Right On The Right

The Monica Lewinsky scandal was one of the most public spectacles in the history of American politics, but it was also a launchpad for new media. Free Republic became the home of millions, Rush Limbaugh expanded his ever growing empire, and Newt Gingrich became one of the most decisive politicians of the last century. Who was behind this all however? Matt Drudge. No one can deny the influence of the Drudge Report in American politics. Even his critics admit Drudge did something huge:

As much as I'm loathe to give a compliment here, every news blogger and online journalist is an heir to Drudge, who realized before anyone else that all journalists are created equal on the browser's address bar.

Both sides of the blogosphere owe a "tip-o-the-hat" to Matt Drudge for what he accomplished for new media. The age of serious citizen journalism began, and the world of global news entered homes everywhere. Just think about how media will change throughout the next ten years...

If Mike Huckabee somehow manages to win the Republican nomination, blame the blogosphere. Apparently, somewhere out there in the corner of the Conservative blogosphere that doesn't see him as the big government, foreign policy lacking, high tax idiot that he is, people have been pounding the keyboards supporting the Huckster. The New York Slime has the story:

DES MOINES _ Mike Huckabee held a little event here on Tuesday to thank the roughly 700 bloggers who, he said, were responsible for keeping his campaign alive. Because he had no money and initially got very little media attention, he said, he could not have kept going without their dedication.

He said the bloggers, whom he called his “secret weapon,” spent their days “pounding their keyboards and hitting ‘send’ in the middle of the night.” Ed Rollins, his campaign consultant, said none of the bloggers were on Mr. Huckabee’s payroll, chuckling at the idea of a payroll.

At one point, Chuck Norris, Mr. Huckabee’s most famous supporter, wandered into the small meeting room where the event was being held. Mr. Norris, the martial artist and action actor, confessed to being “computer illiterate” himself, but thanked the bloggers for getting him and Mr. Huckabee together.

Apparently, Chuck Norris is going to be holding a virtual barbecue to thank the online supporters of Mike. Sure, I once considered Mike, but that was before I realized he was an anti-Bush, foreign policy-lacking idiot. The fact that bloggers may some day be blamed for the Jimmy Carter of the GOP is disheartening, and makes me want to give any Huckabee supporters online a swift kick in the... typing hand.

Bloggers have a habit of heralding the progress of new media, and the downfall of the dinosaurs. By no means have newspapers, network tv, and CNN lost their influence, but they're losing their audience. Recent numbers show that the tumble is continuing:

NEW YORK The Audit Bureau of Circulations released circulation numbers for more than 700 daily newspapers this morning for the six-month period ending September 2007. Of the top 25 papers in daily circulation (see chart, separate story), only four showed gains.

According to an analysis of ABC figures, for 538 daily U.S. newspapers, circulation declined 2.5% to 40,689,617. For 609 papers that filed on Sunday, overall circulation dropped 3.5% to 46,771,486. The percentages are based on comparisons from the same period a year ago.

For The New York Times, daily circulation fell 4.51% to 1,037,828 and Sunday plunged 7.59% to 1,500,394, at least partly due to a price increase.

Not only have the folks at the New York Slime decided to up prices, but they thinned the paper, increased ad costs, and fired some employees. To put it simply, they're making financial moves to stave off collapse, that have only served to hurt the paper more. Their liberal bias and new slogan of "All the Government Secrets that are Fit to Print" can't be helping them in Conservative circles. The dinosaurs are ailing.

The battle to define ourselves as journalists, when we choose to do original reporting, has been a difficult one. The Main Stream Media has long been saying blogs only preach to the choir, do no investigative work, and don't contribute as true journalists. The CIA and the NSA disagree. One small step for blogger, one giant leap for journalistic integrity:

Are bloggers part of the news media? The U.S. government -- led by two of its most secretive agencies -- is increasingly saying, "Yes, they are."

Despite the rap that bloggers simply "bloviate" and "don't try to find things out," as conservative newspaper columnist Robert Novak once sniffed, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) have altered policies to indicate they're taking blogs seriously, and a growing number of public offices are actively reaching out to the blogosphere.

The CIA recently updated its policies on Freedom of Information Act requests to allow bloggers to qualify for special treatment once reserved for old-school reporters. And last August, the NSA issued a directive to its employees to report leaks of classified information to the media -- "including blogs," the order said.

The Freedom of Information Act change should be noticeable one, though bloggers and columnists on the right have been fighting through the paperwork to get facts for some time now. Document drops and investigative journalism is no rare feat in the blogosphere, and it's only going to become easier as more people realize we're part of the journalism community.

Fred Thompson is doing a lot of things differently, including handling his relations with the media. When it came time to choose who he would give his first post-debate interview to, he chose a new media source, Breitbart. Here's the interview:

This man is continuously impressive, just as Mitt Romney is continuously impressive. When Thompson announces (and I believe he will), there's going to be some serious debate in my mind.