A Meeting of Bloggers - The Southern Alliance
This morning I had a terrific opportunity to go to the John Locke Foundation’s N.C. Bloggers Conference in Greensboro. It’s a 90 mile trip for me, I’m not a morning person, and I had a late start. I regret not staying overnight last night in Greensboro and having more opportunity to talk to people. But I did get there in time for the second panel. (How Has The Blogging Phenomenon Affected Politics and Political Discourse? Panelists were Townhall.com’s Mary Katharine Ham (formerly of Durham), Jeff Taylor of Charlotte’s The Meck Deck, Scott Elliott of Election Projection and Durham’s Josh Manchester of The Adventures of Chester).
We had an interesting discussion on comments options, problems with profanity, advocacy, and regulation, among others. I found many of Mary Katherine’s comments very enlightening and one in particular. She meets often with members of the federal government, many of them republican politicians who can appreciate the rarity of talking with a journalist/blogger who may agree with them on the issues.
It frankly never occured to me how awful it must be to be in public life in our party when there is so much unabashed hostility toward republicans by the press that covers them. “Innocent until proven republican” is only funny because of its veracity. What would it be like to have your every word scrutinized, distorted or criticized? It’s not as if you’d be afraid to be quoted - publicity is the life’s blood of politics, but what if press coverage seemed more like an opportunity for the other guy to punch you below the belt and run away before you can catch your breath? Until Mary Katherine Ham pointed out that reality, it hadn’t occured to me how sadly deficient our national media is in both fairness and ethics, and those on the front lines catching the brunt of it are our republican representatives, oft misquoted and/or vilified.
This theme stuck in my mind as the panel concluded and everyone walked into the next room for lunch. At my table, I met Todd of Todd’s Ruminations, and Bruce of gaypatriot.net. We also had a representative of the John Locke Foundation at our table, an investigative journalist who confessed that he never blogs. (A shameful admission at such an occasion, I’m sure. 
).
While I was still ruminating about the partisan nature of the press and what republican politicians face on any and every issue from immigration to the environment to the weather, Scott Johnson began his keynote address:
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“The 61st Minute: Inside the Eye of Hurricane Dan”
And for the next several minutes I was mesmerized by the unfolding of a media scandal. Scott spared no punches in his analysis of Mary Mapes book. The excerpt he read was indeed comical. I’d hate to give that scoundrel Mapes a single dime, but reading it might be worth it if only for the unintended humor in it. He also pokes a little fun at the Thornburg report which concluded that it could not definitively say the documents were fake, and yet on page 165 of the report it had concluded they weren’t authentic.
Perhaps one of the most powerful aspects of Scott’s speech was his historical, back to the future analysis of the blogosphere, comparing those of us in the modern day pamphleteering business called blogging to the original pamphleteers that wrought public opinion in the days prior to the Revolutionary War. Pamphleteers in those days had day jobs - their commerce varied - but all came together on the political conversation of the age in the form of a pamphlet.
As do we today. Sitting in that room were authors, and teachers, mothers, and lawyers, and at least one chemist. We conduct our political discourse from the vantage point of Jane and John Doe, and write our pamphlets to all the Does out there. We aim to persuade, discuss, to be informed and to inform.
And we stand watch at the gate of public information. During the panel discussions, there was consensus that liberal blogs are more successful at activism. (Although in the case of Lamont, winning sometimes is losing.) I mused on that a bit, too. I think that evaluation is a comparison of apples to oranges.
Liberal bloggers do actively require political pacifying. Republicans on the other hand simply want the truth. We blog to counter the myth of the Main Stream Media. We blog because Nancy Pelosi offers to fix the economy, and outside newsrooms all over America, the economy is booming and Americans know that. We blog because Al Qaaqaa was CaCa, and the MSM discredited Swift Boaters were telling the truth. We blog for fairness for our political views, for the truth and not the spin. We blog because we know what the meaning of ‘IS’ is. And we blog for the conversation. That’s why I appreciate comments on my posts. I know how I feel about it, I want to know how the reader feels about it. I want to give a liberal a chance to disagree with an idea instead of an insult.
Scott Johnson gave a wonderful speech containing the elements of a good affirmation of purpose. We are patriots and pamphleteers. And he reminded me, as I saw raTHergate unfold in his words, we have a big job to do.
The guys at Powerline accomplished something major with their unraveling of Mapes’ duplicity; they ended the era of “Trust Me” Journalism and they opened the door for pamphleteering.
I was thrilled to see so many of my blog heroes and meet some great new friends. And just in case you were wondering, Lorie Byrd is just as likeable and nice in person as she is on the page.
I look forward to the next meeting with NC Bloggers; maybe we should call ourselves the “Southern Alliance”?
