Thank Heaven For Bloggers!

I've been watching the Obamatization of the media with trepidation. Especially now that the administration is trying to marginalize, if not out right eliminate, FOX as a credible source for news.

You see, this is dangerous. We do not want our government controlling what comes out of Washington. It will lead to worse. It is an attempt to control what we think. We see it here in our small town paper where the news, other than the feel good stuff, is controlled by the power brokers. We, too, have blogs. They present all sides of issues with varying degrees of accuracy, but at least they exist. It's left to the reader to sort through them and decide for themselves what is and is not accurate. Those who don't are not well informed.

It has been interesting to watch MSNBC move left to the point one wants to shout "Tilt"! NBC no longer delivers the news. They either promote their own programming or do feel good pieces. How long has it been since any in depth reporting has been done on anything from other parts of the world?

I don't watch ABC nor CBS except on weekends when they have anchors I can tolerate, though the substance is no better. Most news reporting these days is a collection of sound bites. Period. Or Anderson Cooper wondering why they devote so much time to trash news. Well, why do they? Ratings!

Making matters worse is the diminishing newspaper industry. Reporters no longer dig deep for truths. The papers can't afford to pay them for the time it would require. With shrinking staff, they do well to cover what they do. Then there is the number of papers that are just no longer publishing. Advertising revenue which keeps them afloat is down because it's not affordable. Add to that the number of businesses that are closing their doors because they can't advertise! Do you see a direction here? Like a downward spiral?

So here we are. 60,000,000,000 bloggers around the world hammering away at their keyboards citing opinion on everything from gardening to climate control. If you can't find something that interests you, you don't use a computer!

When it comes to news, though, you have to work to find both sides of issues. That's okay. It improves both reading and comprehension skills! There are blogs covering every aspect of the political spectrum from far left, which we're dealing with now, to the far right which is waiting in the wings. Fortunately, there are enough centrists asking questions of both sides to actually give you something to think about.

It's mostly bloggers. In a way it's frightening that it has come to this. I, however, will take a positive view. Rather than dwelling on how news coverage has devolved, I'll look at how blogging is evolving.

It's almost to the point we have an obligation to our fellow citizens to sort through all that is happening. The "official" media isn't doing such a good job any more and the government isn't doing it at all!

Blogging Does Not Automatically Equate Journalism

There is an article on Breitbart that tells me journalism is evolving, not dying. It points to the ever widening spread of the Internet as the reason. I, for one, skim many news sources on the web just to put together a post. But what of the millions of people, not only in this country, but worldwide, who do not have Internet access be it because of location or financial ability? Without hard copy newspapers how are they to be informed?

This brings to mind a headline today from the Salisbury, Maryland paper in which the Mayor, in her State of the City address suggested that mean spirited bloggers were the biggest threat the city faces. The news story was a fair analysis of the Mayor's comments.

The Spokesman Review's Huckleberries picked up on it and asked the following:

Question: In Coeur d’Alene, there are three online sites that touch of city of Coeur d’Alene business regularly — this one, OpenCDA.com, and the Coeur d’Alene Press comments section. The latter two sites are openly antagonistic to Mayor Sandi Bloem’s administration. Do you think those sites help or hurt the city?

I find it interesting when asking if readers thought the local blog sites were detrimental to the city, the moderator neglected to include his own. While he is correct that the other two sites are mostly antagonistic to the city administration and it's urban renewal agency, it is not always without cause. I should think being pro administration, no matter what, can be just as detrimental.

Following is the pertinent excerpt from Mayor Parsons' speech:

While we face the same challenges that other cities and towns are facing, our biggest
challenge by far is a small element within the City that consistently seeks to find
“smoking guns” and conspiracies within the ranks of the City workforce. Daily, I run into
citizens who are weary of the constant “gotcha” mentality on the part of a few citizens
and City Council members. Citizens fear standing up and serving because it quite simply
is not worth the vilification they chance at the hands of blogs and with threatening phone
calls.

