Rove Eyes Blogs As Part Of Media Strategy ...
While the "old" media dithers around with innuendo, old stories (like the Abu Gharib photo's), and just plain wrong facts (to support a story they want to be true), bloggers are rising in the arena of public opinion.

Karl Rove is smart enough to recognize it.

From InsightMagazine, title link:

White House strategist Karl Rove has determined media strategy for the 2006 congressional election campaign, and it focuses on one crucial element of the new media: the blogosphere.

Republican Party sources said the strategy essentially shuns the mainstream media, which has been largely deemed as oriented to the Democrats. Instead, Mr. Rove has directed the GOP leadership to work with Internet sites, particularly bloggers, to help shape public opinion and set an agenda for political activists.

"They will get access to people and information that the mainstream media will not get," a GOP source said. "They will not be considered press, rather sophisticated political analysts who know how to focus on what's important."

It's not that the mainstream media doesn't get the access -- it's that they don't really care about it. And, given the chance to report news, or try to playlike Woodward and Bernstein, the major news outlets will try to re-do Watergate every day of the week. Rove found that out in 2004 -- with Rathergate. So did Kerry, when he pushed himself as a Vietnam war hero.

Here's another difference: While main news outlets seem to want to relive the glory days of the seventies, bloggers live right here in 2006. Even the lefty bloggers, if you discount the "troll" factor, and the flights of fantasy, seem to live in the present.

Politicians are catching onto the phenomenon.

"One of the biggest advocates of bloggers has been Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Mr. Frist as well as Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah Republican, spent most of the three days answering questions from the bloggers on strategy.

GOP sources said the bloggers were also expected to help reverse the flagging fortunes of troubled conservatives in key races in 2006. They said the bloggers could help produce a wave of interest among activists and particularly fund raisers.

Some of the bloggers wooed by the White House include Michelle Malkin, Ed Morrissey, Mark Noonan and Flip Pidot. Another blogger who attended the January session was Ian Shwartz, who operates the blog site The Political Teen"

Some of us are sophisticated political analysts. Most of us aren't. But -- we can reach folks in every state of the Union, and we can communicate, plainly, with bloggers overseas in a way that's never existed before. Red Hot Cuppa Politics is a modest blog; I consider those consistent hundred hits a day to be a delight, and a responsibility. But then, unlike the NYT's, the WashingtonPost, the LA Times and so on -- my readership is slowly increasing. The larger blogs' readership is increasing exponentially.

And no wonder. Consider the WashingtonPress corps. They are in a position to ask President Bush questions that the rest of us aren't able to, and they abuse the priviledge. Consider the ongoing circle jerk over Cheney's hunting accident, and the prima donna whining over why the Corpus Christi News got to break the story instead of their esteemed selves. (Who cares about Iran's nuclear activities? It'll be a footnote in history compared to a hunting accident perpetuated by geezers with guns)

Problem is -- when I want to chuckle over current events, I tune into John Stewart. When I want some serious news and analysis, I review Drudge and the blogs. You might notice the pointed absense of the NYT's in the above assessment.

A tip to politico's who decide to publish letters on blogs like DailyKos and RedState. Don't make yourself look like an idiot with the printed word. I've gotten many a chuckle from Kerry, Conyers, and Kennedy's diaries on the DailyKos, and some of the attendent comments have been a hoot.

Here's another word of caution for Karl Rove: Alot of us will go along in doing what we can to publicize the GOP effort. But, first, the GOP agenda needs to be sane, and there had better be hard facts, unless he wants his efforts to get shot down along with dumb attempts of the past.

Oh, and while many of us truly are content to just get the word out -- if you decide to quote from us -- have the decency mention the website.

BeanieTip to DailyKos for picking up the article linked through HumanEvents.

Crossposted at NIF; submitted to DonSurber, (hopefully, he'll not consider it for "worst posts" of the day!)

Edited 11:30 for error in blockquote.

2/18: Adapted to the stunningly beautiful, newly designed RightWingThinking!  ¶ 8:00 AM