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A Proposal for the Progressive Blogosphere Email Print

By Duke1676
11/20/2005 10:37:06 AM EST

It has become obvious that the opening salvos of the fight we have been waiting for have been fired. Over the last three years a huge on-line community has sprung up in large part as a reaction to the Bush Administrations push to war in Iraq. Although we have had many small victories in our quest to get the truth out to the American people, (the Downing Street Memo and  Jeff Gannon to mention two) I believe now comes the true test of our ability to shape opinion and policy.

As the polls show us, more Americans each day are questioning the validity of the Iraq War and the veracity of the claims made by this administration to justify it. In response to this growing discontent, the administration has launched a counteroffensive of misdirection and misinformation. As usual, their method is to attack the messenger rather than confront the message.  The attack on Rep. Murtha is only the latest example of this tactic.  

The general Republican defense seems to be that even to suggest that the administration might have misled the American people when making the case for war is a bold-faced lie, and making such a false accusation is nothing short treasonous.  We've seen the tactic used many times before, from Joe McCarthy to Richard Nixon, but this time there is something new in the equation: us. 

The amount of information and analysis on the subject of pre-war lies that's been amassed over the last few years by progressive bloggers is mind-boggling.  The problem is that this information has for the most part remained within our own community, rarely making it out into the mainstream of American political debate. We need to find a way to share this knowledge with the American people as a whole. I believe it is time for the progressive blogosphere to come together to launch a powerful counteroffensive against the Republican smear campaign.  So here's my plan...

We begin to speak with one voice.  We put "pie," policy debates and framing differences behind us, we leave our egos at the door, and start to educate the public. I propose that we organize a campaign to get the truth out.  I'm not totally sure how to do it, and I'm sure others are far more qualified to lead it, but this is how I think it could work:

    1.We get as many individual bloggers to agree to be part of the program. . . call it "The Project Truth Network" for argument's sake.

    2. Through e-mails and blog postings we ask for bloggers who have researched and written on a specific topic in the past (the 16 words,  Operation Southern Focus, the Downing Street Memo, etc.)  that demonstrated that the administration lied, to write a simple, short, e-mailable primer on the topic. KISS being the key criteria. No editorializing. . . just the facts. A simply understood recounting of the history.

    3.A panel of some sort then goes through the submissions (it could be headquartered here at the Cortex and use its editing/ voting system, or something like it)  and one submission is chosen to be put out across the network. The network could become a sort of an interent "AP wire" for the truth about the pre-war period.

    4. The network is formed through an alliance of  individual blogs ( like Big Brass) that agree to post the story, and community boards that will post it under a communal name ( like ePluibus does)

    5.With communication and commitment the amount of blogs that joined the network could be huge. If each blogger contacted those on his/her blogroll and those that link to them and asked them to join the network one story could possibly be published in thousands of blogs. (think of the google possibilities)

    6.The story could then be disseminated through e-mail lists to even more people.


As I said, I am not an organizational wizard, but I think the idea has possibilities. Feel free to leave any suggestions, ideas, or feedback in the comments. (Or tell me I'm crazy for even thinking such a scheme could work)

If we could debunk the administration's lies one by one and put that information out with a unified voice across the broad spectrum of progressive blogs, we could become a mighty weapon in the arsenal of truth.


KEYWORDS: , ,

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Poll

What do you think?
The plan has possibilities, but needs a lot of work 14%
Why bother, you can't beat these "F"'ers 0%
Good idea, I'd be up for it if you get it off the ground 42%
You're freakin nuts hippie boy 0%
I like it but I don't think it can be done 0%
Great idea, I'd be willing to help 42%
Call me, we'll do lunch. . . that's freakin fabulous 0%
It's not important...It's a non-issue 0%

Votes: 7
Results | Other Polls
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A Proposal for the Progressive Blogosphere | 21 comments (16 topical, 5 editorial, 0 hidden)
Definitely worth the effort. (none / 1)
Didn't Steve Soto at the Leftcoaster have a similarly titled "Truth Project" during the 04 campaign? I believe that focused on one issue, though.

Brilliant plan (are you SURE you're no good at organizing?) that would require, of course, lots of blogmeisters getting onboard and herding the "cats" in the left blogosphere into some sort of orderly activity.

Not impossible, but leave it out there and see what comes back.

~Just sayin'.

Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle. FDR

by btyarbro on 11/20/2005 12:39:11 PM EST

One key would be (none / 0)
the cooperation of the head honchos at the big community blogs. If they got behind the idea, it would easily work down their blogrolls. I can see some of the big name independent writers not engaging in this, but if all of us "regular" bloggers were involved the network could be quite large.

It could also be done as a "bottom up" effort if the "little guys" could generate enough interest that the Markos's of the world would take notice

Just thinking out loud right now.

by Duke1676 on 11/20/2005 01:55:01 PM EST

[ Parent ]
I hope we can make this happen (none / 1)
How many diaries and articles on the "16 words," the aluminum tubes, the "mushroom cloud," the "we know where they are," Powell's epeech, the "chemical weapons trailors," etc. etc. etc. have toddled off into diary sunset?

Now is the time to unearth all we can and start putting it together in a coherent package.  I'd certainly be willing in helping in that effort.  The tools here at PC should be well suited to the sort of information ressurection, collaboration, and polishing needed to bring this thing to a PR-ready state.

by Devilstower on 11/20/2005 01:48:34 PM EST

the more feedback the better (none / 0)
I know some people here have had a experience in organizing community efforts (Downing Street and EPluribus).

What would be our first step, what pit-falls should we avoid, organizational suggestions etc.

by Duke1676 on 11/20/2005 02:18:07 PM EST

I passed the idea (none / 0)
along to our blogmeister here.  He's tied up with a couple of things, but may have a chance to catch up in a day or two.

A lot of information is available, obviously. And if we all pool our resources, may be doable.

I'm thinking maybe an outfit with vested interests in this could lend some assistance as well.  Got some ideas anyway.

Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle. FDR

by btyarbro on 11/20/2005 08:39:17 PM EST

excellent (none / 0)
I'm thinking maybe an outfit with vested interests in this could lend some assistance as well. Got some ideas anyway.

Now you've really piqued my interest.

There'd be a lot of organizing to do but I don't think you could find a more passionate group to do this kind of project then the lefty blog world. The trick will be to focus that passion.

by Duke1676 on 11/20/2005 09:21:42 PM EST

[ Parent ]
FYI (none / 0)
Just so you know, the Cortex staff is working on the Larry King interview tonight with Bob Woodward, so we're a little distracted.

I'm thinking maybe the DCCC would be very interested, as well as the DNC. I'm sure Howard Dean and Joe Trippi would encourage such a blogging project.

Doesn't mean other readers and parties can't go ahead and plunge right in, though.

Why not crosspost a short announcement across the blogosphere with a link to your piece here? That would give you a temperature gauge and ask folks to come chat about it so we have a central "meet up" space to kick some ideas around?

Just an idea.

Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle. FDR

by btyarbro on 11/21/2005 12:59:47 PM EST

will do (none / 0)
thanks for the update.

by Duke1676 on 11/21/2005 02:26:21 PM EST

[ Parent ]
How about linking up with (none / 1)
the Buy Blue people?

All it takes to fly is to hurl yourself at the ground... and miss. (Douglas Adams)

by scoophound on 11/21/2005 05:32:26 PM EST

good suggestion (none / 0)
thanks. If this was to work we would need as many groups and orgs to get on board as possible. If you can think of anyone else let me know.

by Duke1676 on 11/21/2005 05:46:29 PM EST

[ Parent ]
About this proposal, . . . (none / 0)
this isn't intended to be one of the articles, but maybe you can use it as the beginning of some sort of topic categorization for a search through Technorati for the "Truth Project":

Extraordinary Times

Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle. FDR

by btyarbro on 11/21/2005 11:20:00 PM EST

Thanks, that quite a nice piece of work (none / 0)
There really is a lot of good info there. I'll need to go through it piece by piece...a lot of links there to check out. I'll get back to you with some ideas after I,ve been through it.

By the way, I saw in the comments that someone mentioned the Downingstreet Memo Timeline. Having worked on that timeline I think it could prove to be a very valuable resourse for a project like this.

Also...If this idea starts to gain some traction, I fully intend to try to get the gang over there involved. They're some of the best google-monkeys in the business. If we need some help with fact checking or research they'd prove to be quite a help. They're not too shody on organizing either.. .but thats a ways down the road.

by Duke1676 on 11/22/2005 12:00:06 AM EST

[ Parent ]
Yes, the Downing St. Crowd (none / 0)
is an excellent resource, as well as e pluribus media.

Meant to add the link to AfterDowningSt. in the post, but haven't updated it, yet.

