Sunday, July 15, 2007

Virginia Politicos Woo Bloggers at Online Convention


An event yesterday - which was very poorly advertised, it would appear - demonstrates that even in Virginia politicians are waking uop to the power of the blogosphere. The event, Blogs United Conference, was held at Christopher Newport University across the water in Newport News. In addition to the bloggers, who attended?
Four guys said to have aspirations for the governor's chair in Richmond. Two guys stumping to be chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia. One guy handing out bumper stickers for Fred Thompson, a Republican who may or may not run for president.
The story continued saying:
"They are opinion-makers in Virginia," said Del. Brian Moran, D-Alexandria. "More and more people are getting information from blogs." And while Web logs still have only a fraction of mainstream media's reach, their influence in and around Hampton Roads politics is swelling.
"There's a responsibility," added Vivian J. Paige, who runs a namesake political blog. "I put my name on something, I have a responsibility to know that I can stand behind it." The fine line of what is acceptable in blogs was debated over and over Saturday, with bloggers, political operatives and journalists reluctantly agreeing that standards are left up to individual pundits.
Perhaps this situation will cause the Virginian Pilot to pay more attention to tips from bloggers in the future.

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