Normally, I would not be considered an expert in California politics. I know my way around, but there are many others who could give a similar point of view for the paper.

However, because of my blogging at Spot-on and LA Voice, the opinion editors took notice and when they were looking for a certain perspective on the issue, approached me and asked me to submit something.

The lesson here is that getting a blog and writing is a good way to establish an expertise and get noticed!

• Your blog must contain unique and interesting information about political issues, current events, opinions, etc. No spam bloggers please!!!
• U.S. citizen;
• 3.0 GPA;
• Currently attending full-time in post-secondary education; and
• If you win, you must be willing to allow us to list your name and blog on this page. We want to be able to say we knew you before you became a well educated, rich, and famous blogging legend.

I’ve never considered blogging to be academic–although many academics have been known to blog. Nontheless, this is a good opportunity to help someone pay for school, so if you know anyone, feel free to pass it along!

The Political Blogging Scholarship [SAUS]

Based on a survey of 2,562 adults after November’s midterm election, most of the study’s findings confirm the continued growth of political doings on the Internet, with 31 percent of Americans — more than 60 million people — going online to get political news and discuss the races…

Researchers found that 71 percent of respondents who used the Internet for campaign information said convenience was the major reason; 49 percent said they could find information there not available elsewhere; 41 percent said newspapers and television didn’t provide all the information they wanted.

Candidates should start thinking ahead about how to capitalize–by optimizing their website for search terms, reaching out to online information providers such as influential weblogs and becoming established players in the medium themselves.

Like some post-colonial British master bemoaning the rise of savages to self-governance, Rago (the Journal’s assistant editorial features editor) lashes out at blogs and the New Media in a condescending rant that demonstrates just how out of touch he (and the Wall Street Journal?) is.

Rago’s thesis: “The blogs are not as significant as their self-endeared curators would like to think.” I beg to differ.

His primary complaint is that blogs tend to skew more toward commentary than straight reporting (obviously the irony of an “editorial features editor” complaining about the illegitimacy of news commentary is lost of Rago). Furthermore, he laments that “a tone of careless informality” prevails in the blogosphere—a point he underscores by peppering his screed with ten dollar words like “logorrehic” that would make William F. Buckley or George Will proud! (The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks.)

Rago punctuates his divorce from reality by condemning the real-time interactivity of the New Media. He believes that “Instant response, with not even a day of delay, impairs rigor. It is also a coagulant for orthodoxies.” By contrast, Rago makes the somewhat pathetic claim that “Traditional reporting—the news—already rushes ahead at a pretty good clip, breakneck even…” and that “The technology of ink and paper is highly advanced…” (Raise your hand if you’ve ever picked up the morning paper to read the same headline you saw the previous afternoon on the Internet.)

But perhaps my favorite part of the entire Rago rant was his claim that blogs are bad because they “promote intellectual disingenuousness, with every constituency hostage to its assumptions and the party line”.

Consider for a moment that Rago works for– and is writing in– the Wall Street Journal—the vanguard of right-wing orthodoxy! Adjacent to his op-ed are three banner editorials that, in sequence: revel in the civil charges filed against former Fannie Mae executives (the Journal has long been a foe of Fannie Mae because of its government safety net); raise the specter of a terrorist-friendly Libya (talk about a classic from the Republican greatest hits album); and defend tax cuts for the wealthy!

Again, Mr. Rago apparently doesn’t do irony.

The deeper you get into his piece, the more apparent it becomes that Mr. Rago does not simply disrespect the New Media, he fundamentally misunderstands it. He makes the claim that “The Internet is very good at connecting and isolating people who are in agreement, not so good at engaging those who aren’t.” I suggest Mr. Rago take a look at a comment thread on any well-trafficked blog. It is a forum for debate and ideas unequalled in any other news medium, and one that clearly evolved to fill the void left by the stale, pedantic, one-way street that is the MSM.

So, Bon Chance, Monsieur Rago! Don’t let those free-falling circulation figures and declining advertising dollars in the MSM get you down. And if you really want to let the world know how you feel, perhaps you should start a blog.

I don’t want to accuse the Washington Post of being late to the party, but the observation seems painfully obvious. Since Matt Drudge broke “Monica-gate”, Internet media has consistently beaten the MSM to the punch on just about every important story (political or otherwise) and in doing so has set the tone for all subsequent coverage.

As for being “unruly”, I think I can speak for the entire blogosphere when I say, “Guilty as charged.”

The blogosphere is the ultimate manifestation of the First Amendment right to free speech. While some bemoan the lack of “best practices” or “prevailing journalistic standards” online, this unregulated, pure, unadulterated freedom of expression is precisely what gives the new media its power to incubate news.

According to the Post, aides to Bill Clinton say that the former President believes that both Al Gore and John Kerry lost their elections because they “could not effectively respond to a modern media culture.” Truer words have never been written and may this be a lesson for candidates, businesses, or anyone courting public opinion.

Proposition 87, which appears on the ballot this fall, would impose a surtax on oil production in California. Predictably, the oil companies hate Prop 87; the activist community (led by the measure’s champion, Steve Bing) loves it. In the words of Michael Buffer, “Leeeet’s get ready to rumble!”

The “yes” on 87 guys preempted the “no” on 87 folks by buying up a slew of domain names that the “no’s” would love to own (e.g.: “noon87.com“). There is nothing unethical about squatting on domain names to keep them away from your opponent, but the “yes-men” went over the line when they set up bogus Web sites at these URL’s designed to whisk voters looking for anti-87 sites, directly into pro-87 Web-sites.

The oil companies sued, citing an obscure California law called the California Political Cyberfraud Abatement Act. They must have had a pretty strong case because the ink on the complaint wasn’t even dry before the “yes-men” offered to settle, giving the oil companies control of the domain names and/or directing viewers to the official “no” on 87 Web site, nooiltax.com.

