I've only read 2 articles on Netroots Nation since I've been here. But both articles are so far from what is taking place here that it's as though the writers attended a different convention entirely.
I read an AP article in the Boston Globe this morning that made it seem like we're all 20 year-olds in blue jeans. Hardly. But the far more distorted view of NN came from an article at the Huffington Post about Valarie Jarrett's interview this morning.
The article is titled "Valarie Jarrett Heckled and Hissed at Netroots Nation." It seriously reminded me of the Faux News perspective on fair and balanced. Yes Jarrett was hissed at and heckled. But it would have been more factually correct to say "Valarie Jarrett Warmly Welcomed and Also Challenged at Netroots Nation."
All one has to do is watch the vid of the conversation this morning and it becomes obvious that the hisses--two of them for less than 30 seconds each, and the heckles--actually challenges on torture photos, were a very tiny portion of Jarrett's experience at Netroots Nation.
In fact, Valarie Jarrett was warmly welcomed and received numerous positive shout outs for some of her comments and many, many instances of applause from the audience. The defining moment was actually her statement on Obama's support for the public option, not the hisses. And actually, the more telling challenge to Jarrett came from the first question, which received loud applause from the audience. That question was about whether Obama would bring the Blue Dogs into the Oval Office and put the word on them.
I'm not a writer, nor am I a well known blogger. I'm also not a 20 year-old in jeans. While I understand the need for an interesting narrative, I think it is lazy to focus on one minute aspect of a story and write as though that is the entire story. Bill Clinton and Arlen Specter received far more negative shout outs than Valarie Jarrett did.
So, for the record, NN is many things. It is 300 boxes packed with love for the troops. It is famous bloggers standing in lines chatting with lurkers. It is people from ages 11 through the 70s sitting in panels on Torture Accountability and Getting the Most Out of Polling Data. It is strangers throwing their arms around each other in joy when they recognize someone they have conversed with on-line. It is volunteer service in an economically disadvantaged local town. It is a regularly recommended diarist confronting Senator Specter in the elevator. It is 60 C&J regulars taking over a local pub. It is people from blue states being a support for those beleaguered red state residents. It is hours and hours of volunteer time setting everything up. It is walking through Ohio gubenatorial race, the halls and hearing random conversations on voting strategy, agribusiness, a tour of the steel mills, framing the health care debate from a mom's perspective, racial changes in a county over 100 years, archaeological digs, parenting kids in the autism spectrum, thethe latest great drink, what the weather is like here compared with home, the best way to work for a repeal of DOMA, whether there is any hope for the Blue Dogs, how the NY and NJ people don't like some of their candidates, and many more stories of how the personal is political and how the political is personal.
So you are better off watching the vids, looking at the pictures, and conversing with attendees to get an idea of what Netroots Nation is really like.
We wish you were here.