Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Commentary Blogs -> Althouse

Legal Commentary

: Althouse

"She was admitted to the private San Francisco fund-raiser as an activist blogger and then functioned as a journalist."

By Ann Althouse

Mayhill Fowler, the blogger who brought us that Obama quote (about bitter small-towners with their guns and their religion). So, bloggers are supposed to know their place, eh? If she were really a journalist, she'd have viewed the event as off the record. But she was a blogger ? a pro-Obama blogger ? so the idea was she'd boost their candidate. But ? oh, no! ? she blurred the line!

The whole episode gives a revealing glimpse into yet even more ways in which the Internet is changing the coverage of politics....

There?s a bit of a brush fire in California about how Ms. Fowler got in, and Ms. Fowler is protecting the person who secured her a ticket. That person has since called her and said that fund-raisers are always off the record.

?This was never conveyed to me,? Ms. Fowler said. ?I was invited to the event, I had written on fund-raisers in the past, why wouldn?t I this time?? She said the Obama campaign had never objected before to her having written about fund-raisers (though admittedly, nothing much of interest had happened). And the invitations said nothing about being closed to the press. Besides, she said, several guests brought people and children and who had not been invited.

?We had a fundamental misunderstanding of my priorities,? Ms. Fowler told me. ?Mine were as a reporter, not as a supporter. They thought I would put the role of supporter first.?...

Ms. Fowler said she held her digital recorder openly. The place was jammed with others using video cams and cell phone cameras...

Ms. Fowler said she found his response "professorial" and judgmental toward blue-collar voters and that even though she supports him, she was "taken aback" by them.

?I?m a religious person, and I grew up poor in a very wealthy family -- sometimes we didn?t have enough to eat, but my larger family was rich,? she said. Her father was a hunter. ?Immediately, the remarks just really bothered me. For the first time, I realized he is an elitist.?

Oh, is "professorial" really so bad? I guess it is. But this notion that because Fowler was viewed as a supporter (a pose a journalist can't take), she wasn't free to talk about what she observed... I can't accept that. Of course, the campaigns have to worry that bloggers are loose cannons. Let them worry. They can try to use us for PR, but we're free agents. Access doesn't buy silence.

Full post as published by Althouse on April 14, 2008 (boomark / email).