Blogging Clark County

Columbian photo illustration

When Vancouver Councilman Larry Smith wanted to voice his support for City Manager Pat McDonnell the day after the city agreed to settle a discrimination lawsuit, he didn’t schedule a news conference or call a reporter.

Instead, he replied to an e-mail sent by a Vancouver blogger and encouraged him to post it on his Web site.

Smith also sent a copy to The Columbian, adding that he “was not totally pleased” with the newspaper’s coverage that morning, even though the councilman hadn’t said a word in McDonnell’s defense the night before.

The dynamics of political discourse are shifting and evolving, both here in Clark County and across the nation. With the Internet, political messages are traveling through cyberspace at breakneck speed, allowing bloggers to bypass traditional media and speak directly to those who share their point of view and slap those who do not.

Their voices range from the bleeding-heart left to the rabid right. They are often angry, sometimes humorous, occasionally insightful and, periodically, inaccurate. And in the electronic age, they are likely here to stay, even though many remain dubious of their information and message.

“The problem I think with blogging is sources,” said Lee Davis, a longtime Republican activist who has worked on numerous local campaigns. “And when you are talking about sources, are we talking about rumors? Are we talking about facts? Are we talking about speculation?”

At the same time, Davis has no doubts that blogs can influence political campaigns.

“It’s like word of mouth,” he said. “You are speeding it up, a million times.”

Vancouver Councilwoman Jeanne Stewart doesn’t believe bloggers are credible.

“I don’t,” she said, “because people shield what they are doing behind anonymity.”

Lew Waters, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam, has two blogs, “Right in a Left World” and “Clark County Conservative,” and shuns an anonymous blogger’s name.

“I’m not ashamed of what I feel,” he said. “So why should I hide behind a phony name?”

As for the reliability of a blogger’s post, Waters said he understands there are concerns because “some people throw up anything.”

“I try to do some decent research,” he said. “Just because it’s on the Internet doesn’t make it true.”

Chris Bassett, a former Clark County Democratic Party chairman, uses the blog name “Aneurin.” Bassett briefly complained about being outed — “This is supposed to be an anonymous blog” — but quickly explained that his blog and Web site’s name both refer to Aneurin Bevan, a Welsh Labor leader chiefly responsible for creating Britain’s national health care system.

Bassett started his own site, “Politics is a Blood Sport,” in September 2007. A month later, he was handed blogger gold when Richard Curtis, then a Republican state representative from La Center, became embroiled in a Spokane sex scandal. Allegations that Curtis wore women’s lingerie at a adult bookstore and offered to pay a gay porn model $1,000 for unprotected sex, only to later become the victim of an extortion attempt provided sordid details for spreading information as news broke, along with poignant commentary.

It was an Internet bonanza, not only for bloggers but for the media. The Columbian set a then-record for Web traffic during the short-lived Curtis scandal, one that wasn’t even eclipsed by the January tornado in Hazel Dell.

“Curtis was kind of the break out for Clark County and blogs in Clark County,” Bassett said. “It was just a sensational story, and people were just looking for any news they could get.”

Bloggers have an unusual relationship with the traditional media. Many rail against what they see a biased or faulty reporting. Some bloggers do their own research and news gathering, but most are largely dependent on a daily feeding from other news sources.

“Admittedly, blogs are kind of parasitic,” Bassett said. “Without traditional media, what do we report on?”

Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard is an old-school guy. He’s not clueless when it comes to using e-mail and other technology, but he draws the line at blogging.

“I’m too old to get excited about that stuff,” said the 69-year-old mayor.

Pat Campbell, the Vancouver City Council’s newest member, occasionally reads blogs, but he isn’t exactly complimentary.

“You protect your house with a flock of geese,” he said. “Anything happens, they start honking. The other thing is they leave things behind you might slip on.”

The term blog is a combination of the words “Web log” and refers to a series of messages, or posts, usually displayed in reverse chronological order, providing news, commentary and sometimes humor. Some people differentiate between a blogger providing only his or her words and chat boards where everyone can chime in on a free-wheeling online discussion.

