Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

The Republic National Convention posted a video online this Saturday alleging that Obama might not be speaking with complete candor on his relationship to the Blagojevich scandal. The video titled “Questions Remain” is a bit reminiscent of a 1950’s newsreel which is appropriate for a piece of work so explicitly Mccarthy-like.

Cast in all black and white the piece attempts to show Obama’s connection to the governor because Obama helped with Blagojevich’s campaign in 2006. I wonder if the guilt-by-association trick will work better this time around than during the election. But this case is certainly an even more bizarre attempt at a connection – what kind of headline do the Republicans hope to make:
OBAMA HELPED FELLOW STATE DEMOCRAT TO CAMPAIGN FOR REELECTION

Pretty unimpressive stuff.

Mccain is distancing himself from the attack ad (aren’t those over?!) – perhaps uncoincidentally during an interview when he said he might not support a Palin presidential bid. The whole venomous attack thing is something that has hurt Mccain several times. Bush used it on him in 2000 and his own attempts to play those hands might have cost him this past election.

Which makes me rather wonder what the RNC is up to on this. What will de-legitimizing and incoming president during a time of grave crisis do for them? Is it just a reflexive blow from punchers that have trained to hard to miss a small opening?

I would like to see some good analysis on this folks.

It was impossible to avoid the news of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich’s arrest this week. Federal prosecutors charged him with blazing a trail of corruption in pay-to-play schemes, culminating with a “show me the money” approach to appointing Barack Obama’s successor as senator.

The 24-hour cable news channels reveled in the scandal. After the feel-good story of Barack Obama’s historic election, which inspired millions of people, I think the media enjoyed the chance to wallow in the mud of political sleaze.

Today the New York Times published an analysis of Illinois’ history of political corruption. It suggests that residents of the state are comfortable with a degree of criminality in their politicians. Being a major cynic and a former Illinois voter (who helped elect Blagojevich to Congress in 1996), I don’t find his behavior at all shocking. While it’s definitely objectionable, it’s the kind of thing I assume goes on all the time in American politics but in most cases is never exposed to public view.

I thought it would be interesting to see how Blagojevich’s woes were playing out in the social networking arena. If you search for the governor’s name on Facebook, the top results include earnest-sounding citizen groups with names like Impeach Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and People for the Removal of Rod Blagojevich as well as satirical groups, including Rod Blagojevich for President, 2016. That group’s page includes a hilarious possible explanation for the governor’s behavior. Under all those results, however, you’ll find what appears to be Blagojevich’s actual Facebook page, which features the photo below.

The official page lists “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” as a favorite quotation and “Getting things done for people” as the governor’s job description. Those statements may have seemed like throwaway platitudes a week ago, but now they’re bursting with ironic double-entendre potential.

The Facebook account boasted 1,780 supporters as of this evening. The group Citizens of Illinois Against Rod Blagojevich, by contrast, has 5,156 members, almost three times as many. Judging by sheer numbers, it seems that Illinoisans may not be so comfortable with corruption after all. Then again, the number of supporters on the governor’s page was 1,769 earlier today. So despite his ethical troubles (or who knows, maybe because of them), he’s still gaining fans.