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Nov

13

Catfight, blogger ethics battle – what? between posts on Kucinich and Palmer


I don’t know what’s going on between this post and this one and this one.

But I know that “Susan” at Blue Ohioan is a real person who posts there more often than Anthony Fossaceca, who is Rosemary Palmer’s campaign manager (Palmer is running against Dennis Kucinich for the Dem nomination in Ohio’s 10th congressional district) as well as a blogger at Blue Ohioan. Cindy is a founder and front pager at As Ohio Goes.

Does Fossaceca need to put some obvious disclosure on Blue Ohioan to say he’s with Palmer? Should Susan say anything about her connection or lack of to Palmer?  Does it matter since we know that the blog is a left-leaning blog (as in, the “blue” in “Blue Ohioan”) and able to do as its blog authors choose?

Cindy is within bounds to write about her upsetment at Susan’s post – but we don’t know just from looking at As Ohio Goes or Blue Ohioan as to whether Susan has a connection to Palmer’s campaign as Cindy implies (I don’t know anyway).

Other options include leaving a comment on Blue Ohioan asking about whether Susan speaks for the Palmer campaign and how she is connected if at all, or not writing publicly at all but only privately – that would be acceptable too in the blogosphere – to identify Anthony’s side of the story.

And Anthony can of course respond, or not.

But what is best for the candidates, and for blogs? Are there any other connections or questions we need to ask and have answered in order to figure out who has which dogs in the race?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:28 pm November 13th, 2007 in Blogging, Campaigning, Elections, Ohio, Politics, WH2008 

Comments

6 Responses to “Catfight, blogger ethics battle – what? between posts on Kucinich and Palmer”

  1. 1 Anthony Fossaceca on November 13th, 2007 3:09 pm

    Jill,
    These are all good, valid questions. Here’s the response I left on As Ohio Goes about an hour ago (I’ll have more after the comment)…

    Cindy,
    I own the domain BlueOhioan.com and have owned it from fall of 2004. When I am not under contract with a campaign, I blog there. Two other people have accounts to blog there – Veronica Johnson and Susan Meara. Susan is the person who posted the entry you are referring to – not me. It says so right on the entry. If you have an issue with her, please take it up with her. I haven’t blogged there since June or July. It’s been pretty much all Susan. She’s not employed by the campaign, my company or BlueOhioan. She’s just a mom and an activist like you. I think your beef with with her.

    A simple phone call could have cleared this up, you know.

    Anthony

  2. 2 Anthony Fossaceca on November 13th, 2007 3:26 pm

    So, as my post above states, I’m not blogging there while under contract (which I am), but Susan is. That’s her call. Susan isn’t a spokesperson for the campaign BUT she’s a darn good volunteer. I’m not shy about saying that. She doesn’t take orders from me, not that she would anyway. She’s got a son overseas and this race means a lot to her. She does volunteer with our campaign, and she has given money to the campaign – but she most definitely does not post anything to the blogs about this race from this office. That’s our policy. Only four people speak for the campaign – Rosemary, her husband Paul, Mike Gillis, and me. Period. We’ve got a blog on the campaign website and that’s the vehicle we use (along with email and traditional sources). We don’t need to get caught up in the middle of a blogfight, and we’re not going to.

    This race is about Dennis Kucinich, Rosemary Palmer and the voters of Ohio’s Tenth Congressional District. It’s not about Susan and Cindy.

  3. 3 Jill Miller Zimon on November 13th, 2007 4:28 pm

    Nothing like a little zeal. It’s what we love about blogging. But knowing all the parties involved, so to speak, well – I just felt that there was probably a good chance to make the situation more transparent.

    Thanks.

  4. 4 Eric on November 13th, 2007 9:14 pm

    Cindy got caught up in Susan’s “attack” and failed to reel it in a bit. Ends up looking foolish in her intimation that the Palmer campaign endorses the view.

  5. 5 Cindy on November 13th, 2007 9:37 pm

    Thanks Jill

    I see an obvious connection. Rosemary pays Anthony, Anthony pays for the site that Susan (Rosemarys top volunteer) blogs from. If we looked at this on a larger scale and say, as an example, it was Hillary’s campaign manager who paid for a blog where Hillarys chosen volunteers spewed anti-Edwards crap, we would not be discussing the nuances of the ethics .

    I do hope this situation was not as contrived as that but in the very least it is an amatuer campaign move – this all should have been stated up front on BlueOhioan. If Rosemary did not want to be associated as closely as she is with BlueOhioan, her campaign manager should not be listed as the site’s owner. It just seems pretty simple to me.

    Thanks for your time.

    And Eric, I did not get reeled into anything, I sat on this for days before I published, even casually talked to a lawyer about what he thought. So, nice try.

    You do know something about looking foolish though – as there aren’t too many bloggers that relish in the fat joke like you (at least not of your stature). And the boxing match – hah! Pure Foolishness. Don’t you have some important work to do?

  6. 6 Jill Miller Zimon on November 13th, 2007 9:53 pm

    Believe me- having just been part of a major implosion where people who should have known better didn’t set up the rules properly and I got burned (not to mentioned blamed by some), I understand how things can look and still not be as they seem.

    In the Ohio sphere, no question – we hold each other’s feet to the fire and that’s how we all learn what the rules and boundaries are, if we want to be credible and transparent etc.

    I’ve known Anthony for a while, I’ve followed Blue Ohioan since it started, I have had email exchanges with Susan. But I wasn’t going to do more than prod here because I can see why you might see what you say you saw.

    Other than Susan and Anthony sharing sentiments about issues etc., I don’t know for sure, of course – but it never occurred to me at all that the blog is in any way a bona fide, planned tool. Not that any of our blogs, when we are being partisan, couldn’t be seen that way. And Anthony can speak for himself and you for yourself – of course. :)

    I’m actually guessing, with all due respect to the passion that Susan in particular puts into Blue Ohioan, that the traffic may not even be that high and I know, for myself, with my numbers as low as they are, I don’t even imagine people thinking I’m shilling or anything.

    Feet to fire – good. Checking things out to see if they are as they seem, also good. Zealous support for whomever you back, also good.

    Thanks. Sorry if I made anyone feel awkward – just glad for the communication.

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