UPDATE (the second): Well, we just got back from dinner. It's Lollapalooza out there.
Please click here for my reply to Amy's apology: http://www.dailykos.com/...
Timroff has spoken in person with Tracy Joan. And as soon as I am done on the computer, he'll be sending her an email in an effort to set up some kind of either phone interview or in person the next time he is in Cleveland. He will post later.
More apology/update below the fold.
I never meant for this to be an attack against any campaign or individual--indeed, if they hadn't replied, you'd all think I was crazy. This Diary came out of Timroff's and my frustration over NOT hearing from ANY of the top-tier candidates despite our repeated efforts over 3 weeks.
Again, I do not claim to represent ePluribus. I simply volunteer to help my husband when he writes for them.
I am a hard person to read. I snark a lot.
I NEVER meant to slight Elizabeth Edwards. She is an intelligent and brave woman. I have a history of cancer victims in my immediate family, and yes, I still believe that people facing life-threatening diseases should take it easy. Many were right in asserting that the level of activity should be evaluated by the cancer victim him/herself. Thank you, Captains Obvious. Let me assure you that I am not under the impression that I am EE's personal physician.
I still can't understand why the top-tier candidates don't seek out members of the press who do not view the world through red-tinted glasses, and ePluribus Media does consider itself PRESS, not BLOG.
There. Clear as mud.
I'm done. Thank you, and Good Night.
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So, I'm part of ePluribus Media, in that my husband Timroff is a large part (no pun intended) of ePluribus, and I am his copy editor and general sounding board, as well as a minor, minor fact-checker---just for Timroff. These are just my personal experiences, and should have no bearing on ePluribus.
You know what ePluribus is, right?
At the very minimum, ePluribus is a totally fact-based news source. Where 99.9% of the Mainstream Media is corporate owned, ePluribus has no such bias. We're volunteers. I don't think even the founders get paid. We are most definitely NOT the ordinary media.
My least favorite moment was being brushed off by Amy of the Edwards campaign. ePluribus has been trying to get an interview with the Dem candidates, because, hey, it's news. We've been trying the regular channels of getting 3 to 5 minutes with all the candidates. And for the most part, response has been fantastic. Except at the top.
So, I'm in the session called "politics 2.0 and social networking"--which I thought was about parties hosted at home, serves me right for just picking seminars by name only--and after the session I go up, introduce myself:
"Hello, my name is Dania Audax from ePluribus Media, we've been trying to get 3 to 5 minutes with Edwards because we are going to interview all the candidates, who should I talk to to set that up?..."
At this point, Amy rolled her eyes and we were interrupted by someone else. When that person had gone away, I continued my sell, attempting to stress that the interview would focus on the issues that the candidate wanted to put out there. Through many eye rolls, especially when I mentioned ePluribus was interviewing Chris Dodd and maybe (it's a strong maybe, see below) even Obama, I gave her my name, and in the end she gave me her card and said "I'll pass your information on" for 5 mintues with...Elizabeth.
I was unimpressed.
My first thought was "Maybe that's why the MSM keeps picking on Edwards. He keeps passing things off onto a woman who is, as I understand it, battling cancer."
I was unimpressed with Amy, just because of her "you must be small, I've never heard of you AND I'm 26!" attitude. ePluribus has podcast interviews of all kinds of candiates, from Bill Foster, to Larry Grant, to Eric Massa. We'll be posting what we have for weeks, about one a day.
You should know, Amy wasn't the only disappointment of the weekend. I was unimpressed that even Obama's "manager of new media" gave me "Josh's" address, who has thus far failed to get in contact with Timroff.
I was and continue to be unimpressed with Hillary's people, who were especially unhelpful.
So, I'm a bit depressed. We're offering free publicity, through a blue (instead of red-tinted) lens and I'm feeling just a little left behind by the people I thought I could support. ePluribus people have worked hard to establish our credibility, and we were really hoping to--if we got the presidential interviews, to appeal to Kos to get the interviews front-paged. I don't see why the candidates would want to brush off 100,000+ readers of a trusted news source, especially when you're looking at the alternative right-wing talking points on TV, who fuss about cleavage and haircuts, and other non-issues.
Two conclusions are clear. ePluribus will continue to break the stories and fact check. It's the only way to keep building our credibility, and that's just too dang bad for the tech-fearing candidates. My second conclusion is that the staff of the candiates who attended YearlyKos were not briefed on how to handle bloggers, no matter how in touch they say they are with the netroots. Just because I'm wearing a "Worse than Watergate" t-shirt, doesn't mean I don't expect professionalism. Professionalism means returning phone calls and doing research on who you are going to meet at a conference. Thus, this rant.
I was left with a bad taste in my mouth by all three frontrunners. Guess I'm voting the way the issues fall again.
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UPDATE (the first):
If any of the campaigns want to reach Timroff (Tim Smith) for a 5 minute interview (or, we can do questions by email, or even over the phone), feel free to visit his profile page at http://timroff.dailykos.com. I should mention that the campaigns already have Timroff's contact info, because he has been trying to contact them for 3 weeks.
Thank you!