The Effect of the New Media on Campaign 2004

Update: This just brewing: the CBS memo on Bush's National Guard service may have been forged. It used a proportional font that wasn't used in the '60s.

The Blinne Blog is back from summer hiatus. I spent the Labor Day weekend watching the political blogs and I noticed how the so-called new media are directly affecting this campaign. Now I am not talking here about Matt Drudge or talk radio or Fox News. No, I am talking about independent web publishers popularly known as blogs. Three stories from this weekend illustrate things that weblogs have done that even the old new media can not do well.

1. John Kerry for President, a 404 Organization.
   John Kerry's web page had a response piece [Note: this link is dead and the index of press releases skip pr_2004_0905a and going straight to pr_2004_0905b.] entitled The 2004 GOP Convention: Four Days Filled With Lies, Mischaracterizations, Distortions, And Half-Truths. This was a cut and paste job that merely quoted from the convention and there was nothing to explain why the statements were lies. Check this link that saved the web page. It also in effect called John McCain a lier.
2. The Steubenville Meltdown.
   Here we have a witness that showed the main stream media completed missed John Kerry's rally going completely out of control. Steubenville is home to a Franciscan university and is very much pro-life. This had to be rescheduled from when the univeristy was not in session to when it was. They also had the rally in a public park. Here's an e-mail from a witness:
   

   John Kerry came to Steubenville yesterday and quickly realized he was in the wrong city. Steubenville is a city where there are 6 Democrats for every 1 Republican, and the Steelworkers unions are alive and active. You would think this was solid John Kerry territory. The mob used to control Steubenville and now the unions think they do. Well, they are wrong.

   The Kerry campaign first scheduled a visit to Steubenville two weeks ago but "scheduling conflicts" came up at the last minute. Oh, and did I mention that Kerry wanted to use a local gun range as a campaign stop, but the owner turned him down? And that the Fire Department Union President told the Kerry campaign that not only would he not organize the union to support Kerry at the rally, but that he was supporting President Bush! The Kerry campaign took for granted that this area was sown up. Mistake number one. So they rescheduled the campaign trip when Franciscan University was back in session. Mistake number two.

   Before Kerry arrived there was a huge pro-life march led by Franciscan University students, 500 strong. "You can't be Catholic and pro-abortion", read some of their signs. Students and members of local Catholic parishes were full of energy and FoxNews reported that this was the largest protest against Kerry outside of the Democratic Convention. Just picture 500 pro-lifers marching from their college campus to meet Kerry. Where else but in Steubenville, Ohio! Though the Franciscan University did not organize the event, it is well known for its orthodox Catholic education which encourages students to put their faith into action. These students simply cherish their Catholic faith and could not stand to let Kerry use their faith as a political prop. I am proud of my alma mater.

   ….The Kerry campaign not only made a mistake in their timing, but they also chose to hold the rally in a public park which should be open to all the public. Mistake number three. The police chief, sheriff, and mayor all agreed with me that protesters and their signs would be allowed inside the Kerry rally site. Freedom of speech is alive and well here in Ohio. The Kerry campaign flipped out!

   So, now add another 500 local Bush supporters to the Kerry rally. They tried to turn up the music but they could not drown us out. According to the Herald Star (local press), "The crowd, estimated by officials as 3,500 strong, was almost split in half with people for and against the Massachusetts senator." John Kerry must know he has a problem when over 15% of his audience was booing him. We were respectful and did not heckle him - but upon arrival and when he sought our applause he got something he didn't expect. As the press arrived a feisty nine year old little girl began shouting, "We want Bush!", and we all chanted along. The campaign staff was beside themselves. This is history in the making! Even places like Steubenville are not supporting John Kerry. He is in serious trouble.

   My friends, John Kerry will not be coming back to Steubenville. Kerry was visibly shaken when he received boos from the audience.....

3. AP Caught in Dirty Tricks
   This one was picked up by Drudge but it was the bloggers who did the heavy lifting. Here the crowd was alleged to have booed President Clinton's heart problems. Audio files came out the woodwork showing it not the case. AP tried to say it was oohing, then deleted the reference to booing altogether along with the by line, the timestamp, and all previous versions of the story. They also purged Nexus of the trail. This goes beyond bias in my opinion and AP should launch an investigation of this.