Vt Delegates: rallying, partying and blogging
Thursday August 28, 2008
Denver, CO
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(Host)
Vermont delegates to the Democratic National Convention
aren't just rallying and partying this week.
Some are busy blogging - giving their take on the party - and the media covering it.
Todd Zwillich met a few bloggers on the convention floor.
(Zwillich)
Madeleine Kunin was governor of Vermont from 1985 until 1991. Today, she's a Vermont delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
That's by day. By night back in her hotel room, Kunin has been posting missives
for the Huffington Post.
It's a left-leaning political forum that attracts millions of visitors. Standing on the convention floor this week she, like many convention delegates, lamented Hillary Clinton's loss to Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.
(Kunin) "And last night I wrote about
Hillary Clinton's speech, of course, and how moving it was, and how strong she
was in her support for Barack Obama."
(Zwillich) Hundreds of bloggers showed up and were granted credentials at
the convention. The vast majority of new media writers are not experienced
politicians like Kunin.
(Kunin) "As an older delegate, you might
think I'd hold back on entering that blogosphere. But that's how you
communicate. And I'm happy to join in the new journalistic world of today. Now
I still like a newspaper and I still watch the evening news."
(Zwillich) But many bloggers say the very reason they work the convention is
because newspapers and television miss the real stories. Phillip Barruth is
delegate and he's been blogging for The Burlington Free Press.
(Barruth) "The overarching theme has been
the national media's almost rabid desire to read the events of the conventions
to fit into preexisting narratives or story lines. One is this is a historic
event so they're out looking for celebrations of the 88th anniversary of the
women's right to vote; they're making a
lot of the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's I have a Dream speech. But
they're also very interested in playing up the rift between the Clinton camp and the
Obama camp."
(Zwillich) Barruth says his mission has been to tell stories he thinks the
traditional media are blind to.
(Barruth) "Last night I was sitting in
our delegation. Richard Dreyfus dropped into the seat behind me and began to
try to convince our entire delegation to launch a voice vote for censure of the
president. He was going around under the radar trying to build support for a
mass protest on the floor to stop the convention until that issue was dealt
with. Now as far as I know nobody covered that story. But there were about 8 to
10 photographers walking around watching him do that."
(Zwillich) Not every Vermont blogger spent hours on the convention floor. John
Odum posts for Green Mountain Daily. He's been spending most of his time in
what's called the Big Tent. That's where everyone from left-leaning bloggers
from Moveon.org and Daily Kos rub elbows with the likes of Texas oil man T Boone Pickens.
Some bloggers cover politics from a conservative viewpoint too. And this isn't
the first convention that bloggers have covered. But Odum calls this year's
Democratic gathering a milestone.
(Odum) "The new media is becoming one of
the stories here. As a lot of the traditional media look around and some of the
narrative that have been pushed like the tension between the Hillary crowd have
really kind of fizzled. They just weren't there. People are looking for what
else is going on and more and more have found their way down to the big tent.''
(Zwillich) If Odum and the other left-leaning Vermont bloggers have uncovered stories the big media missed
in Denver, it still seems like only part of the story. None of
the three is planning to travel to St. Paul, Minnesota, next week to cover the Republicans at their
convention.
For Capitol News Connection in Denver, I'm Todd Zwillich for VPR News.
AP Photo/Ted Warren
© Copyright 2008, VPR
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