We matter! We really, really matter!

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you,
then you win." --Mahatma Gandhi

Bloggers are finally gaining a bit of recognition from the old media. Turns out that all that harping they did about us lowering the tone was misplaced - yeah, we can be a foul-mouthed and impatient lot - but haven't you been paying attention the last seven fucking years??? Those words we've been tossing around evolved in the language for a god-damned reason, and they are appropriate at this point in time.

If you can't use profanity to describe an obscenity, when the fuck can you use it?

[Keep reading...]

Well, while we were "coarsening the tone," it turns out we were raising the bar. No we are not a particularly congenial crowd. But there is a reason for that...we are fed up. A whole bunch of us who grew up with Uncle Walter have never seen one minute of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. I am one of them. (Here's a bit of irony for you - I actively boycott their nightly news, but they have linked my analysis and my original reporting on white papers.)

Anyway - there are a lot of us doing some serious work and research. At least once a month I write something that pulls together multiple sources on a topic - not just the media reports but the documents the media reports are based on. I frequently write posts based on GAO reports or white papers. And gee - what blog was it that waded into the Libby case and got those pre-sentencing letters supporting that traitor released?

Christy Hardin Smith at Firedoglake (the blog that, by the way, did a kick-ass job of live-blogging the Libby trial and countering the two-minutes of spin it got on the evening news, summed it up nicely:

How about going out there and doing the jobs that the Fourth Estate used to do well — digging into the substance, the facts, the original sources on speeches and actions and legislation and such and doing some down and dirty real world comparisons on actions speaking louder than words? Now THAT would be something worth paying attention to — and it would be useful for all of us, wouldn’t it?

I could not agree more!

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WTWC and Citizen Journalism

At first glance Watching Those We Chose looks like a lot of other political blogs. We have a bunch of good writers (and me.) Every day we churn out new and different takes on topics we find interesting. Like nearly all the other blogs, many of our posts report information we have gleaned from other blogs or from a limited number of regular news organizations. We work hard to give those sources attribution. You will see lots of links to the AP, McClatchy, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. We also cite the original work of Talking Points Memo, Raw Story and other on-line sites.

What might not be apparent is the commitment WTWC has made to citizen journalism. A couple of weeks ago Blue Girl and bmaz filed their amicus brief in the Scooter Libby case. They wanted to see the original letters. Blue Girl has been cultivating sources in Washington and other places. I have contacted several congressional committees and foundations for information. Slowly, but surely, we are learning the skills needed for original reporting.

There is a reason most blogs merely provide an op-ed voice. Opinion writing is fun. Original reporting is hard. It is time consuming. It takes a certain courage to call a source and ask what's going on. You need patience to watch a congressional committee hearing.

There is a reason why most newspapers and television news shows are little more than advertising and editorials wrapped around reprints of AP or network news stories. Original reporting is expensive. Over the years most newspapers and television stations have dramatically reduced their original reporting, choosing instead to rely on services like the AP. The few remaining news organizations generating their own original reporting are large corporations.

We have all suffered the effects of media retrenchment and consolidation. It is much easier for politicians to control the message when they only have shield the truth from a limited number of eyes, especially eyes naturally shaded by a corporate viewpoint.

One of the major advantages of the media organizations like the AP and New York Times is that Congress and its related the research facilities are in Washington. Until now Congress has done little to make information available to ordinary citizens in anything like a timely manner.

That is changing. Recently I posted on theopenhouseproject.com, a bipartisan organization dedicated to making congressional information available to bloggers like me. After posting, I joined. One of the benefits of membership is that I am now a beta tester of something called. LOUIS --the Library of Unified Information Sources. LOUIS is a project of the Sunlight Foundation, which also sponsors theopenhouseproject.com. According to Gabriela Schneider, The Sunlight Foundations' Communications Director.

"LOUIS makes it easy to search from a collection of over 300,000 documents from seven sets of federal documents dating back to 2001:the Congressional Record, congressional bills and resolutions, congressional reports, congressional hearings, GAO reports, presidential documents and the Federal Register. LOUIS, which updates its document depository daily, even allows you to set up a "standing query" as an RSS feed, to get alerts every time Congress or the executive branch takes action that references the subject of the initial query.

"In addition, LOUIS delivers these federal documents in an electronic, printable, text format for easier use. LOUIS also lets you access all the pages of a debate in the Congressional Record printer-friendly Web page.

"We've also made available the LOUIS API -- Web access methods that any computer programmer can use to build their own application using the database and the computer code that powers LOUIS."

