Since the end of the 2006 elections, I have experienced a decided increase in emails and telephone calls from distressed, or even angry, staff members of Democratic and progressive organizations / campaigns calling to complain to me about a blog post of mine. These contacts have come from a wide variety of campaigns and groups within the progressive ecosystem, and invariably the complaint is the same: you should have talked with us / me before publishing that article. Mind you, I have pretty much always received these complaints since I start full-time blogging more than three years ago, but over the past six months I have been surprised by their frequency.
Now, I understand why I am receiving these calls and emails. While I am never openly hostile, (or, at least I don’t think I am openly hostile) it must be incredibly frustrating to see something negative written about the progress or operation of your campaign / organization by a fellow progressive, especially when it seems like you do not have a chance to respond to the criticisms. The progressive blogosphere is populated mainly by activists and news junkies who also tend to be members of progressive organizations, not to mention volunteers / donors to Democratic campaigns. As such, there are potentially negative consequence for your progressive campaign / organization if a negative message about the progress or effectiveness or operation is spread across the progressive blogosphere. If your potential activist and donor pool develops a more negative opinion of your campaign or organization, that obviously is not a positive development for your campaign or organization. Further, when one considers that it is established media protocol to give campaigns or organizations a chance to comment on any story in which they are featured, that blogosphere-based criticisms of progressive campaigns and organizations often come from people outside of the organization in question, and that there is a general sense that the progressive blogosphere is “on the same side” of the organization in question, blog posts with a critical slant on any campaign or organization probably seem both unfair and unhelpful.
However, that is not the only side to the story. From the perspective of a blogger, especially an independent blogger such as myself with no official ties to established progressive institutions, it takes a long time to receive a response from any campaign you are writing about. Simply put, like most other bloggers, I am pretty low on the list of priorities for large campaigns and organizations. Whenever I have put in media queries to campaigns or organizations, responses typically take at least 24 hours, and sometimes up to a week or more. Given that most good blog posts take at least two hours to write, that full-time bloggers really should be producing about 10,000 – 15,000 words a week in order to stay relevant to their readers, and that full-time bloggers are basically running small business that generate little income, the length of time required to receive a response, not to mention the amount of work required to generated a response, is virtually untenable. In fact, it often seems as though a more timely response is produced if we publish the critical article first, thus creating a more pressing need for the campaign or organization to provide a response than they otherwise would to an independent outlet that is low in the both media and progressive food chain. Further, most of the time when we do receive a response, it is not in the tone of voice that blog readers have come to expect. Responses tend toward cautious and indirect, often reading more like press releases then the raw, authentic, unfiltered and honest discourse common to this medium. So, not only does it take a long time to receive a response, not only does posting the critical article without asking for a comment beforehand seem to produce results with greater alacrity, but often the responses we do receive are unsatisfying.
And so, we arrive at an impasse. The problem basically seems to be that the two groups involved, independent progressive media / activists on the one hand, and institutional progressive organizations / campaigns on the other, communicate in different, and perhaps incompatible, ways. It isn’t helpful to me to spend days waiting around for milquetoast answers to my questions, just as it isn’t helpful to them to not have a chance to respond to criticisms that will potentially be read by significant segments of their potential activist base. However, established progressive institutions can not simply adopt a raw, unfiltered, rapid response tone of voice to talk to the blogosphere as long as other, more widely read media still operates in a “gotcha” mentality. At the same time, the progressive blogosphere cannot simply become a replication of staid, established media, because then we would serve no purpose whatsoever. Why would anyone read a blog that is simply trying to replicate what the New York Times already offers? We need to be honest in our thoughts, we need to maintain independence, and we need to publish quickly despite our lack of institutional support.
If someone can figure out a way for the progressive blogosphere and established progressive institutions to better communicate with each other, I would like to hear it. To date, apart from publications like Think Progress, I have seen virtually no effective examples. However, a blog like Think Progress does not come cheap, and probably costs at least $150,000 a year to produce. That is the sort of money that very few independent bloggers have to spend, and which very few established progressive institutions are wiling to invest in order to make a regular connection with the progressive blogosphere. Here at Open Left, we are experimenting with a Right To Respond feature that we hoped would help solve the problem, but thus far has still clearly caused tension. Personally, I worry that there might not be a solution, unless the progressive blogosphere finds a more sustainable revenue model that allows us to engage in media operations that follow traditional protocols while still producing fresh, unfiltered content at a rapid pace. Further, any solution will probably also require more established institutions start spending even more resources to build regular, meaningful connections with the progressive blogosphere. The fact is, that for all of the positive contributions pretty much everyone in the progressive ecosystem recognizes the progressive blogosphere has made to the progressive cause, there is a general perception that we should simply slot ourselves into the low-end of established relationship and power hierarchies. We should cheerlead from the outside, and take orders from above. Maybe that sounds like whining, and maybe it is just whining, but when I am told I am not being helpful to the cause while simultaneously struggling to find ways to pay for health insurance, it just doesn’t feel all that fair, open or progressive to me. I want to find better ways to connect, but it simply won’t happen if, in order to avoid their wrath, I have to wait for the approval of larger progressive institutions before I publish anything online.
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