For blogs, the Libby trial marks a courthouse coming of age. It is the first federal case for which independent bloggers have been given official credentials, said Robert A. Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association. Cox negotiated access for the bloggers.
With the recent announcement that NBC Universal has signed Keith Olbermann to a new multi-million dollar, multi-year contract, the time has come to consider whether Olbermann Watch continues to serve a valuable role as a watchdog site.
It's clear to me that TND has too much right-of-center baggage to be an effective platform from which to advance the non-partisan agenda of the Media Bloggers Association. I believe I can be a far more effective advocate for the MBA - and establish myself as a thought-leader on blogging and citizen media - by creating an entirely new blog. Maybe folks will see this as somewhat pointless in that I am still the same person and I am still going to have the same opinions. Maybe they're right but I feel that that the time has come to break with my TND-self and start a new chapter in my blogging career. What better way than with a new personal blog with a new more constructive tone; a blog devoted to my work as President of the Media Bloggers Association.
And I'm curious how Shane's article [in the New York Times] made the mistake of saying Robert Cox of Media Bloggers Association had "negotiated access" for all of the bloggers at the trial. I made very clear in my interview that there were two distrinct groups of bloggers, and I'm certain Jane and Marcy were explicit on that point as well. Did Cox make some sort of sweeping (and misleading) claim of credit late in the process that Shane neglected to double-check with Team FDL? Did a confused copyeditor try to "clarify" a poorly worded sentence? Hopefully, Siun or Jane or someone is hounding Shane for an explanation.
Correction: February 15, 2007
A front-page article on Thursday about bloggers covering the perjury trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. referred imprecisely to the role of Robert A. Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, in securing credentials. Mr. Cox negotiated access for his association, which was the first blogger group to be granted credentials to cover the trial. He did not negotiate on behalf of firedoglake.com and other blogs that received their credentials later.
y purpose in posting as much information as I could find about [name of Cox’s critic] was simply to make the point that she is not as ‘anonymous’ as she thinks and that her behavior may also come with a cost. Just as she made her hate speech about me a part of the ‘permanent’ record of the internet via Google, so to is information about the actual person who wrote all that stuff. My hope is that someday, somehow she will be held accountable for her behavior. In the meantime, that she does not like is reason enough. It's called getting a taste of your own medicine, something [name of Cox’s critic] father knows something about.
Dr. [name of the father of one of Cox’s critics]
BTW, there is no mystery to how I know what I know. My web hosting account comes with some basic web stats software which includes features like displaying where visitors are coming from (so I know what sites/forums have linked to OW) and the IP addresses of visitors/comments (so I can sort by IP address). I can match the IP addresses with what pages were visited including the comment form page; this allows me to do a quick sort and see all the comments coming from one person regardless of what fake name they use. This is how I know when someone is using multiple ‘handles’ to post.”
[Initial of OW critic] is the sad story of a smart girl with way too much time on her hands and a bit of narcissism disorder. She is originally from Northern California. Her father is a doctor and her sister is also [initial]. She is athletic, an avid soccer player who went to high school near [city] and went to college at [university] where she studied history. She was a very good student at [university] and worked part-time as a "TA" in the history department among other things.
She is 5'3", weighs about 110 pounds and wears a size 4. She was married but is now divorced. She drives up a pick up truck and claims to have worked as a detective once. She describes herself as "not so well endowed--big big big fuckin' brains-- and a lot a balls."
[Initial of OW critic] is your classic "professional" student. She has never held a real job but rather spent her last few years jumping from school to internships and back. She was an intern at the [organization] which allowed her to live at home while working for low pay in [city]. While there she wrote an Op-Ed piece lobbying a professional organization. Last summer she again lived at home while she spent time working for the [organization].