Each week I do a taping on a radio station. This past week, I interviewed Gary Comegys
who is running for Mayor. The day the taping was to be broadcast, the station received a
very early morning call from a local lawyer threatening the station manager that if the
station aired the program they would be in violation of the FCC regulations. The week
before, that same lawyer called the owner of a senior complex at his home in
Westminster with a similar threat. The owner of the complex had invited his residents to
a lunch for Comegys and Councilwoman Shanie Shields. This lawyer stated that if the
luncheon were held, the owner would be in violation of federal law because the complex
was built through a program that awards tax credits on a highly competitive basis to
ensure affordable rents for residents. In both cases, there appears to be no legal backing
for his statements. He simply is utilizing threats and intimidation in the hope that those
whom he opposes in the election will have no advantage.

This is the same man who fostered the idea of a taxpayers’ suit against me during my first
year in office. This was dismissed at the most basic judicial level, but not before it cost
the City and our insurance carrier $32,000. In the intervening years, he has enjoyed the
ears of at least one member of each City Council and has cost the City tens of thousands
of dollars in legal and staff time. In almost every case, there has been no legal basis for
his claims and accusations. However much like the taxpayers suit against me in 1998, it
costs money, energy, time and focus from those good and decent people who come to
work everyday to simply do their job.

This is not about differences of opinion and policy questions. This is quite simply mean-
spirited ugly constant intimidation. Combined with the lies and innuendo of several
“bloggers” this city is under siege. Routinely, I receive calls and e-mails from citizens
who disagree with my positions on individual matters. We talk and often find common
ground, and sometimes agree to disagree. It is a very valuable process and I always find
that I see whatever issue under consideration from a new perspective.

This poses a far greater danger to the Salisbury’s future than the current financial crisis.
When people are afraid to step forward, run for office, speak on relevant issues, write
letters to the editor expressing individual opinions, then the future is in jeopardy. I leave
this job, an adventure that I have enjoyed with a firm conviction that the people of this
great city need to stand up and say, “No More”. Only then can we move forward to meet
the serious challenges and build upon the dreams and hard work of the twenty-four
mayors who preceded me in service to this City.

Sorry it is so lengthy, but it goes to the point that Coeur d'Alene's Mayor Bloem could have used much the same rhetoric. What isn't known, in either case, is how close to the truth the "mean and nasties" have come versus the credibility of the mayor's complaint?

There is no "journalism" involved in these blogs even though the Press blogs are under the banner of the Coeur d'Alene Press and Huckleberries is under the Spokesman Review's banner. Blogs are not necessarily and most often not journalism! They are opinion - right, wrong or indifferent. Bearing a newspaper's banner, at least locally, does not change that.

Rhetoric, on either side, can mask the truth. It cannot negate the truth. The question is will the truth will out? And if so, without good journalism, how?

Pickin' On Palin

As long as Joe the Plumb...oops, I mean Journalist, remains fodder for the media, Sarah may as well keep her visibility high too. Who knows, one day they may be running mates!

Actually I think I may have underestimated Sarah's suitability for public office. She has learned a great many lessons that will serve her well should she ever move up the ladder! One is to use the media to her advantage. Then blame the media for everything that goes wrong. And whine. Oh yes, whine.

She can't honestly think Caroline Kennedy hasn't taken her lumps for her "you knows" and "ums" during interviews. She has. They both need some lessons on how to communicate effectively.

When she is wondering out loud, to a reporter of course, if Caroline is receiving preferential treatment for a Senate seat because of her name, education and the fact she lives in Manhattan and is more cosmopolitan than the rurally oriented Palin, it makes me chuckle. Kennedy is after all making a run for the Senate seat from New York. Manhattan is in New York. Many of the reporters are based in New York. Yet I find no lack of scrutiny because of it.

One thing Ms. Palin might bear in mind. She was running for the office of Vice President of the United States. Perhaps the enormity, the significance of that position hasn't occurred to her. Perhaps it hasn't occurred to her that being a Mayor of a small Alaskan town wasn't quite enough to convince us she was ready to run the country. It seemed like some kind of a lark to her. I can't begin to imagine how she'd be handling the current situations - the crumbling economy, the escalation of middle east conflicts, had McCain won and become unable to serve.

