Pesky Bloggers

I received an email this morning. I get a lot of emails but this one stood out. It reads as follows: Subject: Muckraking Do you think it is ethical to use your volunteers to do muckraking on other Canidates[Sic] Such as Tony's KC? I guess I am supposed to fly into an indignant rage and profess my innocence. After all, the guilty murmur; the innocent shout to the rafters. The fact is, I have no control over what any blogger writes. It would be easier for me to control the weather. I've made no secret out of the fact that I seem to be the favorite of local bloggers. But volunteers? Hardly! I wish I could control the local blogosphere. Part of my campaign strategy very early on was to seek out popular bloggers and try and position myself as a candidate who understands the power of new media. After following the genesis of blogging in the political arena (see: Howard Dean) and watching politicos and causes get abused and outright tortured (see: saveourowners.com) I decided I wanted to mitigate the impending doom. I started a blog. It was horrible at first. My writing was about as entertaining as assembly instructions for a stereo cabinet. It slowly loosened up. Then I started broadcasting my blog via an RSS feed and held my breath. I knew TKC would discover it eventually like he does every new blog that pops on the scene. I got off easy. When he asked me to do a video interview I was very apprehensive. It could have been an ambush. It was a huge gamble on my part. One that my closest friends begged me not to take. I thought it came out well. No other local politicos have risked any contact with TKC, let alone granted an interview. Scoring brownie points with a popular blogger? Guilty as charged! Gaining cred with one blogger in the community is sort of like the initiation ritual. You become part of a very tight-knit group that defends its own. Once TKC deemed me "a harmless white guy" some other blogs took notice and the rest as they say, is history. So to answer my emailer's question, no I don't think it's ethical to use local blogs to attack my opponents. But I have a problem with the premise of your question. You would presume that I have some sort of Svengali-like control over bloggers who were on the Kansas City political scene long before I started, and will still be here long after I'm gone. I can't use other blogs for anything. I can't control the Anonymous comment wars that erupt in every election. I can't control if a blogger gets offended by something he or she observes and decides to post about it, and I certainly make no apologies for being the favorite candidate of some pretty popular blogs. All I can do is to keep on talking about the issues. Keep on going door to door. And keep on blogging.