The Department of Justice — the battered plaything of political bloggers during the Bush administration — has hired a ”new media” outreach expert to steer the Obama administration through online policy debates over torture, Guantanamo Bay and whatever else comes up, reports Greg Sargent at The Plum Line.
The new position will be filled by Democratic communications expert Tracy Russo. Russo was chief blogger (yes, that was her real title) and deputy director of online communications for the John Edwards presidential campaign. We’ve asked DOJ Public Affairs Director Matt Miller, himself a long-time Democratic political aide, to let us know more about what Russo will be doing beyond keeping an eye out for brewing on-line tempests. Tracy Russo
Tracy Russo
Until we hear back, we’ll just whistle a few tunes from this “blogger outreach” show we remember from our own years as a political reporter. We’re not saying this is how it will work at the DOJ. But in campaigns, the blogger “outreach” people are something like zoo keepers. At regular intervals, they open the online cages and throw in policy papers or news releases. Sometimes the campaigns even hold special blogger-only conference calls.
Sated and happy (it’s so cool to have access!), and dazzled to have information from a source other than Google, the bloggers start writing fewer conspiracy theories. They become less hostile when the campaign’s paid bloggers join their online conversations. The paid campaign bloggers then subtly start spinning their candidates’ talking points.
Soon, the bloggers are as tame as the mainstream media (”MSM,” in blogger speak). They start going on TV. And to the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. Where they hobnob with the same Washington, D.C., insiders who once used to be the exclusive dates of the MSM. That’s right - the same MSM the bloggers once screamed were too close to their sources. Because they socialized with them. Just like the bloggers are now doing. And which the bloggers find is actually fun. And useful. So now it’s not so bad to go to the White House Correspondents Dinner, even if you’re a blogger.
http://www.mainjustice.com/2009/05/27/doj-hires-blog-outreach-expert/
Dear lord man, gratz - bingo. You win the “awesome award” :)
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Obama Blog Propaganda is Government-Wide
The Washington Post today provides context to the story the Muffled Oar first broke about the aggressive DOJ Blog Squad mission. The DOJ has hired a team of bloggers to influence the blogosphere and online media. Tracy Russo, a partisan campaign blogger for John Edwards, the DNC and Obama Campaign is leading the Blog Squad at the Department of Justice. So much for a non-political Department of Justice. That dream is dead.
The Muffled Oar has learned from Department sources that Russo is spending a great deal of time keeping angry gay and transgender partisans quiet and in line regarding the Department’s Defense of Marriage Act. Russo is primarily tasked with spinning the blogosphere about Obama and Holder policies by whatever means necessary. Russo’s mission is to babysit the left and get them energized, or get them quiet, depending on the issue and circumstances.
Today the Washington Post demonstrates that the effort to propagandize to the blogosphere is a government-wide campaign.
http://muffledoar.blogspot.com/2009/10/obama-blog-propaganda-is-government.html
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/10/justice_departments_online_rev.html
Cross-link thread — BREAKING: Dept. of Justice hired anonymous, partisan Democrat bloggers to bolster image [& troll FR]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2353325/posts?q=1&;page=201