Politicians are falling all over
themselves this fall to organize the blogosphere.
They’re opening
their own blogs, they’re inviting bloggers for sit-downs,
and they’re trying to stay in touch.
Don’t overdo it.
I don’t care to read the same thing
over-and-over-and-over again. I don’t know if this is just a mistake
that the Right is making, or whether conservative bloggers just want
desperately to be led, and told what to think.
Either way, we’re seeing a lot more of
this kind of stupidity. Take the case of Art Pope (above), a right-wing
businessman (Variety Stores) with a Fuehrer complex who wants to run North Carolina, badly.
He’s got his own personal think tank (called the John Locke
Foundation — 17th century thinkers can’t sue for name
theft), he has managed purges of local Republicans who dare to even
sit down with Democrats, and now he’s trying to take over the state’s
bloggers.
Next month, for instance, bloggers
throughout the region will gather in Greensboro for a festival called
ConvergeSouth.
It’s mainly technical stuff, but among the speakers will be Elizabeth
Edwards (wife of John) and Robert Scoble. Both are accused of being
liberals.
So what’s Pope doing? He’s inviting
conservative bloggers into the same city a week later for what he
calls FreedomNet.
To make sure he gets the right crowd, his “keynote speaker” is
one of the people behind the Powerline blog.
But there’s an important point here that needs to be made.
It’s very obvious what is going on
here, ideological indoctrination. Follow the Pope, repeat what he
says, and win power. Well, maybe a free Coke with power, which is all people like Pope think his little people deserve.
Won’t work. The whole idea of a blog is
to sustain readership and interest. That requires creativity. If
you’re just repeating what other bloggers are saying (or what some
politician is saying) you’re not being creative. You’re not going to
increase your readership. You’re going to stay in the same little
niche with all the others of your ilk.
Liberal blogs are finding success
because they offer something different, and each liberal blog offers
something different from all the others. It’s not an echo chamber.
And ideas within Left Blogistan tend to move up the chain, not down.
When Clinton met with liberal bloggers in New York last week, they
argued with him. They told him, to his face, some things he didn’t
want to hear.
Art Pope won’t accept that.
And the bloggers he’s sponsoring will
suffer as a result.
