July 27, 2004

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Who gives a flying...

The Democrats are having their political convention in Boston. The main point of this seems to be to provide set-piece speeches for various worthies while the media can spend a week not having to think about their programming. And it drags on until Thursday.

But this year there's a twist. You see the Democrats invited some bloggers. Quite a few, actually. Finally blogging gets its moment in the sun. And you'll have to forgive me but so far it has been a disappointment. There's plenty of coverage: try the NYT, WSJ or Washington Post for two examples. There are three different aggregators, combining all the bloggers at the convention: Feedster, Technorati and ConventionBloggers.

It seems, at least at the moment, bloggers are so enjoying spotlight being shined upon themselves they are in danger of being co-opted by the traditional media they should instead be watching. And in the meantime important stuff they should be on top of is slipping under the radar. It seems that a lot of attention from people such as Glenn (who has a slightly sceptical tone in his article on MSNBC), Dan Drezner and many others are so focussed on bloggers at the convention that the main point is missing: nothing is actually happening in Boston. Bits of gossip, saying you met such-and-such blogger, or details of convention and blogger logistics are frankly uninteresting in the extreme.

So far it has been a poor start for bloggers at the convention. It can either get better or fade away into insignificance. I hope it's the former but fear it will be the latter.

UPDATE: Even from Boston it seems Tim Blair is keeping up his Margo-watch. She has a ham-fisted and not easily followed explanation and has offered a half-arsed apology. It's not convincing and she deserves the worst possible sanction for this idiotic statement. Except the SMH employs her to stir the pot so the chances of action being taken are extremely low.

UPDATE 2: Back to this convention. If you want real, solid coverage of the important events at the convention, check out Jeff's updates here, here, here and here, not to mention here. It's all fair and balanced.

posted by Simon on 07.27.04 at 11:05 AM in the




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DNC Nihilism
Excerpt: I feel nothing. Not interest. Not boredom. Not even contempt. Nothing.
Weblog: mypetjawa v. 2.0 (beta)
Tracked: July 28, 2004 12:05 AM


Beaten to the Punch
Excerpt: Beware! This blog is controlled by a fundamentalist Zionist lobby, NOT!I was following a link from Simon World: Who gives a flying... to Tim Blair: Statement of Fact where Tim was giving Margo (from the SMH) a bit of a well deserved serve. Apparently M...
Weblog: G'day Mate!
Tracked: July 28, 2004 09:03 AM


Comments:

Did you just see Clinton's speech. Something's happening there, I promise.

posted by: richard on 07.27.04 at 12:24 PM [permalink]

I would like to make it known that I'm interviewing the associate editor of the Washington Post, Robert Kaiser, and Pulitzer prize-winning photographer, Lucian Perkins, for the Living On the Planet blogs and my blog and I am specifically addressing issues important to bloggers. Let me know if you have a question or two I might be able to fit into my blogging interview.

Robert Kaiser, by the way, is the guy who is "blogging" the convention for the Washington Post on something called "The Convention Diary."

posted by: hk on 07.27.04 at 04:32 PM [permalink]

At least journalists get paid to attend these snooze fests. Bloggers are doing it for free?!? Jesus, some people need to get a fecking life.

posted by: Conrad on 07.27.04 at 08:51 PM [permalink]




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