Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Point Is Sheathed for Now.

The only new entry on ohio dot com's new blog The Point explains why the blog is on hiatus after day one:

    In his effort at full disclosure, Keeler explained that he is a candidate for the Summit County Republican Party's central committee on the slate that would unseat Chairman Alex Arshinkoff. He also explained why.

    We're concerned that the explanation as to why – while meant in good faith – left this perception: Ohio.com is paying a blogger who is using the Web site to promote a change in party leadership.

    Alex Arshinkoff called and shared the same concern.

Etc. The blog is on hold until they work out the parameters.

h/t Redhorse who includes some thoughts as well. I agree that the MSM/blog mixing is fraught with problems. On the other hand, I do think there is a difference between supporting one candidate or another versus running for an office and talking it up in a paid MSM gig. Yes, even an unpaid party office. The ABJ was right to be concerned, but why then weren't they concerned before the launch?

If MSM outlets are going to hire bloggers the first thing they have to do is lay out sensible ground rules ahead of time. Why that didn't happen here is anyone's guess.

1 comments:

Ed Esposito said...

There are lots of good points on all sides of this but the central point of blogging isn't that you are a "non-partisan" journalist but that you come to your opinion through your partisan bias. Does having the bias -- and admitting it -- make the opinion any less valid? It seems to me political blogs do exactly what they're intended to do and backing down from expression of opinion on a site expressly devoted to political discourse denies the central idea behind the site: let people talk. As long as they're up front with their reasons (and bias) let the reader judge. That should go for the blogger and Alex.