The Political Perils Of The Internet

Adam Boulton

Sky News

April 13

‘Have you ever sent an email that could embarrass the President?’ is one of the questions asked as part of the confirmation procedure for the thousands of applicants to join the Obama Administration.

The question is generally taken as evidence of the near-impossible height to which Obama has raised the bar for people who want to work for him.

One reason why many well qualified individuals are reluctant to go into public service and why more than half of the jobs in the Administration remain unfilled.

But the Administration’s precautions also betray a sensitivity to the dangers of the internet which Derek Draper and Damian McBride would have been well advised to respect.

The “Red Rag” affair is a story of the internet about the internet and broken on the internet by Guido Fawkes (even if Paul Staines, Guido’s alter ego, did call in back-up from the dead tree press to give his scoop critical heft).

The internet has changed the rules for people in public life in two significant respects.

Firstly emails leave a trail of written evidence far more accessible to exposure than any paper trail or series of phone calls. Secondly, the blogosphere and websites offer the public quicker and easier access to potentially damaging revelations and allegations.

Long before his abortive foray into blogging, Damian McBride’s flaming emails were legendary around Westminster.

The Sunday Times reported on one he sent to me, claiming that the ex-cabinet Minister Stephen Byers could not be considered a legitimate spokesman for the Labour party.

A number of sites, including Iain Dale, Coffee House, ConservativeHome and, yes, Boulton & Co, have broken stories online. But in Britain Guido Fawkes' ‘Order Order’ has set the pace for scoops that have been politically significant.

Mr Staines says he is anti-government rather than anti-Labour, and it’s certainly the government which has had the worst from a right-of-centre anarcho-libertarian perspective he has forced resignations or enforced self criticism from the likes of Peter Hain, the John Smith Institute and now the Prime Minister’s private office.

In the US sites such as Politico, Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, The Page, and Drudge Report have become instant sources of information which bypass the print media and traditional broadcasters.

Obama’s comments about clinging to guns and religion were broken by Huffington – whose White House correspondent was given a question at President Obama’s first news conference. From Sarah Palin’s family to the Obama’s new dog web sites were the first source of information.

Meanwhile in America newspapers are closing, laying workers off and cutting back. Established news organisations increasingly see the internet as the main place to grow revenue, although it remains to be seen if the hopes of the likes of AP and the Wall Street Journal of charging more for content will work.

Increasingly large organizations see websites as the way to disseminate printed information, and increasingly pictures and video, about themselves on their own terms – just look at the 10 Downing Street or White House Websites.

But from TV networks to the top of politics, there’s a nagging anxiety that established organizations are too staid, too inflexible, too old fashioned to compete effectively in the world of Google, Youtube and Facebook.

This neurosis is particularly severe for New Labour which had always prided itself with being at the cutting edge of communications. The door of Number Ten was wide open to an over-confident self-proclaimed expert such as Mr Draper.

The moral of this story is to do what you do best. Politicians, let alone governments and political parties are not journalist, media organisations, or lone gun campaigners, and are ill advised to try to be so. It will end in tears.

At Sky News we believe we have the skills, the news gathering resources and the reputation to make a big useful contribution on line.

With millions of websites out there – we think there’s still a big need for websites you like and trust.

Essentially we are providing the journalism we have always offered in new formats. I expect that other news organisations would say the same kind of thing.

That doesn’t mean we will become Guido Fawkes, even if we are sometimes competing with him. But the point about Mr Fawkes is that he understands what he is trying to do and is putting his heart and soul into it.

Political blogging is not just a matter of thinking up a few smears and sending them out on email.

Irish politicians hopefuls following in Obama's blogging footsteps

Conor McHugh

February 4

Leinster Leader

Politics Online

ONE of the many impressive features of Barack Obama's astonishing electoral campaign was his use of the internet. He used it to bypass traditional media to deliver his various messages to people in their own homes and offices.

And he also used it to organise and keep an eye on his grassroots organisation.

On a much smaller scale three of Kildare's politicians are doing likewise – and it's perhaps interesting that, like Obama, the three in question are attempting to get elected to offices they don't currently hold.

Fine Gael's Tony O'Donnell and Richard Daly are contesting the forthcoming county council elections in the Kildare and Athy electoral areas, while Fianna Fail's James Lawless will be on the ballot paper for the council elections in the Naas electoral area.

Mr O'Donnell and Mr Lawless have been nominated for this year's Irish Blog Awards for their online presences. They've both been nominated in the category of Best Political Blog. The winners will be announced on February 21.

Both blogs have attracted nearly 11,000 visitors since they were started up.