The moral of this story is that, while the New Media is often viewed as the “Wild West,” there are journalistic standards and best practices that must be observed in the cyber world. This is what gives online content its credibility and influence.

The mistake the pro-87 backers made was to manipulate the truth when they could just as easily have gotten as much or more traction by simply being honest with the online media.

There are millions of bloggers activley reporting on the Internet every day. More than a few of them would happily report on the work that the “no” on 87 campaign is doing, and they would do so in a way that respescts ethical standards.

All the campaign had to do was reach out to the blogosphere and tell its story. Instead, the campaign tried to pull a fast one and its reputation has suffered as a result.

“Yes on Prop 87″ Group Sued Over Cyber No-No [Los Angeles Times]

“Take a look, for example, at Governor Schwarzenegger’s blog. Were they to ask, I would tell them the truth-it’s AWFUL. The posts are too long, it’s not updated often enough, it has no synergy with the press operations and they don’t have pictures. But what’s really missing are the links. Both Howard Dean’s Presidential campaign and Bob Hertzberg’s campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles understood something that campaign bloggers seem to have overlooked-the relationship with the blogosphere is a two-way street.”

“Dean and Hertzberg would link to blogs, news articles, and their own press releases like it was going out of style. In the case of Hertzberg, for example, I can say firsthand that I was more likely to write about local Los Angeles politics (and admittedly look more favorably towards Hertzberg’s point-of-view) because I believed they’d link to me. And in the blogosphere link = traffic = happy. If the problem with “netroots” is that small self-selected groups of like-minded people are only “speaking” among themselves the solution for political campaigns (or businesses or even bloggers) would seem to be simple. Link.”

That basic philosophy–create synergies within the networks of the blogosphere and leverage them for your business, political campaign or what have you–is what we preach to clients every day. Of course, we’d be more than willing to help out if a business or political campaign needed guidance on implementing this seemingly basic strategy.

6/28: Deal Or No Deal? [National Journal]
Netroots’ Missing Links [Spot-On]

When Friedman called GM a “crack dealer” and stated that the company was “dangerous to America’s future,” GM took offense and submitted a strongly worded letter to the editor. The Times refused to print it due to what the paper felt was uncivilized language (GM executive Brian Akre had the audacity to call the Friedman column “rubbish.”)

GM pulled the letter and instead posted its rebuttal on its corporate blog. That’s when all hell broke loose.

Akre not only posted his letter, but he included email correspondence with the Times that made the paper look foolish, arrogant, and out of touch.

The post was picked up by other media including Automotive News and autoblog.com (two important publications for GM) and now Business Week. Friedman responded with another column on June 14, so GM hit the Times again with another blog post.

The moral of this story is that the monpoly on published news once enjoyed by media heavyweights is over. Companies long accustomed to taking a beating at the hands of the print and broadcast media need suffer in silence no longer. Through the power of the blogoshpere, they now have a voice and a seat at the media table. This is a golden opportunity and it’s there for the taking.

Lots of Mileage Out of “Rubbish” [Business Week]

A Quick Fix For The Gas Addicts [New York Times]

GM Turns to Web Power [Automotive News]

GM Takes Friedman From New York Times To Task [Autoblog.com]

VICA has long been a go-to source for the local media on business issues, especially when it comes to the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles City Hall. We’re looking forward to raising the group’s profile both in the mainstream media and in the online world.

Two months into the job, President Brendan Huffman has shown himself to be adept at building consensus among Board Members and understanding the political world both within the organization and outside it–and with the organization positioning itself for leadership roles on ballot measures coming up in the November elections, we’ll have plenty to keep us busy!

Previously:

RSC Partners joins forces with VICA

Thankfully, many of these meetings have been well received and RSC Partners is an unqualified success, but an alarming number of these encounters have followed a now familiar pattern: polite nods, followed by glassy-eyed stares, capped by a litany of reasons why a blog just isn’t a good fit for the organization (“institutional culture,” “bureaucratic resistance within management,” etc.)

The irony, of course, is that these are the companies that a need a blog the most– companies that absolutely cannot get equal time or fair treatment in the mainstream media. We offer them a soap box from which to tell their story– unfiltered, unedited, and un-rebutted–and they recoil in horror!

The companies that “get it” have either launched blogs or have plans to do so. The ones that don’t will find it harder and harder to ignore the fact that the tremendous influence blogs already enjoy is quickly being reinforced by their widespread acceptance as a journalistic medium.

The front page of today’s Wall Street Journal (the “Bible” for old economy companies) features not one, but two articles about the power of blogs and the new media, with a third article in the B Section (links below). Yesterday, newspapers across the country ran high profile stories about political luminaries who traveled to Las Vegas this weekend to Markos Zuniga’s blogger conference, just to pay homage.

One savvy public affairs executive recently told me that she was in no hurry to launch a blog because the “window of opportunity” will remain open indefinitely. While I commended her for realizing that blogs are here to stay, I countered with the disarmingly simple question: “If the New York Times offered you 650 words for an op-ed placement this Sunday, would you take it or would you wait until the timing was more convenient?”

At that moment, I saw it in her eyes– the light bulb went on. Throughout corporate America, more and more light bulbs are going on, slowly but surely, as the old economy meets the new media– Fiat Lux.

Blogger Hits Home By Urging Boycott of Chinese Property [Wall Street Journal]

Local Stateions Struggle to adapt As Web Grabs, Viewers, Revenue [Wall Street Journal]

Noted Microsoft Blogger, Scoble, to Join a Pod-Casting Start-Up [Wall Street Journal]