Also, heard back from our blogmeister here.  Very interested in pursuing this, once current projects are firmly in hand.

Another poster on this site, "profmarcus" strikes me as a potential interested source, too. He's had some good stuff, here.

Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle. FDR

by btyarbro on 11/22/2005 10:16:08 AM EST

[ Parent ]
Information Management (none / 0)
I think you found out building your place how much time is involved simply sorting the wheat from the chaff.  Once sorted, checked, and written, news aggregators like MovingIdeas, AlterNet, UNWire, and even MSM "press wires" would be logical places to send the stories/announcements.

IMHO the hard part is designing a taxonomy and structure that will enable researchers and writers to quickly grab relevant information.  Long past time for coordination at that level.

Got RFP?

by rba on 11/22/2005 02:29:58 PM EST

[ Parent ]
A couple of ideas on how this could be done (none / 0)
In order for a venture like this to be effective I think that a multi-phased approach would be necessary.  

First there would need to be a campaign to get people involved and commit to some level of participation.

As far as submissions of articles is concerned I think as RBA pointed out,  sorting and checking could be somewhat time consuming. I think this can be cut down on some of that by :

  1. Keeping each topic as specific as possible. Instead of asking for a long submission on for instance; everything we know about lies about WMD, we break it down to sub topics, Aluminum tubes, Niger Uranium, Chemical and biological mobile labs, drone aircraft, long and short range missile capabilities etc.

  2. We set a style sheet for all submissions. Perhaps they should all open with a quote or set of quotes from the Administration on that topic. Then evidence is presented to show that not only that the quote was false or "misleading", but that evidence shows that the speaker knew or should have known through information available to them at the time that it was false. My thinking here would be to take Bush's 10/07/02 Cincinnati speech, Powell's UN presentation or Bush's SOTU speech and refute them almost line by line in individual articles. At the end of each article would then be a summation section recapping the analysis. Keeping each submission so narrowly focused should keep the submission levels lower.

  3. We could post a list of what articles and topics will be covered with various deadlines for each. We could gently encourage that only those who already have articles on the topics in the bag  from previous posts and have done copious research already  to update them with the most current information and submit them ( of course without discouraging anyone from participating).

If there is a weak link in the plan it would be rallying support for the program. To get commitments from people it would take a PR campaign on our part to convince them that this is a worthwhile project and that we will all benefit from in the long run. If at anytime the project seems in the least bit self-serving or cliquish, I fear the whole thing would fall apart. It would need to be as inclusive as possible while keeping the intellectual integrity necessary to be successful. That would be a fine line to walk.  This part of the PR campaign would be just crucial as the :real world" PR needed to get the project out to the public at large.

Second we would need to publicize the project

To gain support for the project  it would be necessary to get the blogmeisters on board along with as many individual bloggers as possible. For this to work on a large scale we would  need each article to be posted at as many sites as possible. If we could get the powers that be to agree to frontpage them all the better. I've seen over the past few days with the "Operation Yellow Feather " coming out of Boomans that a cross- blogging campaign on a small scale, at least amongst this immediate community can work.

This massive posting, coupled with a clever tagging, linking, layout could give us some success in getting search engine placement.( possibly google bombing also).  This could be coupled with a real-world PR campaign revolving around press releases, LTEs, e-mails to news organizations to further the exposure. With the attention the blogs have been getting lately in the MSM, a campaign that is large enough and spread out across the spectrum of progressive blogs could be news unto itself.  Also linking to the most current news articles about a topic from many MSM outlets  attracts their attention via their websites link to the various "who's talking about this article" kind of things.   If we post an article on 500 sites for instance that links to a recent WaPo, Newsweek, MSNBC etc. story  it should attract attention from them.

Support from interested third parties as mentioned up thread would be  an excellent we to get the ball rolling.

Those are just a few points to digest at the present time. What does everyone think?

by Duke1676 on 11/23/2005 05:15:32 PM EST

an addendum (none / 0)
I think one motivation for both individual and community blog blogmeisters to join the network would be if all the mass postings were done so that in order to read the complete article one would have to hit the link to it's site of origin (the writer).

This bonus of added traffic and exposure would make participation advantageous on a (albeit more self-serving) second level.
 

by Duke1676 on 11/27/2005 02:49:40 PM EST

[ Parent ]
A Proposal for the Progressive Blogosphere | 21 comments (16 topical, 5 editorial, 0 hidden)
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