Thursday, October 22, 2009
Phillips / Politics Blogger Controversy in Memphis Reverberates Across the State
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 7:45 AM
Trace Sharp was just as angry.
His nomination to the Charter Commission in Memphis was a great thing. A progressive blogger who doesn't go after people with pitchforks, who backs up his arguments with hard stats that he is diligent to make sure are accurate. And he can remember everything politically after many of us have gone on to something else. This is not a defeat, quite frankly, because someone with sense is going to see his value and he's going to get a bigger and better gig in the future.
What completely infuriates me is that Joe Brown, and others, just don't get that Steve Ross is not just a "blogger." He's a businessman who is participating in the state of his city. His traffic, according to him, is basically comprised a great deal of community leaders reading his research (stuff they could have done themselves quite frankly).
So when Brown decides to say the word blogger as a slur, it pisses me off.
Why did this resonate so much with bloggers across the state? Sure, it's in part because Ross is a great guy who knows his stuff and who is widely respected. And yes, in part, it's because whenever anyone throws a bizarre fit of pique like Brown's, people are going to take sides over it.
But it's also because what happened to Ross is not unique for bloggers. It may have played out in a more spectacular fashion for him, but it plays out for us all--being told over and over in many different ways that we are unwelcome interlopers. We don't do things how they're "supposed" to be done, so it seems people in power would rather we not do it at all.
I asked Ross what he thinks the deal with politicians and bloggers is.
Ross says:
First, I don't think ALL politicians have a problem with bloggers. The ones that do, seem to be from a school of thought that ALL MEDIA is bad, unless it meets some purpose that suits them politically. When you throw the wild and woolly "blogosphere" into the mix, all of the sudden they don't have an editor that they can call and complain to. They don't have a corporation that they can rail against, it's you vs. them, and while it may be convenient to do so, many are reluctant to point out any one blogger individually for fear of giving them MORE CREDIBILITY, so most of the time they just complain about "the blogs."Ultimately, to my way of thinking, "the blogs" are another check on the power of politicians, the way newspapers once were before local coverage began a serious decline back in the days of the newspaper wars of the 80's. As more people engage in this new media, either by reading, or joining the fray, I think we'll see more attacks like this, until politicians learn to operate in a more open and communicative fashion.This is the new normal.
To me, it seems like just when you're at a point where you kind of believe your enthusiasm and passion are not going to be held against you, some politician uses the fact that your friend is a blogger against him in order to deny him a chance to serve his community.
And even if it happened this time in Memphis, that hits close to home.
Comments (1)
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Preach it, sister.
And I desperately love Steve's "This is the new normal". Preach it too, brother.
These politicians and other "affected" folks who've got themselves stuck back in 2002-2004 better wake up and join us in 2009-2010, or they're liable to find themselves out of jobs/offices/appointments simply due to the fact the train of "Now" left them behind in the station with "Past" and "Old-Fashioned".
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