Ginny Buckingham, the Herald’s resident Republican op-ed columnist, published an interesting piece today (reg. req’d) on the state of the Massachusetts political blogosphere. She focuses mostly on the blogging habits of the the candidates for Governor (her conclusion: none of them is doing a very good job of it so far). But she also gives a shout out to folks like us:
Of course, none of these campaign sites will play as valuable a role in 2006 as the so-called âshadow blogs.â Two examples of these are bluemassgroup.com (leaning left) and hubpolitics.com (leaning right). They are like âsophisticated 527sâ of the Internet, said one operative. Of course, 527 committees like the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were a huge message driver in 2004. Now independent blogs are taking up where those 527-sponsored TV ads left off.
“Shadow blogs”? That’s a new one on me. But it does lead us to ask:
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
The shadow blogs know!
MMMMMWAAHAHAHAHA!!
(Cue creepy organ music!)
We’re the least shadowy bloggers on the planet. Our bios and names are here, folks, on the front page. And we have nothing whatsoever to do with 527s; we haven’t even raised a dime for single candidate yet.
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Se non e vero, e bene trovato; “If it’s not true, at least it’s good story.”
I don’t know where “shadow” comes from, but I think her reference to 527’s isn’t about money. She’s trying to say that blogs can play the same role as 527’s did, in driving campaign messages without actually being campaigns (or directly connected to them). Independent players in the campaign advertising & press system, with their own agendas. 527s do this by running TV ads (which requires raising money), blogs do this by drawing readership to their own sites and posting stuff.
So how “shadowy” is stating your opinion publicly? Is this guy “shadowy”?
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(Yup, I’m still a Norman Rockwell Democrat.)