By Bob Gibson
Charlottesville political blogger
Two of the better blogging conferences I’ve attended were in Charlottesville a few years back and were sponsored by the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia.
Virginia political bloggers of all stripes and shades, and yes, even a few stars, attended and spoke with each other in the flesh. This offered opportunities for friendships to flourish and for greater understanding of each other as well as of the interesting topics discussed.
Now that I’ve landed at Sorensen as executive director and just finished my first month on the job, I wonder if Virginia’s enhanced ranks of political bloggers would like to do it again.
I also wonder what bloggers would like to talk about at such a gathering, were we to sponsor one. Please let me know what you think, either below or at Sorensen. We could even invite a few politicians who blog (and maybe a few who could and don’t know it yet). Thanks.
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Posted by ( ) on May 19, 2008 at 7:24 am
Yes, let’s all gather and be civil, and then the Democrats can go back to blogging about how Republicans are racist, sexist homophobes who want to pollute air and water, hurt children and starve seniors.
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Posted by ( ) on May 18, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I love the idea of Sorenson sponsored blogging event specifically with the goal of promoting civility, ethics and dialogue. I loved the event I went to in the past.
The issue is with a few conservative bloggers who believe this is a ‘liberal’ event. I doubt sincerely that civility and ethics are solely liberal bloggers domain so to the extent the event is well represented by both sides it would be especially useful.
Also while I love CHarlottesville, perhaps having it in an underserved area in Virginia would be meaningful too.
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Posted by ( ) on May 18, 2008 at 12:58 pm
It would be useful if there could be a meeting where consensus could be reached about ethical standards and a code of conduct could be developed that would help promote thoughtful, factual discourse in the blogs, so that these blogs would serve as a good source for information for our citizens.
Something must be done to discourage the cheap, low behavior, like a recent blogger who wrote a celebratory post about how glad he was that, Ted Kennedy had suffered a stroke and had nearly died.
This sort of uncivil behavior can quickly spiral out of control and lead the masses to even more overt acts of hatred. If they are instead given a positive example of reasoned discourse, the People will respond and be more inclined to reach common ground solutions that will advance their own interest and the interests of our Republic.
I do not advocate for a speech code, just an understanding that bloggers have a responsibility to inform their readers, and to encourage honest debate, based on facts and not sullied by acts of slander.
There should certainly be room for biting satire, but one positive result that I would like to see emerge from the next blogger conference is a commitment to elevate the level and tone of the political debate. The result should be that politicians will no longer get away with mud slinging, or innuendo, but will instead have to justify their value to the citizens based on what real ideas and solutions that they can bring to the table. Most importantly, every candidate must be made to describe what actions they will take to ENHANCE our Liberty.
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