Tony O'Donnell's blog is at http://drtod.wordpress.com and is full of articles and opinion pieces on all sorts of matters – mainly economic and politics, all fairly serious, or highbrow, reflecting Tony's experience as a computer engineer working for various multinationals, and his considerable interest in economics and politics and where the two often collide.

His is by far the best looking and best laid out of all three.

"Can Ireland use the potential of default or euro-exit to compel the ECB to help?" is typical of the sort of articles he has posted.

He's also good at spinning out the party line. For instance "A lot of good, solid, Fine Gael people have been whispering that FF deserve to stew for a few years in the mess they are currently making. This is the same logic that said that the last election was one to lose. I absolutely disagree. Fine Gael have never been a party of easy answers, which probably explains why we so rarely see office. Instead, we can be relied on to put the national interest first."

Meanwhile, Fianna Failer James Lawless, at http://www.jameslawless.ie/ concentrates on the bread and butter of FF politics. The first article visible talks about the approaching deadline for community grants.

Interestingly both James and Tony have similar academic backgrounds – both are Trinity graduates in, generally speaking the engineering/scientific side of academia – both are Trinity graduates in, generally speaking the engineering/scientific side of academia. They were both involved in politics while in college, both work in Dublin and are both involved in several local organisations – and take great pride in their involvement in the local GAA.

While Tony is happy to apply academic thinking to the problems of the world, James, who describes himself as a "Technical Architect with responsibility for enterprise class IT systems" makes a point of sticking to local issues – such as updates on Johnstown, the Sallins Local Area Plan, applying for grants, Naas swimming pool, Tallaght Hospital and schools.

Along the side of his blog he has listed the towns and villages of the Naas electoral area. Clicking on any of them will bring up a list of articles relating to that area.

"My politics remain green (in every sense) but like De Valera, I came to understand that ultimate freedom and is about good governance as much as borders and about enabling the people be the best they can be," is his pitch on himself – but he doesn't forget that the art of politics, especially Fianna Fail politics is to keep is as local as possible - "On a local level there are many issues where one can achieve immediate results to immediate betterment of one's community.

"I have worked on many of these in the past and will continue to do so into the future."

Richard Daly's site (http://www.rdaly.net/) is lively, colourful, if slightly chaotic. It features links to relevant people or organisations such as South Kildare FG or local Athy-based sites, as well as his blog that features his press releases.

The front page features pictures of Richard with various people such as Enda Kenny, Phil Hogan, the Sullivan Brothers, KFM's Noel Shannon and Minister Michael Martin.

There's also a video of a piece on TV3 where he held a class out in a field to highlight the continuing lack of a new school.

If anything, the site is more of a sorting station that directs the viewer to a variety of Richard Daly/FG/Athy connected sites.

While the younger political hopefuls embrace the web and its possibilities it will be interesting to see, come June, whether their presence there will have any effect on the outcome when the new council sits down to its first meeting later in the summer.

They were both involved in politics while in college, both work in Dublin and are both involved in several local organisations – and take great pride in their involvement in the local GAA.

While Tony is happy to apply academic thinking to the problems of the world, James, who describes himself as a “Technical Architect with responsibility for enterprise class IT systems” makes a point of sticking to local issues – such as updates on Johnstown, the Sallins Local Area Plan, applying for grants, Naas swimming pool, Tallaght Hospital and schools.

Along the side of his blog he has listed the towns and villages of the Naas electoral area. Clicking on any of them will bring up a list of articles relating to that area.

“My politics remain green (in every sense) but like De Valera, I came to understand that ultimate freedom and is about good governance as much as borders and about enabling the people be the best they can be,” is his pitch on himself – but he doesn’t forget that the art of politics, especially Fianna Fail politics is to keep is as local as possible - “On a local level there are many issues where one can achieve immediate results to immediate betterment of one’s community.

“I have worked on many of these in the past and will continue to do so into the future.”

Richard Daly’s site (http://www.rdaly.net/) is lively, colourful, if slightly chaotic. It features links to relevant people or organisations such as South Kildare FG or local Athy-based sites, as well as his blog that features his press releases.

The front page features pictures of Richard with various people such as Enda Kenny, Phil Hogan, the Sullivan Brothers, KFM’s Noel Shannon and Minister Michael Martin.

There’s also a video of a piece on TV3 where he held a class out in a field to highlight the continuing lack of a new school.

If anything, the site is more of a sorting station that directs the viewer to a variety of Richard Daly/FG/Athy connected sites.

While the younger political hopefuls embrace the web and its possibilities it will be interesting to see, come June, whether their presence there will have any effect on the outcome when the new council sits down to its first meeting later in the summer..

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