Daily Progress factually wrong on Webb bloggers?

By: relawson
Published On: 6/18/2006 8:58:04 AM

The Daily Progress reported this:

Several bloggers gave partisan liberal blogs credit for helping Webb win Tuesday’s primary over Harris Miller but blasted a paid Webb partisan blogger for creating and distributing a cartoon attacking Miller that they called anti-Semitic in nature. Miller, who is Jewish, was depicted as a money-grubbing businessman with a crook nose and cash falling out of a suit pocket.

Conference participants also blasted the practice of using paid bloggers, not identified as paid by a campaign, as U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., did in 2004 when he defeated then-Sen. Thomas Daschle by about 4,000 votes.


They made several points.

1) blogs got credit for helping Webb win the primary - Agree
2) a blogger created and distributed the cartoon - don't agree

I am not aware of anyone paid to blog as a sole duty in the campaign - actually I am not aware of any bloggers who are paid by the campaign.  Also, I was under the impression that it was not a blogger who created the flyer.  If we bloggers distributed it, the reason was simple: it was news worthy!!!

Comments



the blogger who posted it did not create it (teacherken - 6/18/2006 12:01:02 PM)
it was an official campaign document created under the auspices of Mudcat Saunders.

As to the blogger who posted it, I'd like to see their evidence that he was paid as a blogger -- the Webb campaign did not have that kind of money.  Sounds like a false track planted by Wadhams and company to pre-cover what they plan to do in the general.

I would certainly qualify as a Web blogger -- I posted not only here but also on dailykos and myleftwing on his behalf.  The only payments were from me to his campaign, over $600 during the primary, which for a teacher is a huge amount of money. 



Factually wrong (Kathy Gerber - 6/18/2006 1:09:20 PM)
This is not just about blogs.  It is also about the cartoon.  The scenes depicting Miller were copied from a how-to book on drawing cartoons.  The depiction of Miller was traced from Miller photos.  These were put together to illustrate the fact that Miller was advocating for large corporations at the expense of jobs in the US.

Come on, people.  Before it was known that the scenario was from the how-to book, people were scanning in nazi literature as "proof" that the cartoon was copied from it. 

Was this cartoon a mistake, a blunder even?  Yes.  Was it meant to be anti-Semitic?  No. Did Jim Webb apologize? Yes. And the campaign distributed the cartoon no further. 

This was a grassroots campaign, blogging and otherwise.  And the lack of professionalism showed, particularly with the cartoon. 

The writer would have been accurate to have said


...Miller, who is [a] Jewish multimillionaire lobbyist who actually does have a hooked nose and advocated outsourcing jobs was depicted as a "job killer" and a money-grubbing businessman with a crook nose and cash falling out of a suit pocket. ...

Don't leave any charge or insinuation of bigotry unanswered.  They are damaging, offensive, and just plain wrong. 

Yes, I now realize that a small group of well-educated individuals see this cartoon as anti-Semitic.  I appreciate that they shared their insights.  I hope they appreciate that not everyone came to the table with those same insights.

And before I am accused of harboring ill-will towards Miller supporters or rubbing salt into wounds, that is not my goal or intention.  I have actually been asked whether or not Jim Webb is not just another Nazi, and the negative spin surrounding this cartoon is the source of such mean-spirited rumors.



I think you should be one of their editors (relawson - 6/18/2006 2:28:37 PM)
Your revision to their biased and wrong version was much better.

I have answered the charges of bigotry before, but just to reiterate - they are absurd charges.  The people who leveled them should be ashamed.