Note 1:
In case you missed it, MidnightBlue has gone through a small redesign. In addition to changing the drapes, I've added MidnightBlue to the navigation bar on Ancora Imparo in order to link the two blogs together. As much as I desired to rid myself of MidnightBlue, I've found Blogger to be a good resource for mobile blogging, so until I can find a way to code mobile blogging onto Ancora - I'll hold on to MidnightBlue. Also, plans are in the works to redesign the header logo of Midnightblue.
Note 2:
I found this article over at TownHall.com: Lead Pipes Vs. Leaky Pipes
The author looks at the differences between left wing and right wing netroots and finds a growing disparity between the grass root activities of these two groups.
When covering the netroots vs. the rightroots, reporters look at things through a particular frame that by definition excludes the vast majority of grassroots activity on the right. For something to be newsworthy in this space, it must be blog-based, it must have emerged in the last five years, and it must be focused on elections over legislative or policy outcomes.
The problem with this angle is that most of the conservative institutions online emerged in the late Clinton Administration or immediately after 9/11. At their peak, they were larger than Daily Kos, and arguably some still are. And they rarely receive any scrutiny because they don’t fit the frame. From a macro movement-building perspective, the left catching us to us is being covered as a need for us to catch up with something the left has invented anew.
And despite how unfair that narrative is, there’s something to it. The conservative analog to YearlyKos is 30 years old. The 800lb. gorillas of the conservative Web initially went online in the 1995-97 timeframe. And many have failed to innovate.
They are still Web 1.0, where the Left jumped directly into Web 2.0 in the Bush years.
I do see progress in the conservative blogworld, albeit agonizingly slow. The leftroots were quicker to adopt emerging web technologies in getting their twisted message out into the public arena. Conservative bloggers have been complacent in their technology, instead of being early adopters to new ways of mass communication. This can be fixed and I've lobbied amongst my fellow conservative bloggers to consider various ways upon which there message can be delivered to the public.
And the media focus also fits the frame of conservative bloggers as pundits rather than activists. If we act as pseudo-journalists and commentators, it stands to reason that we’d think actually getting involved on a campaign is dirty business.
Obviously, they've never come across me - or my blogging compatriots. We don't fit into these narrowly defined categories. The question remains - are we doing enough to effect a sea change of activism within the conservative blogging movement?
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