“I’m not into definitions,” said Jon DeVore, a local blogger who posts on “Horse’s Ass” in Seattle. “It’s kind of unfortunate that the term blogger even exists because it has this geek connotation. What it involves is writing. And good writing is good and bad writing is bad.”

DeVore, who concedes that “normal people don’t obsess over politics,” lives in a comfortable house with his wife and two kids in Lake Shore, not in his parents’ basement.

Bassett said he lives a similar life.

I don’t have to wipe the Cheetos stain off the T-shirt, nothing like that,” he said. “Bloggers admittedly are different from normal people because we are passionate about public affairs.”

Larry Patella, a frequent Vancouver city government critic, offers one of those more conservative voices. But instead posting to a Web site, Patella regularly sends e-mail to what he said is a list of as many as 1,000 recipients.

“As rapidly as information travels, I don’t think you can wait to see if somebody is going to look at your site,” he said. “I think you have to force-feed people, if you can.”

Patella said he routinely adds elected officials to his distribution list, and many of them subsequently ask to be removed because they don’t agree with his message.

Those saying “thanks, but not thanks” include Councilman Smith, who said Patella’s writing “makes me depressed.”

“The whole world can’t be bad,” Smith said. “I just don’t like to see the things that are always negative.”

Smith does pay attention to what Bob Koski’s “Clark Blog” has to say. After the city expressed interest in buying The Columbian’s building south of Esther Short Park, Smith and Councilman Tim Leavitt sent Koski e-mails offering different views.

Smith said the building “fits our needs perfectly.” But Leavitt wrote that a with a faltering economy and “the relationship between the city and The Columbian,” the timing could not be worse.

“At least one council member denounced my concern for the public perception,” Leavitt wrote. “I won’t name that person, as this was executive session conversation. Clearly, that council member is politically tone deaf.”

Koski, who blogs under the name “Chief” with a photo of 1960s television character Maxwell Smart talking into his shoe phone, straddles the political spectrum. His posts castigate Barack Obama and the Columbia River Crossing project, particularly what he calls “loot rail.” But he also supports portions of Vancouver city government and rails against a group of city hall critics he calls CAVE, an acronym for “Citizens Against Virtually Everything.”

Koski has an eclectic set of interests. He posted a single word, “rest,” after keyboardist Richard Wright of Pink Floyd died of cancer last month. When The Columbian published a story about the cost of keeping F-15 fighters in Portland, Koski opined: “That’s not noise. It’s the sound of freedom.”

He also has been locked in a copyright dispute with The Columbian over his practice of posting lengthy excerpts of the newspaper’s stories. Koski, when contacted for this story, said his attorney has advised him not to talk to the newspaper. He also declined to respond to a list of questions submitted by e-mail.

Even though Koski might have the eye of at least two city council members, questions remain if bloggers have real influence on the community or are nothing more than marginally informed pontificators.

“I like to think I’m having an effect,” Waters said. “But who knows?”

Blogs have been part of the national scene for more than a decade, ever since Matt Drudge broke news Republican Bob Dole had selected Jack Kemp as his running mate in 1996 and, a couple years later, had the first story of President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.

In Clark County, blogging doesn’t have nearly as deep roots. Bassett said his site gets a relatively small number of daily hits, maybe 100 or so. Waters said his “Clark County Conservative” blog receives up to 90 hits a day, while “Right in the Left World” averages about 100, with an all-time high of 1,300 in a day.

In comparison, The Columbian’s Web site receives as many as 76,000 page views in a single day.

Bassett said his criticism of the financial bailout, what he calls the “Drunken Sailor Rehabilitation Act,” was heard in Washington, D.C. Or at least that seemed to be the case when Bassett criticized Baird for supporting the rescue, despite his call for “individual responsibility” on earlier bankruptcy legislation.

“Google has analytics, and you can tell who is coming to your site,” he said. “And on that day, I saw quite a few hits coming from Washington, D.C.”

While political insiders may question the information posted, others see it as the modern equivalent of a decades-old tendency.

“You know people have always talked back to their TV screens,” DeVore said. “I know it’s an overused term, but it (blogging) allows people to find out what they were thinking was probably not their thought alone.”

Jeffrey Mize: 360-735-4542 or jeff.mize@columbian.com.