“What kind of alliance are we?”

Last night after work, I approved a comment by liberalamerican. It contained some things I wanted to address–at very least, the question I used as a title to this post. And then I couldn’t find the comment to respond to it. One of the many reasons this can be a slow process. Turns out it was a response to “About“, and I hadn’t actually written anything in that section yet. The default WordPress blurb is the only thing there.

So, here I sit, determined to actually write something in complete sentences about the raison d’etre of this blog. I’ve closed the door to the study so that I can try to tune out whatever pointless fight the kids might be getting into. I’ve shut one of the dogs in here with me so that I don’t have to worry about her getting into the trash while I’m working. And I’m trying to tune out whatever power tool the neighbor is using right outside my window. White noise, Renee. Just let it by meaningless “white noise”. So, these are a few of the challenges in trying to move forward with a project like this when blogging is not your day job. Below the jump, I’ll try to address some of liberalamerican’s points and questions the best I can.

You are to be applauded for putting this effort together and in such a short time. I look forward to seeing this project move forward. Please let me know what I can do to help.

Thanks. Hopefully I can start to make it clearer how you, or any interested party, can help as this post progresses.

One idea, I have been trying to get political blogs to agree to a code of ethics, sort of like (dare I mention them) the press has (and yes, they violate them sometimes). I am not sure what should be in it that would allow freedom of thought and expression, but maybe that should be the first principle. I am also thinking about things such as reciprocity (everyone on your list should be listing everyone else), more use of trackbacks and links to one another, what is a proper source, etc.

I think that’s a worthy topic for exploration, and certainly invite you to write more about that. I’m aware of having seen it discussed in the past, but I don’t know how productive it’s been. I definitely agree that mutual linking is a big issue, but obviously, as the whole blogroll amnesty day thing illustrated.

Right now the Big Dogs only credibility with the press is that they are Big Dogs. That and the mainstream press’ general laziness about looking for other sources means that when they need someone to talk about what is going on in blogdom they turn to kos, etc.

But there is a second way to credibility at that is by becoming known as a place/group that has a commitment to principles.

In Strange Death I wrote about the potential for the Republican Radical Right to really harness the Net for all kinds of nastiness. The example I used was the doctored photo of John Kerry and Jane Fonda. I believe in the coming campaign, given the new technologies such as YouTube we will see even more of that. Media Matters and some of the sites that are part of this alliance have already done a good job exposing some of this BS, but we need to commit to continue to expose it and not use it ourselves.

I’ve always appreciated what Media Matters has to offer. Was a bit taken aback, though, to learn that Duncan Black, aka Atrios, writes for them and has been named a senior fellow. He was the person who started the whole B.A.D. trend recently. Now, I tend to be someone who dislikes the simplistic, binary way of looking at the world, dividing it into us vs. them, “you’re with us or against us”, etc. So I don’t have a problem telling myself, “Okay, he’s kind of a jerk about some things, but he also contributes something of value”–as far as exposing the tactics you mention above.

And I’ll confess that I know little enough about Media Matters, how it works, and what sites are in alliance with them, that I’m hesitant to say much. Just that it gave me pause to learn that someone who is such a defender of a “caste system” in the blogosphere is a senior fellow.

I would suggest at some point you might want to print up and issue and press release and paper the mainstream media with it announcing the formation of this alliance and the reasons for it.

Worth considering. As hard as it has been to find time to write even these thoughts, “some point” is likely to be pretty far in the distance.

Also at some point what kind of alliance are we? By that I mean is this to be a real organization or a clearing house/home base for non-Big Dog bloggers? Hell, you could even put together a 501c3 if this thing ever got into money and make it a nonprofit.

That almost makes me hyperventilate. No, not really. But my goal at its most basic level is already bigger than anything I’ve ever tried to take on before, that I can’t even allow myself to imagine a next level that would involve paperwork and legal status. Yikes. And we’re so far away from having the critical mass of interest needed for this to really take off, that I’m afraid discussion of such formal, technical matters runs the risk of throwing cold water on whatever spark may actually be there. But right now the most important thing is to have an alternative “home base” that we can work together to build. One that is really a “voice of the netroots”, and can be recognized as such.

