Daily Blog Roundup: Thursday, July 29, 2004
By David L. Sifry
Special to CNN.com
Editor's Note: Dave L. Sifry is the CEO and founder of Technorati, a Web-based company that tracks weblogs, or personal journals, on the Internet.
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The last day of the DNC proved to be a barn burner, and bloggers responded to each of the speeches with aplomb.
But the day wasn't only about the speeches -- some good reporting was done away from the convention floor, as well as a lot of introspection on the role of blogging and its relationship to other forms of media.
Many will ask if this convention was a watershed moment of some kind -- and from this seat, high in the rafters of the FleetCenter, it certainly feels like we have turned a corner. Webloggers have had their first official seat at a major media event, one in which they became a story themselves.
While the early products of the convention bloggers, both inside and outside of the hall created some controversy, I think that soon we will all look back and note that a new media is emerging. If prior to the convention, 99 percent of the world had never heard of blogging, now maybe only 95 percent of the world has never heard about it.
We shouldn't set our expectations too high, too quickly. Just as radio didn't replace newspapers, TV didn't replace movies, and the Internet hasn't replaced TV, blogging will help to augment other media forms. Clearly it will help to add to the growing number of voices out there, finding each other, and participating in the global conversation.
On to the highlights:
Polarity, and a conservative surge: An interesting phenomenon occurred tonight. During the Kerry speech, posts from liberal bloggers were few and generally positive on the Kerry speech. Once it was over, a few made comments like Ezra Klein of Pandagon, who wrote
"this is the perfect speech for John Kerry." Note the comments to that post, which were generally positive. However, something very interesting happened right after the speech: Liberal bloggers stopped writing. And the conservatives started posting in a frenzy. Technorati tracked over 800 posts by authoritative conservative bloggers in the hour after the Kerry speech concluded, while fewer than 100 posts were made by authoritative liberal bloggers during that hour. Conservative bloggers were angry, and they made no bones about it. Glenn Reynolds has a great summary, and the comments are well worth picking through as well. Deep thoughts: NYU Journalism professor and prolific blogger Jay Rosen has been blogging from the DNC, and has written a series of thoughtful posts giving a deep analysis of the convention and the place of weblogging as commentary on the convention.Wes Clark: Clark's speech got positive reactions from the bloggers at the convention. Alan at The Command Post wrote, "If the point is for the Hero General to anoint a Commander In Chief, Clark's doing it. Whatever you may say of the content, he's nailing the delivery. Unless he falls of the dais, it's a home run.". Matthew Stoller wrote, "he reemphasized a theme of his campaign, the Democratic ownership of the flag and symbols of patriotism. And he framed how Republicans attack Democrats on national security as a giant fraud.Lieberman falls short: Former VP candidate Joe Lieberman took the stage early in the evening, and blogger reviews were negative. TalkLeft wrote, "Totally uninspiring. He was far more passionate in the debates and when he was determined to stay in the race." Other bloggers in Blogger alley seemed almost unaware that Lieberman was on the stage, such was his lack of stage presence.Bloggers breaking news: Along with the punditry on the speeches, various bloggers were working hard breaking stories or providing perspective and light on underreported stories. One such story is that of John Kael Weston, the Fallujah-based founder of Donkeys in the Desert, the Iraqi chapter of Democrats Abroad.Natasha at Pacific Views spoke with him at length, and Weston has interesting first-hand experience in Fallujah and Baghdad.Sharpton vs. Matthews: Steve Gillmor Gillmor reports on a flap between MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Al Sharpton when Matthews cut in on Sharpton's speech yesterday to call Sharpton a man whose career was founded on a lie. Sharpton followed with an appearance on Matthews' show, and Steve reports further on it. 
