I really was planning to say something about this sooner, but the story is now changing practically by the minute, so it may be hard to keep up with developments...
It all started when the Edwards campaign decided, as everyone is, these days, to have a blog as part of their web presence. And, like many political campaigns, they went shopping, checkbook in hand, to some of the major bloggers, and wound up hiring among others) Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon, and Melissa McEwan, a/k/a Shakespeare's Sister.
And I went, "uh-oh."
Apparently, I was right to be concerned. The hires - Marcotte's in particular - have unleashed a firestorm of controversy, especially among right-wing bloggers, and some Catholic groups. This mostly has to do with the fact that both women, like most liberal women, are very much pro-choice and are extremely critical of pro-lifers. But it's also more than that: Marcotte - McEwan, less so - has said some pretty strongly worded things on her blog, and it's the quotations from previous posts that have become the subject of the controversy.
I have mixed feelings about this, not the least of which is a twinge of professional jealousy, since I'd love to know how you get such a gig. But my initial "uh-oh" was really about just what has happened - I, too, wondered to myself how someone with such strong opinions would fit into the political culture of a Presidential campaign, where opinions tend to be vague, and the writing tends to be a little grey (when it's not a little beige). It's not the place where you expect a spunky, independent thinker. And Marcotte has worked hard to establish herself as a strong, independent voice.
And I think that's one of the hidden challenges of blogging. The self-publishing nature of a blog - as I've come to realize just for myself - is at once powerful and a little scary. There's no editor, only one's better angels holding one back from letting rip, being unkind, really being out there with one's opinions. RedStar has talked about this struggle - wanting to be taken seriously, and wondering if her personal musings are really meant to be shared widely (i tend to think, unlike her, that they can be). But i know I've held back on saying too much about some contentious issues - like, say abortion, or Israel - because I worry about how those things could come back to haunt me.
In a sense, I'm glad I picked up blogging more in middle age than in my youth. Much as I admire the way the, er, young people of today offer up every thought and action and opinion to the world, I do think there's a wisdom that comes with age (that's not a new feeling, I really had it even in my twenties. I just tried rebelling against it until I gave in to it). You learn, with time, that not everything needs to be said. That not everyone wants to know your opinion on everything (or as Bart wrote on the board in a Simpsons opening. "No One Is Interested In My Underpants"). (This, perhaps, is really a lesson for Britney Spears.)
So, yeah, I think Marcotte and McEwan are getting a raw deal - especially from Michelle Malkin, who, given the way her words tend to get hauled back against her (and the way her status as a woman is dragged inappropriately into the mix so often), really ought to try being more circumspect; but I also think this is an early warning, not an endgame. Lots of people - myself and Red included - with all sorts of personal ambitions, have laid themselves open in their blogs and their online writings. Joe Klein, for instance, has spent the past couple of days returning to words he wrote at the start of the Iraq war. It's blogging that makes sure what we say never dies. And we have no standard here, none. What can you say? What will you have to explain later? What boss will have to call you on the carpet for something inadvertent, off the cuff, or just plain mistaken? And should we really hold to the mistaken belief that our words do not have the power to come back and haunt us?
For the record I think Marcotte will have to go - she's become a lightning rod and a distraction and when that happens, people leave campaigns. I feel bad that McEwan -who is, I think merely being dragged along in this by opportunists - may have to suffer as well. I suspect though, that the real lesson here is that politicians and blogs have still not found a comfortable coexistence - both in terms of bloggers looking co-opted, and in terms of politicians being blind-sided by the fact that when you hire a blogger, you get someone who thinks, with a point of view. And the words to say so. It may just be that the two worlds are not a natural fit.
I - and I expect you too - find this struggle b/w independence and co-optation to be present in almost every professional field. At least it's my on-going struggle, to be naturally opinionated and strident without it coming back to bite me in the ass. Which it has, over and over and over again. It's like a lesson I refuse to learn, though after each experience I take notes on how to minimize the damage further in the future. Hence the contained blogging - there are some things I just ache to throw up there, esp. re: my career, but no one wants to be unemployable...especially in middle-age. (Oh wait, I'm not quite there yet!) ;)
Posted by: Leigh | February 08, 2007 at 10:03 AM