She might also bear in mind that the scrutiny really wasn't against Sarah Palin, the person as it was Sarah Palin the persona. Now however, it is the person!

Remember the Katie Couric interview and Tina Fey's portrayal of her on Saturday Night Live? According to an AP article, Palin complained that they had "exploited" her. And that Couric had been condescending. Every time these tired old subjects are re-addressed it seems her victimism increases!

She even went on to complain that the reporter doing the interview took her comments out of context "to create adversarial situations." How long has the election been over? Why is this even out there for me to comment on?

She's got it down pat. Use the media. Blame the media. She even has a body double in Fey if the going really gets rough - if she can afford her. She also shows she's in touch with reality for the next go round. If blaming the media doesn't get the traction she needs, she has the rest of us covered too.

As she wrapped up the interview she commented, "When did we start accepting as hard news sources bloggers, anonymous bloggers especially?"

I'm not sure the rest of the world has. But then most of us can name the papers and magazines we read.

Who The Heck IS Henry Alford?

When I received an e-mail from Henry Alford telling me he had named Dogwalk as one of his ten favorite blogs by or about seniors as requested by Blogs.com I was, of course, delighted.

As he requested, I made mention of it on my blog. The fact that he introduced himself as a contributor to the New York Times and Vanity Fair did not escape me. When I went to his web site to investigate further I was taken by his youth. Why would such a young man have a blog about seniors?

The answer was readily apparent. He has a book due to be released in January 2009. The title made me laugh. How to Live: A Search for Wisdom From Old People (While They Are Still on this Earth). Well, he is a humorist!

In it he interviews everyone from celebrities to the eccentric to the accomplished anonymous. He speaks of tremendously personal moments in dealings with his own family, pathos and hilarity. A story about everyman and everywoman. Us. Because we are "old". (I told him how much I dislike the term elder though I had no other to offer in return!)

I have read books on aging by professionals who "study" us and those of us undergoing the experience. I am looking forward to reading one by an outsider looking in. I am a huge advocate of cross generational communication. It helps keep me on my toes and hopefully those I talk with also take away something of value.

It would seem this very thing was part of Henry's motivation. When asked about the inspiration for the book by Ron Hogan of Publisher's Weekly, he had this to say, "I'm fascinated with the idea that humans are one of the few species whose average lifespan exceeds the age at which they procreate. Why? What's the evolutionary reason? I think it's because old people are living libraries...and we as a culture really overlook that."

It's encouraging to me that a man like Henry Alford has come to this realization. Of course we "elders" have been trying to tell the world this truth for some time now. As I've talked about on several occasions, blogging is giving us our voice.

Here is a man, and I hope there are more like him waiting in the wings, who can tell our story. Not the stuff we dwell on, the aches and pains and frustrations of dealing with an inattentive medical community or which new malady has popped up just this morning. We do that well enough among ourselves. But the story of who we are because of who we were. The living library part. In doing so maybe he can put his finger on just why we as a culture really overlook that.

Thanks Henry.

Citizen Bloggers

Now that our collective anxieties have been put to rest until the next political upheaval, I've been thinking about how much the candidates owe the blogosphere. Not the political blogs, nor the professional bloggers, but the citizen bloggers. Like most of those who read mine and I theirs. We have become a vital link in a world quickly losing it's print media.

We have suffered from it locally when the Spokesman Review first cut the North Idaho edition and the gutting that has taken place since. Now I read that delivery is being stopped in at least a portion of the Silver Valley. Who knows; we may be next.

The bottom line rules. The sad thing is that not everyone has a computer on which to fall back. More and more segments of the population are going to be even less informed than they are now.

Those who do have computers are the lucky ones. Next they have to have time and lots of it to wend their way through the headline sites. Another learning curve will be which sites are liberal, which conservative and which just plain nuts. Then they need to find Snopes and other fact checking sites to determine if what they are reading is factual. The same holds true for the big league Blogs. Research, research, research.