Along time ago I published an article that coined the term “infosection” (information intersection) to describe the emerging world promised by the web. The new power bases will be infosections. This could become such an infosection for those of us on the left.Keep up the good work.

Thanks. Here are some of my basic thoughts…

To me, one of the most promising things about the internet, and blogs in particular, was that it allowed ordinary people to participate in a meaningful way in a conversation about the state of our country and our world. That can include letting people know about a story, or a side to a story, that the mainstream media has not seen fit to cover. But it can also allow us to share viewpoints that might not be represented–or might be misrepresented–in the popular press. And it even offers the possibility, if we so choose, to have a real dialog in which we not only share our own views, but really *listen* to, and try to understand each other. There is a tendency to take people out of context, cherry picking their words to tell the story we want to tell. It’s helped contribute to a world where most of us fail to grasp the complexity of the issues and hold a stereotyped view of our opponents. I think we miss a lot of opportunities to see common ground where it really does exist.

I admire people like Maryscott who have the courage to tell it like it is, from their own experience, knowing that they will most likely be attacked and misrepresented. That’s something I have a hard time with myself. I mean, it can take so long to finally put something I think is really important to say into words. If, after I finally manage to do that, someone deliberately misreads what I wrote, it makes me cranky. But worse than that, it makes me hesitate to try to say those things.

So, unfortunately, I do a fair amount of self-censoring. But even with that, I’ve seen, for example, my “Gate Crashing” for Profit post boiled down to “people are bitching about Kos making money, while at the same time complaining that he’s not helping other bloggers make money”. And somehow missing this part, which I certainly *think* should have made it clear that I care more about the “little people” having a voice than I do about the money:

But even beyond that, he’s in our f***ing way! He’s become yet *another* moneyed arbiter of what news is “fit to print”, as it were, and which voices will have a harder time being heard. And I *don’t* make a living by blogging, but somehow squeeze it in around work and family, in what I ironically refer to as my “spare time”–because it’s *that important* to me to make a positive difference.

And given the time and energy I, along with countless others, have invested in the project of taking our country back, I simply can’t stand idly by while the tools of the revolution are co-opted by would-be kings.

I rationalized posting at Daily Kos for quite some time after I realized that I really didn’t like the kind of politics he stands for. Because I felt like I was really putting myself at a disadvantage when I didn’t post there, by shutting myself off from such a large, diverse, and motivated community.

But there’s this Catch-22. It goes like this: people go to Kos, because that’s where the people are. Politicians and public figures, some of whom care about the same things we care about, post there, because it’s the “big blog” that most people have heard of. Readers and bloggers who don’t like the way the place is run, feel like they are cutting off their nose to spite their face, because they would be cutting themselves off from a form of access, limited though it may be, to these people. But if we keep posting there and linking to diaries there, we help that blog keep it’s position as the default “place to go” for Democrats, liberals, and progressives.

My hope here–and something that I clearly can only do with *lots* of help–is to create a place where we can meet, discuss, and share ideas as equals. Not as people working for one candidate or one issue and not under one blogger’s or blog community’s “brand name”. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t care if people crosspost here and somewhere else, as long as they’re not crossposting flame wars and dirty laundry.

But I, personally, would like to not *have* to crosspost everywhere, (and worry about where an issue is management-approved) just to have a prayer of being read on those days that I *do* feel like I have something important to say. And that’s another thing…how often does the average blogger really have something to say? I have a number of blogs on different topics, and some sit abandoned for long periods of time, because I just don’t have anything to say–or the time to say it–about a given issue at the moment. Or there are issues that I think are important, but really don’t know enough about to comment on. How about we grow a group of bloggers who agree to show a basic level of mutual respect, who agree to support this group effort by linking to this blog, and by coming here to post news and thoughtful commentary about issues we care passionately about?