You can reach the Sunlight Foundation at www.sunlightfoundation.com. Send Gabriela an email. I am sure she would love to hear from citizen journalists across the country.

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Are we journalists? We strive to be.

While everyone frets over whether or not bloggers are journalists, I know that my Republican Senator’s staff regards our enterprise here as such.

Today Senator Kit Bond’s office sent a letter to his colleagues asking them to add their signatures to another letter, this one to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, demanding that the issue of the 5-13 discharge be investigated and obvious abuses set right. (apologies to the senators office. I had problems with the .pdf and the google docs are not nearly as pretty.)

The abuse of the 5-13 Discharge is an issue because bloggers made it such (examples here and here) after a piece in The Nation, How Specialist Towne Lost His Benefits. We seized on the issue, as we had the larger mental health issues for returning GI’s and the understaffing of Vet Centers. (See here, here, here, here, here, and here). We kept bringing it up until it gained traction, even though the mainstream media largely ignored the issue, and continues to do so.

“Bloggers have helped bring the necessary scrutiny to this important issue.” Said Shana Marchio, Communications Director for Senator Kit Bond (R-MO). “Bloggers offer folks a new medium to get their information and news. Their importance in the debating and sharing of ideas should not be discounted. At the same time, the relationship between bloggers and members of Congress and their spokespeople is an evolving one. Both sides are learning who to trust and how to interact. As a part of the Fourth Estate, it is essential that professional bloggers adhere to the ethics and professional conduct standards that traditional members of the media follow as their role in information sharing continues to grow. Also, I do believe that bloggers will only be come more important in coming elections and it’s important to start a dialogue.”

This is all new territory for everyone. But I think I know why the best source I have in Washington is the Communications Director for my Republican Senator. She is 30 years old. Where blogs and the internet are concerned, she instinctively “gets” it because she grew up with technology. I may have policy disagreements with my Republican Senator – but credit where credit is due. He was smart enough to hire a young person with that innate sense for press second six years ago, and promote to communications director from within.

On the trust issue, everyone has to be prepared to get burned once or twice. But getting burned is part of the bargain when you blaze a trail. So we move forward cautiously. The importance of the free exchange of information is only going to gain in importance. As it does, the issues will work themselves out.

Bloggers do not have the immediate access that reporters working the Washington bureaus have, nor do we have the resources to do a lot of original reporting. All we really have are our wits and our words...and our word. Because that is the irrefutable dynamic, the blogs represent a truly new, and meretricious, form of media, and we will earn exactly the amount of credibility and respect that we deserve.

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The Bush Administration Doesn't Think Blue Girl, Josh Marshall, and Kevin Drum Are Journalists

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing today examining the Free Flow of Information Act Of 2007. You can view the video webcast and copies of the witnesses prepared testimony here.

The bill is intended to create a Federal shield allowing journalists to protect their sources. The proposed legislation includes several exceptions applying equally to all journalists. To invoke any of the exceptions the government would be required to petition a Federal court.

While the Justice Department has never favored a shield law, the administration's most strongly held objections to this bill are aimed at its definition of "journalism." As proposed

The term "journalism" means the gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting, or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national, or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public.

Obviously, the proposed definition is broad enough to include the work of bloggers. If the bill is enacted it will treat the reporting of Judith Miller and Blue Girl just alike. Josh Marshall and the New York Times will benefit equally. The posts or editorials Kevin Drum and William Safire will be entitled to exactly the same protections.

According to c\net the mere idea that bloggers might be entitled to protection as journalists has reduced the administration to a quivering state of apoplexy.

Rachel Brand, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy, testified that "The definition is just so broad that it really includes anyone who wants to post something to the Web."

The administration's argument didn't fall on deaf ears. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) said, "I'd say anyone who didn't want to face legal action would immediately try to put up a blog and try to get journalistic protection."

The best defense of both the bill and bloggers came from William Safire. The long time New York Times columnist likes the definition's focus on the activity of journalism rather than the journalist's employer or paycheck. He testified that

Whether you're a blogger or whether you're The New York Times or CBS or The Wall Street Journal, if what you are doing is aimed at informing the public, then you're a journalist, whether you get paid for it or not.

The bill's sponsors have indicated that they want to pass the bill this session. We will follow it's progress, and especially whether the administration is able to deny bloggers engaged in journalism the bill's protection. Anybody know Brad Sherman. If so send him an email and tell him to join the 21st Century.

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