Blogjam

Woo-hoo! The mainstream media and the Liberal party leadership contendahs discover blogs. First, the Star's Susan Delacourt had this on Saturday:

The Liberal leadership race, like no other political contest before it, is being waged in the "blogosphere" — the rollicking, unpredictable world of online diarists and self-made political pundits.

Would-be Liberal leaders are seeking interviews with bloggers; there are blog endorsements, campaign blogs and bloggers who are doing double duty as leadership organizers.

The development signals several important political shifts: the rising credibility of the online dialogues, the parties' increasing use of the Internet, as well as the need for this Liberal race to be waged in creative new ways because of limited money and a large field of candidates.

The bloggers haven't replaced the mainstream media — or MSM as it's called on the blogs — but they are gaining a currency in the political market that they haven't had to date.

Today, the Globe and Mail's Campbell Clark weighs in with this:

Should dissident Liberals start a new party if Joe Volpe wins the leadership? Should Ottawa impose a carbon tax? Are Scott Brison and Homer Simpson's neighbour, Ned Flanders, twins separated at birth? These are some of the questions floating through the Liberal blogosphere.

But many of the 11 Liberal leadership campaigns have their own question about the legion of Internet blogs dealing with party matters: Can they win delegates there?

The exploding phenomenon of individuals creating weblogs, more commonly called blogs, has echoed in Liberal Party politics. There are more than 150 blogs devoted in whole or part to things Liberal, about 50 of them updated regularly.

Among the blogs named are, of course, Cerberus, Calgary Grit and Jason Cherniak, the biggest and best -- in my book, anyway -- Liberal bloggers. There are more Liberal bloggers here.

As for the candidates, only two of them -- Dr. Carolyn Bennett and Ken Dryden -- have blogs on their campaign websites.

The revolution has yet to be blogged.

Comments

[Jiminy C]

AND for some of the leadership candidates who have been been passed over yea - these mny months by the MSM until........WOW - all of a sudden Martha Hall-Findlay's name is not preceded by "....AND lawyer Martha Hall-Findley" but rather.....pursued by Editorial page writers (all surprisingly of the female persuasion) - she is now the toast of the town.

Now - since BLOGGERS are in vogue politically - and even winsome Warren paid the lady her dues this weekend.....who is left that hasn't commented yet......AHEM!!!! Wouldn't want to really nag now....

[Dr.Dawg]

The revolution has yet to be blogged.

Ah, nostalgia. Thanks for that! :)

[Lloyd Fister]

"The Revolution does not need bloggers." -- V.I. Lenin

[Big G]

Although I'm a big proponent of the web, blogs/internet DO NOT win delegates.

The more money and volunteers you have on the ground, the more members you sign up.

The internet/blogs only reinforce already entrenched ideals, the people going to blogs are going there because they agree with the "ideology/bias" of it.
Even the most sophisticated blog visitor knows what axe each bloggers has to grind.

The well known bloggers who brag about hits etc are only preaching to the converted and the main reason why blogging is not their day job.

The only thing that can help or hurt a politico is MSM. ie. the Martha fawning in the Star this past Sunday.

[Todd]

>snicker!<

Find that one at Lenin's Tomb . . . ?

[PhantomObserver]

Have you noticed, buried within the Campbell Clark story, the one leadership candidate who *isn't* interested in courting them?

Prediction: if Joe Volpe fails to get past the first ballot, the MSM will attribute it to the blogosphere.

[Elvid]

Probably attribute it more to

www.youthforvolpe.ca

which still is funny after repeated viewings.

[BCer in Toronto]

While Joe's attitude towards blogs is unhelpful, I think his problems run far deeper.

[BBS]

Hall-Findlay, Ignatieff, Fry and Bevilacqua all have a blog on their sites. There may be some debate as to whether or not some of them are actually blogs due to lack of permalinks, but they are at least identified as blogs on their sites.

[Scoop]

Considering the media accreditation issues us bloggers in Collingwood are dealing with this week, I found it kind of ironic to read how the candidates are making themselves available to the non-traditional media...

[Mark Federman]

I'm recalling the post "Revolution is NOT an AOL Keyword" from a few years ago on BoingBoing: http://www.boingboing.net/2003/03/20/revolution_is_not_an.html

[Antonia Z.]

Brilliant. Thanks!

[Canadian Politics : Centrerion]

Elizabeth May (new green leader) had one during her campaign. She was also kind enough to grant me an interview for mine:
http://centrerion.blogspot.com/2006/06/elizabeth-may-interview-part-3.html
You may also care to note Paul Martin's speechwriter had a (very funny) blog during the winter campaign.

Lastly, I interviewed Jason Cherniak here:
http://centrerion.blogspot.com/2006/08/jason-cherniak-canadian-political.html