Zephyr 's Latest Distraction: Policing the Blogosphere
Zephyr Teachout keeps digging herself into a bigger hole. But, she's cagey. Today, she apologizes to Jerome of MyDD but not Markos of Daily Kos, and makes Joe Trippi out to be the ethical villain. Then, to get everyone talking about a topic other than her, she decides there should be a political bloggers' code of ethics. Her key idea is this:
...one thing we should do is engage citizen watchdog groups in finding out what bloggers are tied to what consulting companies, and prominently publish any contracts – and ask candidates not to hire any of the truly prominent bloggers unless they, like Jerome did, agree not post while consulting.
Cagey, because her latest idea will be so offensive to so many bloggers that her inaccurate allegations of last week unjustly smearing Jerome and Markos' reputations will be forgotten as everyone jumps into a discussion of whether bloggers should be policed.
My advice: Ignore her and don't take the bait.
Two quick additions, then hopefully I'm done with this topic.
Matthew Gross debunks Zephyr's accusations that the internal expecations of the Dean campaign were that by hiring Armstrong-Zuniga, Daily Kos and Markos would write favorably about Dean:
Laura Gross (no relation) is 100% correct when she says:
[T]hese guys were hired as technical consultants. Specifically, they helped the Web team pick a technology platform for the blog (Movable Type) and helped manage Internet advertising (banner ads, Google ads, etc.). They weren't paid to write content -- either for the campaign or on their own blogs. And just in case there was any ambiguity, the campaign made sure they had a notice saying "I am a paid consultant for Howard Dean" right smack on the front of their personal blogs.
As for the accusation that we had any other "internal goal": As is well known, I was the Director of Internet Communications and "Blogger in Chief" for the Dean campaign. To my knowledge, there was never any internal expectation that either Markos or Jerome would provide anything other than technical or advertising advice or services, and those were the only services they did provide.
One other thing I haven't seen mentioned. For someone so intent on being ethical, why did she choose a name for her blog so close to that of prominent blogger Wonkette? It may not be trademark or copyright infringement, but it's an obvious rip-off and seems like an attempt to get attention by riding the coattails of a more successful blogger. Not high in the ethics department, if you ask me.
Update: Mark of Norwegianity underscores that bloggers are not journalists. They are commenters, analysts and activists.
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