Message boards useful to writers if you hit ‘delete’ on politics

Message boards are a great resource for writers—you do a story about kumquats you look for a hobby group. Need to know about the effects of a disease or medical treatment? People are inexplicably eager to share. Amazing what grass roots research, a simple search in cyberspace, can do for you.

But I also come across messages that I suspect are placed by political plants. If an individual touts a candidate brazenly, especially if the board isn’t on a political site, I’d say that makes the person’s messages suspect. I came across an example of this at mediabistro.com today. An individual has plastered Mitt Romney all over the board, and all this does is alienate conservatives and of course liberals get all excited and next thing you know you are wading through the political sewer, getting an education in how many creative ways a person can use the ‘F’ bomb or insult someone’s mother. There's no way a politician would encourage this type of posting, but his opponent might.

Do people get paid to write these messages, I wonder? Maybe. Some of the grammar and/or spelling gets too funny to be accidental—spellings like Gullani are par for the course.

Political wags haven’t overlooked Oprah. After Oprah endorsed Barack Obama, the community at oprah.com has been having a chew fest. The title of one discussion: OPRAH IS A TRAITOR! Several threads take the talk show host to task. What’s mind-bending is the attitude of many that Oprah shouldn’t endorse anybody because she’s a journalist. I believe Oprah would agree that journalism isn’t her calling. For those dull of mind, write this down: Oprah is in the entertainment industry. She expresses her preferences on everything from cooking to sex to pop culture literature. So why shouldn’t she tell you who she’s voting for if she feels like it? Sean Penn doesn’t hold anything back. No difference.

The good thing about message boards, at least from a writer’s standpoint, is they present a wide range of opinions and sometimes, a great deal of expert information. Contact information is often included with a post. It's even possible to find sources for interviews.

When it comes to the politics, however, message boards present something really close to what my hound dog deposits in our back yard every morning. (Kay B. Day, 1-21-08)

Daily Kos creator Markos Moulitsas gets mainstream gig at Newsweek for presidential election coverage

Two sources—the Huffington Post and newsbusters.org—say Newsweek has tapped enterprising liberal Markos Moulitsas to help cover the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Moulitsas founded Daily Kos and parlayed the blog to a Technorati rank of 11 and a Google page rank that any dedicated blogger can envy—a 7. The blog is a great place for reading progressive political content.

My first impulse is to congratulate Moulitsas—he’s a blogging success story. He actually makes money for this. Amazing—that’s a feat sort of like being able to skate on crushed ice.

Some conservatives have reportedly taken a dim view of the Kos penning progressive content for the iconic American news magazine. Personally, I think he’ll be a great addition to the commentary. I don’t agree with everything at Daily Kos, but the site provides interesting, well-written content. Moulitsas is tapped into the heart and soul of his political party. That makes him a credible source for that party’s politics, and it must be pointed out he can be critical of his own as well.

I’ve said it before and because this is a good talking point for my own beliefs—the United States doesn’t need a Fairness Doctrine. The marketplace takes care of that. Moulitsas successfully built a platform most authors would love to have. In the same tradition as Rush Limbaugh and his Republican principles, Moulitsas brings his party's news and platforms to Americans interested in progressive party politics and current affairs.

I’m glad to see a mainstream magazine cover all aspects of our political persuasions. And I’m glad to see a blogger who worked hard and who worked with passion achieve some sort of recognition and compensation.

For me, one of the greatest hours on TV is Hannity and Colmes. Snappy Sean and droll Alan nip at each other's politics and entertain us in the process.

Meanwhile, readers are curious to see who'll balance Kos in Newsweek.

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