Posted by Kathy
October 7th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Kathy,
What a wonderful opportunity. Thanks for posting this. It is refreshing to know that we can make a difference. That is why we do it.
October 7th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
Thanks, RP. I had a great time! (And I’m proud of our blog!)
October 7th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Me too
October 7th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
Kathy, I haven’t been very active on the other website lately and I just now figured out where THIS website was located… So here I am..
I am very glad you were able to go and meet everyone. I’ve been keeping up with Gay Patriot (Bruce’s) website and reading Mary Katherine Hamm’s column now and of course, Lorie at Wizbang… You must have had a wonderful time–you could tell just from the post and yes, I think a Southern Alliance is a good idea!
October 7th, 2006 at 8:35 pm
Wow, that sounds like a good experience, and a great time.
I want a Florida blogger meeting…
Only other Floridian blogger I know of is Oak Leaf. Wouldn’t mind shaking hands with him.
Wonderful post, Kathy!
October 7th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
Kathy…
I really enjoyed reading your Post…
“Thank You”…
You folks at HRP work really hard…
Like many other people, my office is full of “National Review”–”National Conservative Weekly”–”Israel My Glory”–etc…
Some old…some still come in the mail Weekly…
But, I find myself getting much of my daily news right here…from your Blog…
It’s ‘RealTime’…’Inter-active’…and the Comments are nothing short of ‘Instant OpEds’…
And, I think it’s great…
I also think it’s one of the reasons why this Election is so very important…
Blogs are a new place to exercise “Free Speech”…a new place for “the Right of the people peaceably to assemble”…
We need to protect and defend this right…
We need to VOTE REPUBLICAN…
And again…”Thank You”, Kathy…
October 7th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
Kathy, this is an absolutely FANTASTIC post!! And what a great experience!
You’ve done our humble blog proud with your participation in the NC Blogger event. thank you for a great synopsis and, once again, great job!
October 7th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
Bloggers Are the Nicest People
Okay, not all bloggers, but most of the ones I spent today with were. I was on a panel today at Carolina FreedomNet 2006 sponsored by the John Locke Foundation. The event was in Greensboro and consisted of two panel…
October 7th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
Good Times at Carolina FreedomNet 2006
I had a really great time at the conference. I got in late last night and had drinks with my parents and some of the panelists.
I got to meet Bob Owens, who was a ton o’ fun, and Sister Toldjah was great, too. I was delighted to find Gay Patriot in…
October 7th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
Sounds like the event was a success. I hope they have a similar conference in the New York City area. Were any political leaders from the GOP there? Were any invited?
I know when the liberal-left bloggers hold conferences, the Democrats attend if only blow smoke up the butts of the radical left.
If they have a conservative bloggers conference, I hope they’ll invited politicians who don’t receive as much MSM attention as the media favorites McCain, Clinton, Gore, etc.
I’d like to see guys and gals such as John Cox (who’s actually the first official GOP presidential candidate) invited. Or Mary Starrett who’s running for Governor of Oregon — a staunch conservative.
October 8th, 2006 at 12:08 am
Kathy, I really enjoyed reading your write-up about the conference, but more than anything I am so glad that you represented our little blog. Even though we’ve never met, we’ve known and worked with each other for nearly 6 months and I can think of no finer representative for HRP. (And to my fellow bloggers, don’t take that personally, I just know the passion Kathy feels about our purpose and how articulate she is.)
We really do have an important job to do as bloggers. Only by challenging the MSM and the left will we get our message out. We face an uphill battle just as our party does.
Thank you to all of our readers who make this “job” enjoyable. And thank you for spreading the word about our site.
October 8th, 2006 at 12:15 am
Off Topic/
Did all you HRP hosts and commenters see what my beloved Tennessee Vols did to Georgia after falling behind by 17 and coming back and clobbered the Dawgs?
Go Vols
October 8th, 2006 at 1:11 am
I DID! Good job, Vols!
October 8th, 2006 at 8:31 am
Kathy, I’m so glad you were able to go and represent HRP. I’m afraid I was one of the reasons you left a little late with my last minute phone call to you.
Maybe next time I can go with you and we can actually meet each other even though we are probably 40-50 miles apart in our hometowns.
Good report, Kathy, and some good friends and contacts were made, I’m sure.
October 8th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
[…] As far as those sassy Southern conservative gals go, it was a pleasure to meet Lorie Byrd and MK Ham, both of whom have recaps of this weekend’s activities here and here. Both Lorie and MK are sharp, funny, witty, and extremely talented writers at their respective blogs and I’m honored to be able to call them both friends. Such beautiful ladies, on the inside and out. As is Kathy from Hang Right Politics, who I met and talked with after yesterday’s luncheon. Kathy, I found out, doesn’t live that far from where I work, so we’ll be getting together for lunch one day soon! I’m looking forward to it. […]