Furthermore, while it is true, as pointed out by Rice, that campaign blogs create an interactive and, often-times, unfiltered forum, this is not necessarily a good thing. If you visit Dean's campaign blog, BlogForAmerica.com, you will find that amongst the massive number of comments to each blog entry are plenty of examples of why you should not allow just any old person to post their comments.
Imagine for a second, if you will, a moderate voter who wants an "unfiltered" view of the Dean campaign who, upon visiting the site, reads a recent post such as this:
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"Would NOT want to see a Dean/Clark ticket for the simple reason that it still puts Clark a heartbeat away from the presidency... Like I said - he scares me and I don't want him standing by Dean's side ready to slip in the dagger."
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Now, I would not be surprised to see such a thing on a blog run by someone supporting Dean, but this is part of Deans official campaign site. Granted, if you scroll all the way to the bottom of BlogForAmerica.com, you will see:
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Paid for and maintained by Dean for America.
Contributions to Dean for America are not tax-deductible for federal income tax purposes.
Dean for America does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites linked to from this page.
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But, all things considered, how many people take the time to scroll down to the bottom of a web page just so they can read the fine print? Furthermore, the disclaimer does not disavow in any official way comments left by Dean supporters for each blog entry.
Which is why I believe strongly that allowing "unfiltered" posting directly on an official campaign site is a train wreck waiting to happen. There are just too many potential problems with allowing such a practice, including such things as turning off potential voters and firing up voters with the opposition party. I don't know about you, but the politically-oriented blogs and chat boards that I frequent post weird comments from opposition party blogs and boards all the time; its just a great way to make the other campaign look radical and out of the mainstream.
You still disagree with me? Well then, let me just remind you of the recent Moveon.org ad campaign fiasco. Moveon.org has received quite a bit of money recently to run campaign ads for Democratic candidates. In the spirit of openness and creativity, the Moveon.org staff decided they would run a contest and allow members to create and post 30 second ads for review and possible airing on television. Unfortunately, two of the ads posted to Moveon.org compared President Bush to Hitler, a fact which was quickly noted by Republicans, who have made, appropriately, much political hay over this incident. Were the ads created and/or endorsed by Moveon.org and/or the DNC? Nope! But, their appearance on the site became a huge black eye for Moveon.org, damaging the credibility of this increasingly influential organization and gives Republicans an additional bit of ammunition for the upcoming 2004 presidential elections.
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