We're not the only ones

Several other states with reputable blogs were shafted by the DNC committee credentialing bloggers. As we've mentioned, as they mention, it's obvious that this was a political move by someone and not based on our application.

As we've said before, we've been in contact with people who have told us that we were considered for the credential, but were vetoed by someone in Mississippi's Democratic Party. We are attempting to find out who that person is and why they felt we should not represent Mississippi. Any assistance in the matter would be greatly appreciated.

Open Left:

It's a bit disturbing to hear what's going on, then, with a few of the credentials. Pam's House Blend has a discussion going on about which blogs were credentialled at the Democratic National Convention. Mostly the choices were good, but four states in particular raise questions: Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, and Michigan.

Similarly, Bluejersey was nixed in favor of PoliticsNJ, a neutral media site owned by the New York Observer. The Albany Project, which cohosted a fundraiser for a special election candidate who is helping to flip the New York state Senate, was nixed in favor of Room Eight, a nonpartisan media site focusing on corruption. And MichiganLiberal was nixed for Blogging for Michigan, a much newer and less trafficked blog.

Why does this matter? Well, aside from the basic lack of fairness in excluding genuine change agents in favor of media sites or newer sites, as blogs become more closely wedded to the Democratic Party establishment, the pressure to NOT speak out about problems increases. Credentials for the DNCC are not only a 'goodie', but they are a clear competitive advantage for any state-based blog. If state parties are able to nix progressive state blogs from something so significant to their business models as the Democratic National Convention, it's just going to incentivize the creation of an 'official' blogosphere, one that is sycophantic and less progressive, and an 'activist' blogosphere which bitterly stares at a party it does not trust. Regardless, we're looking at a party structure that is more corrupt, less accountable, and less progressive.

Howard Dean should not let this happen. The DNCC needs to take another look at the blog credentially process for New Jersey, Mississippi, New York, and Michigan. Regardless of whether this was a simple mistake or retaliation from a state party, the credentials of the other blogs should be revoked and regranted them to the more deserving progressive blogs. And this should happen soon.

Pam's House Blend:

In any case, her last point raises an issue that I haven't seen much buzz on yet -- whether there were political factors that went into the decision of state blogs (outside of race). For instance, if you check out the list (see below), BlueJersey, with its ward-winning contributors, wasn't selected to represent the Garden State (Politickernj was). That seems odd to me, given its high profile and progressive politics. Another blog making noise about politics being involved in the selection for Mississippi's blog rep is Cotton Mouth.