Maybe we little one-off sites are of most value. I think again of my little cadre of ladies that carried on a long and passionate support network for the Obama candidacy. I'm sure there were hundreds of such groups for all manner of candidates. Just regular folks letting the world know what they think and why.

From my own experience, I know we have an impact. Be it positive or negative depends on the perspective of the reader. Every once in awhile, however, when it comes to your attention that your posts may actually have an impact it's gratifying. Both The Chicago Sun Times and Reuters picked up a post I had written back in early October on why I supported Obama. The Sun Times ran it a few days before the election and again yesterday along with Reuters. The combined activity from the headline generated nearly 16,000 hits on the combined sites.

I, of course, get nowhere near that level of activity on a normal day, but every once in awhile something I write, and not always political, will hit the eye of the big guys.

It's nothing super intellectual, just what I think and why. It's out there for anyone and everyone to see. It's out there to let the world know how one senior lady living in northern Idaho feels about what is going on in the world. No more. No less.

If what I wrote about Obama, however, generated one single vote other than mine it was well worthwhile. Even if it didn't, it presented a rationale. That too was worthwhile.

So you see? We little, one-off bloggers, part of some 60,000,000 out there, have more of an impact than we may imagine.

Sixteen thousand hits on a headline. Not bad!

Election Day From My Little Corner Of The World

Well, here we are. The day of reckoning. While no one has dared come right out and say it, all the commentary is leaning toward an Obama win. We are witnessing history of monumental proportions whether it be our first African American President or our first female Vice President. American politics is forever changed.

I've been doing a lot of reflecting this rainy election day. I've been thinking about the wonderful cadre of of ladies, who happen to blog, that I've been spending much of my time with over the past several months. They are a diverse group. Teachers, writers, artists, homemakers.

Most are near seniors or seniors like myself. Long time buddies like the Word Tosser , a local blogger who has been a long time friend, to A Piece of My Mind's Betty who keeps me up to date on Arkansas happenings. We think so much alike sometimes it's frightening!

I've met Sylvia from Over the Hill and Texas to Oregon . There is Margie's Musings and the most extra ordinary Just an Ordinary Gal. How could I not love one who blogs as My Sister was a Saint Bernard or Golden Years My a$$!

There is even the wonderful Rinkly Rimes who checks in from Australia, keeping me up to speed on how things work in Oz and what they're thinking about us.

This doesn't begin to give due to all the blogs I follow on a regular basis but it is the core group I've drawn from for peer opinion.

We've gone through this process together, giving one another encouragement when down, checking facts, sharing laughs. Many have gotten to the point of burn out and have taken to posting more family news or photos of the areas in which they live. All of that made it even more special for, to me, it's what this is all about. A slice of our country, our world, as seen through the eyes of those who live there. The family joys and woes and worries, the beauty of a neighborhood, a tree, a garden or a blossom. America. The beautiful.

It is said the young are the country's greatest asset. Maybe so. But these ladies and so many others like them are national treasures.

Never Too Old To Learn

As time ticks down to the election, I've been taking a good look at myself. What did I see? Someone I once would not have recognized as "me".

I've found that I can still feel passionately. I've also found a healthy dose of reality. Politics. I've never been so immersed nor vocal in my entire adult life. That I like Obama the man is no secret. That I still have doubts as to the outcome of the election is also no secret. That I do not agree with all the Obama/Democratic positions is no secret. I'm pretty much an open book.

I've found within myself the attribute of faith. Faith that my judgement is sound. Courage. The courage to bestow that faith on another individual. One that I have never met nor ever will.

Openness. By being open I've found openness in return. With that openness is the possibility of differing opinions. While I might not be persuaded by them, I've learned from them.

The comfort of common ground. Throughout this process I've met many new people on-line. Whether we will visit each others sites as often after the dust settles remains to be seen, but it has been gratifying to have found such a diverse group because of one area of common ground. As it binds us together as cyber pals, it will bind us together as a nation.

Age is no longer irrelevant. Be we young, first time voters or well seasoned seniors, all who have wanted a voice have found one. I have not received one dismissive comment.

