TECH

Mudslinging Has Just Begun on Bigger-Than-Ever Blogosphere

by Neil Munro

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008


The close scrutiny of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's family life, touched off by the reporting of liberal blogs, is just a taste of what's in store for Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama in the first presidential campaign to unfold amid an unrestrained blogosphere that has exploded in size and scope since the 2004 election.

But the Palin episode demonstrates that the two camps are using bloggers to their advantage. On Tuesday, McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt blamed left-leaning blogs for spreading rumors about Palin, including that her fifth child, Trig, was actually born to her daughter, Bristol. That prompted the McCain camp to release the news that 17-year-old Bristol Palin was pregnant by her boyfriend and planned to marry soon, he said.

On the same day, Obama effectively used the same rumors to distance himself from strident anti-Palin criticism by his online advocates, even as he increased the media focus on the stories. "I've heard some of the news on this, and so let me be as clear as possible," he said. "People's children are especially off-limits ... and so I would strongly urge people to back off of these kinds of stories."

From the conventions forward, there seems to be no limit to the amount of dirt that will get spread on the Internet until Election Day.

On Tuesday, McCain staffers went on the attack in response to news--spread by left-of-center bloggers--that Palin's husband had been a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, which advocates the return of federal lands in Alaska to the state. "Supporters of Barack Obama are engaged in an unfortunate and nasty smear campaign," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said.

The same day, right-of-center blogs posted reports that Obama had endorsed a Senate bill that would give native Hawaiians a measure of legal independence from the federal government. And another conservative blog floated claims that Obama had been connected to the late Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, through a series of financial relationships that went like this: A now indicted Obama political donor in Chicago, Tony Rezko, was a partner of businessman Nadhmi Auchi, who was an Iraqi with ties to Hussein. The blog, called Rezko Watch, even suggested that Obama's opposition to the war in Iraq was a favor born of the Obama-Rezko-Auchi relationship.

The story "sounds like it would be in the same region of implausibility" as the Palin faked-pregnancy story, right-leaning radio host Dennis Prager said.

But in general, mudslinging that hurts GOP candidates gets picked up faster by the major media than does dirt hurled against Democratic candidates, says Roger Simon, chief executive officer of Pajamas Media, a network of blogs.

For example, he said, the news about the Palin daughter's pregnancy went public in days, but for several months before the Democratic convention in Denver, the mainstream media ignored stories on conservative blogs that former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, a Democrat, had cheated on his wife. Edwards later confessed to an affair with a former video producer for his presidential campaign.

Both parties use the blogs and talk radio to their advantage, said liberal radio host Ellen Rattner. "Each side favors some bloggers," she said. "In return, the bloggers do their bidding."

Simon said he tries to chart an independent course between candidates and major media outlets. "At Pajamas Media," he said, "we take the view that everybody is biased."

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