Take It To The Blogs
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was trashing the MSM and money-hungry reporters in the Washington Post this weekend (scroll down - 3rd item). She accused the MSM of ignoring and distorting the story saying:
"If you depend on the print press, they will either leave you out of the story, or mischaracterize what you are saying, or you get two sentences in a 25-paragraph story which doesn't give weight to the argument that you have," Pelosi said to RawStory.com, a left-leaning Drudge lookalike.
The Minority Leader advocated using the blogging community to provide in-depth material to arguments like Social Security since the MSM wouldn't report the story to her satisfaction. This is a similar view to Henry Jenkins "Challenging the Consensus,"in which Jenkins says that blogs add to the dialogue rather than destroying it all together. Pelosi's motivations are deeply partisan and not entirely scholarly like Jenkins, but it is interesting to find a connection between our readings and modern politics.
To me, the interesting part of Pelosi's remarks was her comments about journalists. She says that journalists ignore the Democrat's message because they've got "orthodontics, tuition, a mortgage..." They report the Republican message because they give them "access."
If it's all about access, as Pelosi seems to claim, why doesn't she give bloggers better access?
Pelosi does not even have a blog on her official Minority Leader web site. If John Conyers can have a blog, why can't Pelosi? Arguably, she has a much more visible role in the House because of her leadership position. Having an official blog would also prove that she's serious about blog outreach and access, and not just talking.
3 Comments:
After reading the quote you cited, I can't help but think how does someone not say, "Well duhh Nancy! Welcome to the party, you figured out mainstream news!"
I also agree with you about Pelosi being a hypocrite for not giving bloggers a better direct line to her and all she is doing in Washington. Her ranting just sounds like an elitist trying to prove that she's one of the people. Well, just about how much do you think those navy blue pumps cost? I'm guessing it's about what I pay in rent each month - oh yeah, Pelosi we are two birds of the same feather...
And all this opposition from a fellow Democrat, I can't imagine what a Republican has to say about her!
I totally disagree. First of all, I had a similar quote from her that I found on a blog, (which was quoting from a newspaper article)and she wasn't theorizing that journalists don't use the Democrats' side of the story because of orthodontia, etc. She said that that's what journalists were telling her. And if she's a little behind the curve on the technology, give the woman a break! I think you guys are changing the subject. The issue at hand isn't access to blogs, it's access to the MSM. Blogs have not yet reached the same status in terms of reach. The press has a duty to inform the public about what the administration is really doing, and presidents have an obligation to be accountable to the American people through the press (not just hand-picked pseudo-journalists, such as "Jeff Gannon"). Bush is shirking that responsibility.
P.S. Here's the link to my blog entry where I discuss Pelosi's comments:
http://shadowsmews.blogspot.com/2005/06/when-do-bloggers-break-through.html
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