It has been an exhilarating ride these past several months. It has proven to me something I've believed all along. Being old and out of touch is not an option.

Personal Responsibility - Becoming Informed

I was cleaning up my gardening tools in the shop this morning. Hub had the radio tuned to Rush Limbaugh for background "noise". And noise is certainly what it was!

I never listen to talk radio for just that reason - it's noise. Free speech aside, sometimes I think the whole concept should be banned. He claims, what, 20,000,000 listeners a week? For many its like Hub, in the car for a brief time or for background noise, but never-the-less people do listen. They do buy into the venom he spews. You can tell by the comments from his "ditto heads". He's not alone. There is Hannity and Ingraham and Savage and on and on.  Conservative and Liberal. Each promoting their political ideology with, to be kind, loose facts and meanness of spirit.

Not much better are the talking heads that fill the cable tv channels. While the hosts are slanted, they at least have the faithful from both sides of the political spectrum going at one another. It's a starting place to sort through differing view points.

The newspapers are becoming less and less effective due to budget restraints that show no sign of easing and a lack of reporters who are schooled to be objective.

Much to the chagrin of the "professionals" the blogs, more and more, are becoming the place to go to get information. At times I think we're a pretty insignificant part of the information highway, and true, bloggers such as myself are. But the bigger ones do have the information. Just as slanted as tv and the papers and most certainly talk radio, but there are more to choose from and with some diligence the accurate information is there to be found.

An article by Time Magazine's Joe Klein talks about how the neocons are trying to get him fired because he dared to criticize them. He talks of going against his better judgement, appeasing them and later regretting it.

He goes on to say he won't make that same mistake twice. That they were wrong, they are bullies and he won't be intimitated by them. A reporter for Time Magizine. You can't even depend on what you read there to be fact. How many other publications have reporters submitting articles for our consumption under the same circumstances?

So it's up to us. You and me. If we don't we'll end up believeing Barack Obama is a Muslim and John McCain doesn't get his facts mixed up at all!

What kind of President will we elect with thinking like that?

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly vs. The Bold and the Beautiful!

During the last week or so the local blogs have been filled with hate mongering and some of the most vial commentary to surface in quite awhile. Friends have suffered personal attacks as have I. Such is the nature of blogging. It seems some are most emboldened by anonymity. These episodes, thankfully, are cyclical and hopefully this one has run its course.

In an e-mail from a friend, this observation really struck me. "It's hard to conceive of others always being so negative when there is so much for which we can be positive." That got me to thinking about some of our local blogs that are anything but negative.

Get Out North Idaho! and OnLocation North Idaho are unabashedly pro northern Idaho and community. They contain information about everything and anything there is to do, right-on restaurant reviews, photos galore of attractions and hidden treasures. They are both well written with humor and pride.

These are the blogs to follow to understand what the people who have rich and fulfilling lives do with their time, their friends and their families.

I felt refreshed just browsing through them this afternoon. Interestingly, one is authored by a Spokesman Review columnist, the other by a Coeur d'Alene Press columnist. They both view their community with similar vision. Pride.

Wouldn't it be nice if it was catching?

Unintended Consequences

The conversation continues in regard to the coffee shared by NIC board member Christie Wood and community advocate Mary Souza. It has me puzzled. When word got out that the conversation had been covertly recorded by Ms. Souza, the lid flew off. I found it interesting the direction the different blogs took.

HBO, the Spokesman Review blog broke the news and no one doubted the word of Ms. Wood. Confirmation was immediately requested from Ms. Souza, one of the founders of the openCDA blog. None was forthcoming. There has been no denial but no confirmation. Rather the allegation is being framed as everything from a personal attack to an avoidance of the issue of the conversation.

That doesn't eliminate the reason to believe the conversation was indeed recorded without Ms. Wood's knowledge.

The city and any official that serves it has long been under intense scrutiny by the openCDA members. What I don't understand is what has driven them to pursue such measures during private conversations. It is said, after having obtained the tape, Ms. Souza rushed it to the CDA Press editor and a reporter who was present, claiming - what - proof of some wrong doing? Allegedly neither the reporter nor the editor agreed. Why would anyone resort to such behavior?

