesota Republican party, he is a paid consultant to Weber Johnson, a PR firm doing work for Republican candidates, he is a paid consultant to the Mark Kennedy campaign (and quite well paid at that) and he chairs various Republican committees and campaign groups. It is entirely reasonable to assume that not one word goes into his blog without it first being vetted by Ron Carey and Pat Shortridge. In fact it would be counter-intuitive to think anything else.

He has promised full disclosure, but has never delivered on that promise. As a former political operative (circa mid-70s to early '80s), I take it for granted that he is laundering oppo research, disinformation and rumors for the state Republican party. When Polinaut runs ANYTHING from this guy without providing that context, you are enabling a partisan attack.

I'm not saying you should do "he said / she said" posts. If you quote Brodkorb you don't have to quote MN Publius for balance, but you really should, in each and every instance, provide some hint of context, just as you would with Ron Carey or Pat Shortridge.

Michael Brodkorb isn't like other bloggers. It would probably be more appropriate, given his PR background, to call him a flogger.

Posted by Mark Gisleson | September 24, 2006 9:54 AM

Nah, I don't have any more responsibility to write stuff than you do. It's not my job to call Michael Brodkorb on the carpet for not posting his disclosure statement, nor am I under any obligation to speculate that Ron Carey is pulling his strings.

My responsibility? To write whatever I feel like writng about, which in this case is the food fight some of you have all had in the last week. At times, one might think Broadkorb is running against you or against MN Publius for some office.

That's what I described as entertaining. I'm not your referee.

There's a whole lot of ego behind a lot of the blogs in question this week and for the most part, you all chatted yourselves into the "sideshow" category. More often than not, the bloggers tried to make the issue about bloggers and not about the issue.

Shoot, there's plenty of folks that do that, why should I?

The only aspects of this week's brouhaha that are truly relevant to me this week is the machinations between Klobuchar and Kennedy.

I don't care what Heidi Frederickson thinks. I don't care what Pat Shortridge thinks. I don't care what Tara McGuinness thinks, I don't care what Ben Goldman thinks. I don't care what Brian Melendez thinks, and I can't tell you how sick I am of listening to all of them.

If there's a problem between campaigns, I want to hear about it from the candidates.

Wake me when they come out of their bunkers.

Posted by Bob Collins | September 24, 2006 1:50 PM

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