| The story is beginning to hit the mainstream, so it's worth some comment from my little corner of the blogosphere.
For background, here's the deal: the DNC is doing an unprecedented thing with this year's national convention by credentialing state bloggers to be on the floor of the convention hall, embedded with their state's delegations. This is a great thing. However, it now appears that several influential blogs -- Michigan Liberal, Blue Jersey, and several other top-notch blogs among them -- were passed over in favor of other blogs that are either non-partisan or simply unwilling to criticize Democrats for fear of blacklisting. This, despite the DNC's application process that indicated statistics -- Technorati rank, traffic figures, commitment to activism for Democrats, etc -- were the major factors in the credential choices.
As more details came out, it then came to light that in several cases, the state party units were the ones who had ultimate veto power over the decisions, or made the decisions themselves with a list of applications handed over by the DNC. This is inappropriate, and requires quick action to ensure that deserving bloggers are where they should be -- embedded with their states' delegations.
In the case of Minnesota, I didn't apply. I was going to, then I found out that my wife and I would be having a baby sometime around the third week in August. Life gets in the way, and that's okay. I'll watch from here. I was contacted by the DFL recently to ask why I hadn't applied, so I know that the party did have prior knowledge of the applicant pool, but I know little else: after all this broke, I contacted the DFL again to ask how this all played out, and have not heard back.
Would I have gotten the cred had I applied? Gosh, I hope so. Did the DFL make the right choice given that I didn't? In ensuring that Minnesota Monitor got the cred, the answer is yes. The DFL has done correctly what its counterparts in several other states have failed to do: recognize that a blog that has the capacity and willingness to criticize Democratic leaders when they screw up is vastly more useful than one that serves as a bullhorn for press releases. MinMon's status as a news site rather than an activism site notwithstanding, helping elect Democrats to office is good; helping elect good Democrats and holding those good Democrats to high standards is better.
As for the DFL not getting back to me....it's not the first time, nor will it be the last. That's fine; I know they're busy and are down a player with the impending departure of Kelly Schwinghammer from their staff ranks. My bet is that they're still going to get back to me more often than Norm Coleman's or Erik Paulsen's campaigns do. But I'm hoping that I can enlist the support of party leaders here in Minnesota to pressure their counterparts around the country to do the right thing right now to ensure their states' best and brightest bloggers are where they should be in Denver -- on the floor with their delegations. |