It saddens me that a person who has long lived in this community and once served it well, has so much hatred for the current power structure that she felt such an action was necessary. You may think my use of "hatred" is rather "love" of the community. I think not. It would seem to have become an agenda.  Just what exactly that agenda is remains a mystery.

The main consequence, it seems to me, is that the only thing to have come from this sorry incident, is that the wedge between the two sides has just been driven deeper. Those who were once much admired for questioning the process have now been diminished to the level in which they have so ardently placed the power structure.

As one blogger observed, the staunch supporters of both sides will remain loyal. The rest of us will watch the story fade. But the trust has been broken. That's not something to take lightly for it will not be easily regained.

For what?

The Never Ending Battle For Truth, Justice and the Coeur d'Alene Way

Wow! I go away for a few days and I miss all the excitement. It seems our super heroes are back on the job to save us from ourselves!

As I was getting ready to leave last week, the chatter was about a Council meeting during which a councilman asked if anyone was recording it. He asked a few by name plus a reporter. It hit the shadow government blog like fat in a hot pan. What was he afraid of? Why was he so paranoid? Besides it would be perfectly legal if someone was.

It seems in Idaho only one person need know recording is going on. That would mean the person doing the recording. Well, this is Idaho! Nothing much surprises me anymore.

When I returned today, it seems our very own Wonder Woman actually did record a conversation she had - with a police officer no less. There were charges and counter charges about the propriety of this action. Will it rage on? In one way or another I expect so. It's the nature of the town and those who would be the power brokers. Soap writers need only look to Coeur d'Alene politics and they'd never have to stretch their imaginations again.

On a more serious note, I must say I am appalled by what's going on. Even if taping is legal, when is it and when is it not ethical? For keeping track of the facts about a policy question, why not just announce that you'll be taping for the sake of accuracy?

I have long since given up trying to understand our merry band of caped crusaders; their obsession with everything that goes on and their unending search for misdeeds. I have my own thoughts on how they might be more successful in their attempts but any suggestions, given long ago, fell on deaf ears. So be it.

This obsession, however, is now turning ugly and I must say I would never trust one of them again. Like minds and all that. I would not speak to a one of them on the phone. I would be fearful of being honest not knowing how or when it might be used against me.  The knowledge that they are willing to tape is chilling. 

There is a lot of anonymity in blog postings under the guise that people fear for their jobs. If true, it's not a nice community we live in. One where a person can not speak their mind without fear of retribution.

I nearly lost a friend because of this obsession. A comment on a post some time ago sounded so much like this friend I didn't believe her denial. We've discussed it often since. Wonder woman admitted she had made the comment and had signed it as anonymous to protect me. That's when I washed my hands of the whole bunch and apologized profusely and profoundly to my friend.  

What we have here is no longer politics as usual. It's becoming vindictive and vengeful. It is a sad state when a city with such a beautiful lake has such frightening and dangerous undercurrents.

Is The Die Cast?

I figure by starting now maybe we can get more than 21.37% of the people to the polls in November though I have my doubts.

While the local results did not surprise me, it's always curious why more people don't bother to vote. It can't be the inconvenience factor. Absentee voting is becoming more and more popular. Those who are against vote by mail on the premise that "uninformed" voters may be more inclined to vote should look at the absentee numbers. What's the difference? It is voting by mail!

If it's not inconvenience, it must be a lack of interest. Well, no. That doesn't wash either if you're into the blogging community. The best coverage of yesterday's elections is on Huckleberries this morning. Especially since it includes reactions.

This go round I'm not going to denigrate either the candidates or the voters. The candidates did their part. They got involved and ran for office. With all the rights that have been taken from us lately, I applaud the voters who did their part. They exercised their right. It's one we still have and should exercise!! They've told those who did neither what they think, how they feel and who they want running things. They will have their way.

It will be interesting to see who prevails in November. My guess is it will be pretty much what the primaries are telling us now. If you're not happy with the results you can do something about it. If you voted and the results didn't go the way you'd have liked, well, that's democracy. If you didn't vote and you don't like the results, well, you know, everybody still can. In November!

