Centerfield: Proudly A Cyberhayseed

July 30, 2004

Proudly A Cyberhayseed

Charles Cooper of CNET slams convention bloggers, and particuarly a remark I made in one of my posts, quoting it out of context, and not linking to the full post so readers can determine it's value. Here is the comment I left at his site:

You took my remark, "Bill Clinton looks really small from the upper tiers of the Fleet Center." out of context too make me look stupid, and did not link to the post:

The point to readers is that they are not missing anything by watching this event on TV. In fact, given the distance and poor acoustics, the experience of watching speeches in person was inferior. Journalists who are making a living from covering this event have an incentive to hype their experience. In fact, I'm telling readers that it's nothing special.

Many readers were struck by my observation later in the post that some of the anchors were not paying attention to Clinton's speech. In a later post, I observed it was probably because they had received the embargoed text of the speech in advance, and had already read it. I was not aware that this was the way journalists work, and this was a revelation to my readers as well. If that makes me a "cyberhayseed" then fine--I've peeked behind the journalistic curtain, and clued all the other hayseeds out there into how the media goes about their work.

My post, which started with the "gem" you cited, concluded by observing that Clinton's speech represented a confident Democratic Party that was out but not down. It knew how to govern, and was a legitimate alternative to the administration in power. This theme which I picked up on anticipated the theme of Restoration identified in a piece in the Washington Post.

I stand by my post.

I would also add that I determined, based on my experience Monday night, that there was no value added in me covering convention speeches that viewers at home could evaluate just as well. As a result, I focused during the week on attending satellite events which most viewers will not have heard about, like the Red God, Blue God event or the People of Faith caucus luncheon. Did anyone hear those events mentioned on TV?

Update: CNET gave Dan Bricklin a shot to rebut Cooper.

Posted by rickheller at July 30, 2004 08:14 AM

Comments

Rick,

The link to the CNN piece links to your post original.

Here is the link to the article and I think he was pretty unfair.

http://news.com.com/2010-1028-5289475.html?tag=nefd.acpro

(Of course I did much the same thing but I'm writing my own rebuttal [grin])

But as long as they spell your name right. Oh crap he didn't even mention your name...bummer

Posted by: Rick DeMent at July 30, 2004 08:33 AM

I like the analogy of peeking behind the curtain. The prime time news anchor as the modern “Wizard of Oz”, how appropriate.
Bloggers are making it increasing obvious that “Professional” journalistic behavior is a joke.

Of course the fun part is when they get all upset about being caught with their pants down.

Posted by: Bob J Young at July 30, 2004 12:09 PM

I just read Mr. Coopers reply to your post, about his article, about your blog.
I’m getting the impression that his original article was a troll.
Go figure, a “real” journalist trolling like a common blogger. : )

Posted by: Bob J Young at July 30, 2004 02:40 PM

To the 'professional' journalists all that happens at a political convention may be old hat and not worth reporting on. For many of us, it is new and not old hat. I appreciated reading just the sort of things that Cooper finds unworthy of note.

I'm glad bloggers were there and reported as they did. If I wanted to read reports filed by the journalistic 'pros', I could and did.

I didn't expect the bloggers to report as the 'pros' do. Many bloggers shared with the rest of us what it was like to be there. I appreciated that. I enjoyed the peek behind the curtain provided by the bloggers.

I was surprised to see CNET's Cooper react as he did. I expected someone who is associated with CNET to have a better understanding of blogs. His comments reflect an ignorance of the appeal blogs have for most of us.

The bloggers' audience, for the most part, were ALL Cyberhayseeds (aka newbies) at the convention. We wanted to crane our necks and look around with the bloggers. I've never had such a close up view of behind the scenes at a convention before. I found it refreshing.

Posted by: Chris Josephson at July 31, 2004 11:32 PM

Centerfield

A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics

July 30, 2004

Proudly A Cyberhayseed