Today she is holed up as a graduate student living off daddy's money at the [university]. She was originally pursuing a Masters in [field] and would have graduated this spring but decided to add a degree in [field] and so has put of her graduation plans off until 2006 (see what I mean about "professional" student). In the meantime, she is looking for a summer internship, possibly entailing a move to the East Coast (I won't say where exactly). She is also considering participating in programs in Central America (possibly Guatamala) and maybe even Cuba. Her dream, of course, would be work with/for Keith Olbermann at MSNBC. My money is on her taking a good look at the real world next year, gulping and opting to for a Ph.D. program, preferably someplace warm.
[Initial of OW critic] currently lives about a block off the main [university] campus in [city] where she is at liberty to stroll to class and her part time job in a school office. I have her exact home and work address, phone numbers and a satellite photo but I am not going to publish any of that here. The last four digits of her home phone are [xxxx]; her work phone is [xxxx].
While at [university], [Initial of OW critic] has been very active in a number of campus organizations ranging from a pro-Kerry group to a poker club. She is not very good at cards but the stakes are small so she can't lose too much.
Today [Initial of OW critic] writes "I'm fairly confident that my want for privacy is perfectly valid, not nefarious in the least, and just plain smart." What she fails to mention is that she has posted to OlbermannWatch.com on a variety other names as well (and apparently, even to this day, still believes that I don't know this).
When you compare [Initial of OW critic] public persona to the online incarnation you can begin to understand her reason for not wanting to be associated with her internet alter ego - a horrendously foul-mouthed, bossy, raving loon. If a potential employer were to run a google search and match up her name with her various psuedonyms like [names] and the many others it might be awkward for her.
…
You see, if you put together the pieces – [state], School, [field] - (and Google is pretty good and putting together such pieces) you will find that there are not that many Universities, in [state], that offer graduate degrees in [field] - and even less than have students named [first name of OW critic].
“… a few days ago, MBA President Robert Cox had a very interesting detailed blog post describing the strategy used [in the lawsuit against a Maine blogger]:
The real story behind the ‘Maine Blogger’ story is that this blogstorm did not just ‘happen’. I personally spent several weeks developing a media strategy which we launched last Thursday morning. The original goal was to get the story in front of 3-4 mm people by Friday night. We easily surpassed that figure and the number continues to grow.
Once we were ready to drop the story, I reached out to the Members of the Media Bloggers Association with an ‘MBA Legal Alert’ and they responded in force. Hundreds of bloggers responded to the MBA’s request to post this story and make their readership aware of what was happening in Maine. We also sent out a traditional press release to our ‘press list’ and added in about 100 Maine/Travel media outlets – that’s how the Globe got the story. Once the ball was rolling lots of other folks got behind the effort and Lance was a full-fledged bloglebrity.
This kind of blog/MSM media strategy is part of the two-pronged approach we take as part of our Legal Defense Initiative. I think the real story is that this strategy can be – and has been – so effective.
And I agree – it can be, and has been, so effective. But… it’s important to realize just how old-school top-down this is structurally. In fact, scarily so. Work with people who have big megaphones, get them to echo the story, then go up the media pyramid. It’s extremely traditional. Now, the powers here were used for good instead of evil. But, still, what if it were the reverse?"
“The next MBA Board meeting will take place via teleconference at 8:00 PM ET on Wednesday February 21st. Note: We have yet to schedule the work but we will be developing a blog for the MBA Board which will list all the Board members, provide contact information, provide the public agenda for the meeting, a public summary of the board meeting (as is standard practice for boards, we will not publish minutes of the board meetings so that all members feel comfortable speaking freely).”
“The MBA has created a unique opportunity for MBA members to participate in a fascinating discussion of the upcoming FRONTLINE special "News War". FRONTLINE is hosting an online forum for media bloggers and other electronic journalism professionals, whom they are asking to weigh in on the themes presented in "News War," the four-part FRONTLINE special coming Feb, 13, 20, & 27, and March 27 to PBS. They are most interested in MBA member bloggers answers to the questions, ‘What are the business models of the future?’ and ‘How will we get news?’”