A Lesson to Be Learned?

Today is primary day in Kootenai County. It isn't quite three o'clock in the afternoon, but the threads on Huckleberries, our local online news source, reports turnout has been dismally low. I had been talking with a neighbor earlier and she had totally forgotten today was election day! I mentioned there was still plenty of time. The reply was a shrug of total disinterest.

Thinking about the Democratic primaries we have been watching for what seems like forever, got me to wondering about why there is so little interest on the local level. Odd, the heated battles for the minds of the people seem to be on the various blogs - not in the press. Blogs are not the most widely read choice the people have but they contain the most information - good and bad.

Candidate forums have been few and far between and voter guides lacking. I look at the fervor generated by Obama and Clinton and wish we had it on the local level. We have issues that have hearts pulsating and tempers flaring on a multitude of issues - yet little is spelled out,  except on the blogs.

The best the voting public has been given by the press is lackluster endorsements of less than inspiring candidates and half page ads for but a few of those running, listing supporters. If you don't know where the candidate stands, read their ads. The names of the supporters tell you everything you need to know. If you know who the players are in the community. Otherwise they'll be meaningless.

How many people read them? Probably very few. How many people will know what issues the supporters endorse? Probably very few. Most of what we get is eye pollution along our streets and highways. Signs of the times. What are we supposed to do? Pick the candidate with the prettiest sign?

In actuality, the candidates are probably not as uninspiring as they seem; but more likely they aren't given enough of a platform to let the public get to know them.

I wouldn't know the candidates if I bumped into them on the street what's more know what they really are about other than hardworking and caring.

I may be tired of seeing Hillary and Obama all over the media sparring with one another, but I know who they are and what they stand for.  Everything they say, every place they say it, is covered. On the local level I know little.  I'd know even less if I weren't involved in blogging.

I know the papers are understaffed and northern Idaho politics are not covered well by the broadcast media, so I say hurrah for us. At least we who read the blogs have the opportunity to vote better informed then we might otherwise.

Bloggers Rule!

Awhile back, at the suggestion of my blogging mentor, Dave Oliveria, I was invited to participate in a forum about blogging as communication. The event was the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce Leadership Program Media Day.

My co-participants included Dave, Mike Kennedy from the City Council and Dan English, the County Clerk. And me. The retired old gal who lives on the prairie, walks her old dog and blogs. It was an interesting mix. I represented what I think of as the nuts and bolts of blogging. The individual who posts on a blog day in and day out. Driven by no more than what interests me at the moment.

I think it went quite well. We each had our own slant on why we participate and how much the different styles of blogging intertwine.

What was of more interest to me, however, was what I learned by sitting in on two preceding sessions. It told me a lot about why we get such lousy news coverage from both the print and broadcast media. Mostly its the bottom line. We have been suffering locally by the cutbacks made by the Spokane based Spokesman Review. A speaker from the Coeur d'Alene Press made it clear there was no intention of picking up the resulting lack of in depth reporting. Their mission, basically, is to be all things to all readers. Of course without talented staff that's pretty hard to do.

I sat, too, and listened to a young TV reporter talk about how their hours are being cut and they more often than not have no background knowledge about the stories they are assigned to report.He spoke of how difficult it is to get a hook for a story because they become so jaded nothing phases them. It was not an encouraging scenario if one has hoped for better.

Then we bloggers took the stage. I don't think we were particularly smug, but we did, collectively, understand where blogging fits into all of this. From Dan and Mike using it to correct bad information, answer questions about activities in each of their fields of endeavor to Dave covering a bit of everything in real time day in and day out. Me? I talked of how blogs can open the world to you on a one to one basis about anything from anywhere you want to go. Exchanges, unfiltered and unfined, between two people without layers of editorializing or mind bending analysis. Real information, again, in real time.

I'm glad our panel was last. I found it telling that the participants from the other panels did not listen to ours. They might have gotten a few ideas about how blogs can be a benefit to them rather than something to fear.

Those in the media who learn how to embrace new technology and techniques will survive. They'll change but they will survive.

