The liberal netroots go mainstream

This announcement is pretty interesting, and timely for Will's project looking at the influence of bloggers in the upcoming election.

Obama's appeal to white voters

On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal had one of the most interesting voter stories I've ever read. A very counterintutive piece about why many white voters are attracted to Obama as a candidate precisely because of his mixed-race background, and at the same time, why he lags behind Hillary Clinton in support from African-American voters.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB119466546698288951.html
It's also a great example of how to use polling results in these kinds of stories

Two to check out from the New York Times

For an interesting take on the sometimes complicated relationships between big-name bloggers and political campaigns, look at the Times story on how Hillary Clinton is trying to build a bridge to, of all places, the conservative Drudge Report http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/us/politics/22drudge.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin

The Times also had a fascinating profile on the unlikely new governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal -- a 36-year-old policy wonk who is the nation's first Indian-American governor. As the reporter notes, the Republicn was elected "in a Southern state where race is inseparable from politics." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/us/22louisiana.html?ref=politics

LOOKING FOR DENNIS KUCINICH

For a good, very entertaining example of profile writing, check out the Stranger's take on Kucinich, http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=413457 Wonderful, very concrete descriptions of our first vegan presidential candidate. And if you've got the time, go to YouTube to check out Kucinich's appearance on the Colbert Report Monday night.

Fark founder says reporters obsessed with "nutjobs"

This is not unlike what Christian Sinderman was telling us today about how the press always looks for the one opponent to something, even a wildly popular idea, to provide "balance." This is from a great column by Slate's Jack Shafer about a book by the founder of Fark.

Instead of urging journalists to raise their standards—the typical tack taken by
the press-guardian-industrial complex—Curtis puts the onus on readers, insisting
that they become better news consumers. The educated reader's top enemy is the
"filler" of non-news, he argues, which the mass media pumps out whenever there's
not enough hard news to complete a newscast or fill a newspaper. Through this
crack come the inaccurate, fear-mongering stories about germs, earthquakes, and
potential terrorist attacks; the worthless formula stories hooked on changing
seasons, hot-weather spells, shark attacks, and holiday traffic patterns—the
media events generated by PR firms that reporters translate into news stories.
Even when journalists do right they often go wrong, he writes, by pausing in the
middle of well-reported pieces to give equal time—in the name of balance—to
flat-earth "nutjobs" (his word) who take the opposing view.

RESEARCHING POLITICAL MONEY

To track down the amount of contributions received by the candidates or campaigns you are covering, you should become familiar with a few essential websites. We'll go into these with more depth when we write the money stories, but if you want to quickly learn how to use them either of us can help out.
Here they are:
1) Seattle Elections and Ethics Commission (this one is self-explanatory and very easy to use)

http://www2.ci.seattle.wa.us/ethics/elpub/el_home.asp

2) Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (contains information on all statewide races, including initiatives and referendums, and on spending by lobbyists. Information on the King County prosecutors race is listed here as well)
http://www.pdc.wa.gov/Public/Default.aspx

3)King County Elections
http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/

Pulitzer winner talks about writing with authority

In this story in PR Week of all places, an LA Times reporter does a great job talking about getting beyond "he said/she said" reporting.

Citizen journalists spreading word on protests in Burma

Interesting story from the Wall Street Journal this week about how citizen journalists in Burma are spreading the word, via mobile phones and internet, to outside journalists about what's happening inside the country.
Citizen journalists provide protest coverage from Myanmar

Ballot measure sources

Hello all. Postman here.

It was great to meet you this morning. I hope everyone got an overview of the class. I promise there will be more details as we go along.

Here are some sources for those of you who are going to do stories about ballot measures.

Initiatvive 960
Here is the text of the initiative on the Secretary of State's site. (A good place to start any research on voting, initiatives, etc.)
The yes campaign will likely only be Tim Eyman's organization, Permanent Offense. I can also give you Eyman's telephone number if you need to reach him.
I have not yet seen an organized and funded opposition. But there is a small grassroots group,
Permanet Defense which will write a lot in opposition to the initiative. They can provide a spokesman as well.

Referendum 67
Here is the text of the measure.
The pro campaign is called Approve 67.
The spokeswoman is Sue Evans
206.792.0408
253.592.1590 - cell
E-mail sevans@approve67.org

The no campaign is called Reject 67.
Spokeswoman is Dana Childers
425.868.2698 (office)
206.953.0342 (cell)
E-mail: Dana.Childers@reject67.org

Proposition 1, roads and transit
The opposition is still forming. But check out both NoRTID
and NoToProp1.
Kathleen Ridihalgh, 206-356-2925, is a spokesman for the Sierra Club-backed part of the opposition.

The yes campaign is Yes on Roads and Transit .
The spokesman is Aaron Toso, 206-859-3328, 206-318-1251
E-mail: toso@yesonroadsandtransit.org

SOME POTENTIAL SOURCES FOR THE FIRST-ASSIGNMENT: Some Seattle Times reporters who cover these races passed on some sources who might be helpful to get started and some ideas about the races.


Seattle City Council races:
Pos. 9: Bruce Harrell and Venus Velazquez. Main issues: They're both political newcomers, so they're both trying to prove they have the leadership and credibility to take this step.
Pos. 7: David Della and Tim Burgess. Della is fighting image that he hasn't accomplished much;Burgess that he is too conservative.
You should check out the Municipal League for ratings of each candidate

Seattle School Board
The most competitive School Board races are the two that involve incumbents: Sally Soriano v. Peter Maier in Dist. 1 and Darlene Flynn v. Sherry Carr in Dist. Both are in North Seattle. The biggest issues are the competence of the previous School Board (opponents say the current board micro-managed district staff and overstepped its policy-making role) and upcoming changes to the way the district doles out money to schools and the way the district assigns students to schools.
General Sources who can provide background: Lisa Macfarlane, pres. of the League of Education Voters (206) 728-6448, Wendy Kimball, head of the teacher's union (206) 283-8443 ext. 202, and Sharon Rodgers, pres. of Seattle Council PTSA (206) 547-5028.