Congress Should Not Blog

Re: http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/403

I found this article by Molly Chapman Norton extremely interesting because it describes why members of Congress have yet to fully enter the blog world. While many members of Congress take advantage of blogs in campaign season, once in office the members fear a lack of control of message development. Blog are designed to allow direct feedback from the public and the thought of having a key message torn apart on an issue on a blog is a communications manager's nightmare, along with the member.

I fully agree that the reason members of Congress have not and will not fully enter into the blog world is because that can't control or spin the messages. It is the goal of the communications director, or press secretary, to manage spin on issues. Blogs do not allow spin. If a member of Congress wishes to enter the blog world, I would suggest simply offering a public discussion board on their web site and not reply to the comments. Offer the discussion board as a forum to let people vent or communicate to the member but make sure they know that the member will not being participating on the forum.

Blogs for elected officials are risky. If I was a staff member for a member of Congress I would not recommend a blog for their web site.