Those who do not will leave the news hungry public with just about what we have now.

The questions were good and well answered. The response was positive. I've put my note cards away.

I've always enjoyed blogging. Mostly because it's just plain fun. But today, I can say I'm proud to be a blogger. We matter. Far more than you may expect.

When The Scales Are Even Justice Is Served

Today is the third anniversary of one of the most horrendous crimes that has happened in recent memory in our fair community. Joseph Duncan came to town. He killed a mother, her male friend and her son. He kidnapped two younger children from the same family and ultimately killed one of them. For some reason he came back to town with the young girl, stopped at the local Denny's, was recognized and arrested.

The case is now in the sentencing stage in Federal court. Delay after delay. The holdup? His mental competency. Those scales of justice aren't quite even yet.

There is better news in another small town. This is the case of a MySpace account being set up for a phantom person with the sole intent of harassing a young girl suffering from low self esteem. With the enticement of a "boyfriend", messages soon turned cruel and when one finally stated the world would be better off without her, the girl committed suicide.

The upshot of this case is that an adult woman helped in the creation of the account and the scheme. The last I had read about the case, there would be no prosecution because there was no way of directly tying the actions on MySpace to the suicide. That was on the state level. The Feds had a whole different perspective.

Today an AP story says the woman has been indicted.

Public outrage helped by cooperation from MySpace has struck a blow to cyber bullying and cheers to the U.S. attorney who pursued it.

A thirteen year old girl on medication for ADD and depression killed herself. An adult helped perpetrate the hoax that caused it.

Be careful out there. You never know who is on the other keyboard. Remember Joseph Duncan had a blog too!

"Outed"! It Goes With The Territory

I was engrossed in some article this morning and sipping my coffee when Hub uttered a rather loud, "Sheesh! You've been outed!"

"What?"

"Huckleberries! Your defense of your blogging buddy about Rathdrum."

I started to laugh. It seems my blogging mentor, Dave Oliveria of the Spokeman Review, used a part of a recent post of mine in his print edition column this morning. It was really more about the recent controversy over two stories by SR columnists regarding Rathdrum than it was about me. Never-the-less he did mention me by name and gave my blog address.

Hub is rather paranoid about such. He figures we'll now have to fence the driveways and load the guns. I calmed him down. "Not to worry, he didn't use our last name and it's no where on my blog."

The good citizens of Rathdrum haven't much cared for the press they've been getting. They seem to think the stories have been a put down. An editorial in their local paper, The Rathdrum Star, said as much as did letters to the editor in both papers. Being familiar with the town I understood where the reporter was coming from and wanted to defend him. I also think it's great how proud the town's people are of their community and how vocal some of them were in expressing it.

Dave's point was that any entity coming into it's own and attracting notice will get publicity; good and bad. And that's okay.

My point in all of this goes back to Hub's fear of repercussions versus the way one chooses to blog. I don't believe in using profanity and will not tolerate it in my comments section. I would say to a person's face anything I write about them. I question things I don't understand and criticize things I feel are deserving but whatever goes into a post is either observation from a personal point of view or opinion. It is not my intention to humiliate anyone or anything; just to make people think.

I've been at this nonsense for several years now. My blog, my dog and I are synonymous - Dogwalk Musings. I have no position what-so-ever in the community so my real name is of no consequence. At Blogfest I introduce myself as Dogwalk Musings and that seems to suffice. My friends know it; who else cares? I've had relatively few bad experiences. I'd like to think it's because of my trying to be even handed. Fair. Decent.

So I've been outed. It's happened before. As long as Hub's request that our last name not be used, I don't mind. It does mean someone is actually reading what I write. Why else would one blog? As Dave said about Rathdrum becoming an increasingly important player in northern Idaho I'll apply to the increasing visibility of my blog, "Publicity comes with that. Some good. Some bad. However, it's better to be discussed - and even cussed at times - then to be ignored."

Hub and I have differing opinions. Which is more prudent? I guess that remains to be seen. I'm willing to stick with mine. He doesn't read what I write anyway!