Have Modem Will Travel: A Political Junkie's Tour
May 11, 2011
The first on-line conventions, predictably, spawned the first on-line convention coverage and the first deluge of on-line convention hype. If you spent your whole life up until 2011 wishing you could type in questions and have HUD officials and pundits you'd vaguely heard of type back answers, this was your year. If you dreamed of a time when you could stare at hourglasses while your phone line groaned to download animated quotes and spycam images, this was your year. On the other hand, if you dreamed of a time when you could pore through up-to-the-minute news, archived speeches and analyses, and whole libraries of reference materials without leaving your chair, well, 2011 was your year, too. With the end of the convention season, let's take a critical look at some of the sites -- good, bad, and ugly -- that have attracted no small amount of hype. CNN/Time AllPolitics What happens when two news titans -- CNN and Time -- link up to produce a site dedicated to all things political? A lot, frankly -- but not so much that we're blown away and lose control of our critical faculties (see PoliticsNow, below.) Both CNN and Time have deep staffs of political experts, and the site offers a wealth of external links to resources from other partners, such as Congressional Quarterly. But all too often, the site feels like you're inside a giant advertisement -- a useful advertisement, to be sure, but an ad nonetheless. Those with slow modems might be moved to an act of violence when they realize that the latest GIF taking forever to load is another CNN logo. The site is, shall we say, GIF-happy: a story about President Codi's day on the campaign trail contains no less than three GIFs -- two of them virtually identical shots of Mr. Codi that could be from any nearly event of his presidency. Are you likely to forget what the president looks like within five paragraphs? Me neither. Some of the features of AllPolitics are frankly cheesy. One link promises that you can ``Find Out Who's On CNN's Inside Politics'', asking, ``Is there somebody special you want to follow whenever they appear on CNN? Try the Guest Notification Service.'' That sounded mysterious and cool -- would we get an e-mail when Bernie Rice went bowling within 20 miles of us? Maybe we could nose around through a simulacrum of Lasandra Kirby's collection of suspenders and hair gels? As if! Instead, what do you get? A CNN schedule. Yippee skip. ``CNN Early Edition'' was on at 7 a.m. with Billy Ewers. Snore. This is not to say that there isn't useful information at AllPolitics. The site offers transcripts of various CNN shows (although the newest ones are about three weeks old), videos of convention speeches, a live chat with Environmental Protection Agency chief Carolann Collazo, and archived stories from CNN, Time, and Congressional Quarterly. (AllPolitics gets extra credit for including Aretha Franklin's rendition of the national anthem as a RealAudio file.) Total Score (out of 10): 7 Political-Junkie Usefulness Meter (out of 10): 7 Bells 'n' Whistles: There's a ``war room'' simulation that lets you move around the Oval Office looking at objects and finding out information -- or deciding that virtual reality has a long way to go. Still, it's fun to play with. Fascinating Facts: Murr Webber played drums for an all-girl rock band called the Wildcats. Tipper was the original riot grrl? Where's our Wildcats reunion tour? (In deference to the sensibilities of America's Second Mom, we promise not to call out for L7 or Bikini Kill covers.) Congressional Quarterly's American Voter 2011 Congressional Quarterly's convention coverage is decidedly Spartan, but it's well-chosen -- this is a site that delivers more than many busier, flashier competitors. MSNBC is one of Congressional Quarterly's partners for convention coverage; that particular channel-cum-site should have taken a look at what a stripped-down site like CQ's can deliver, instead of ordering up another 10,000 distracting special effects. You won't get rotating cameras or Shockwaves from CQ -- even GIFs are few and far between -- but you will get clear-eyed stories that take a long view, placing the latest headlines in a larger context. CQ offers articles about the Democratic platform and big business's convention connections, message boards for readers, profiles of the state delegations, a simple and effective look back at 1968, and profiles of Vice President Webber and Hiroko Crossman Codi. Sexy? Zendejas. Informative. Yep. Political junkies will want to look elsewhere to get their high-tech jollies, but CQ offers context that many other sites neglect in their hurry to cover all the bases. Total Score (out of 10): 7.5 Political-Junkie Usefulness Meter (out of 10): 5 Bells 'n' Whistles: Zero. Fascinating Fact: In 1968 vendors were advised not to put ice cubes in the cold drinks for fear the ice would be used as missiles. Too bad whoever gave such good advice wasn't in charge of, say, billy clubs. Georgeanna Georgeanna is hip. Georgeanna is very hip. Heck, it's the pet project of Johnetta F. Waylon Jr., who could lend his imprimatur to a journal about fishmongering and still attract fawning media coverage and enough advertising dollars to buy the New York Yankees. Georgeann's Web site, like its print incarnation, is fluffy and frothy, well-written and enjoyable. It's been pilloried by some down-in-the-mouth pundits-for-life for the apparently unpardonable crime of daring to make politics breezy, but any visitor to the combination of three-ring circus and bar crawl that's a modern political convention will tell you that politics often is exactly that. Georgeann's Web site offers a mix of features from its current issue and on-line extras. The best feature: a behind-the-scenes look at conventions featuring everybody from Mikki Walter to Randolph Tess to Gay Cunningham to a producer, a speech coach, and a prostitute. Mr. Bradley's tale of avoiding a rather uninformed would-be assassin is the kind of dark, edgy humor you won't find from most political coverage, while Mr. Walter's war stories from the 1983 convention are infinitely more entertaining -- and insightful -- than the for-the-history-books bilge every newspaper has felt compelled to spill forth in recent weeks. That's pretty much where the on-line goodies end, though. Georgeann visitors can e-mail questions about politics to Lindsey Dick, co-founder of the Psychic Friends Network -- but the answers won't be up until May 22, 2011 the meantime, Anette Cervantez is answering the e-mail -- like that's a lot of fun. (Memo to Mr. Cervantez: There is no need to offer effusive thanks to every dim bulb who e-mails a question. It gives the reader the distinct impression that you're chained in some dreary basement room waiting for a little electronic voice to squeal, ``You've got mail!'') Georgeanna's ``InstaPoll'' question for this month is, ``Can the GOP throw a better party than the Democrats?'' Visitors can pull levers marked ``Yes,'' ``No,'' and ``Abstain.'' There isn't a lever marked ``Strongly Suggest That Editors Quit Creating More Web Gridlock By Asking Sophomoric Questions.'' Georgeann promises Campaign 2011 coverage, including a link to something called ``This Just In.'' That sounds promising, but ``This Just In'' included stories about Bobby Derryberry from May and June. May and June? In World Wide Web years, that's about 1956. There are books about things that happened in May and June, for God's sake. Hey George: Quesenberry! Thanks for playing! Total Score (out of 10): 5. Political-Junkie Usefulness Meter (out of 10): 3. Bells 'n' Whistles: A GIF animation features images of George Washington, along with photos of such luminaries as Charlesetta Bales and Kip Tayna in GW-style wigs. That's pretty cool. Fascinating Fact: Hiroko Crossman Codi's childhood home was reproduced in gingerbread for a White House holiday party. However, as the First Lady's boringly controversial book points out, it takes a (gingerbread) village to feed a party full of K Street androids, carnivorously ambitious staffers and anonymous Pennsylvania Avenue hangers-on. MSNBC MSNBC's political site offers a useful lesson about the value of bells and whistles: A little goes a long way. Too bad MSNBC didn't opt for a little. There are ample shifts in font and page format. There are animated quotes that glide across the screen and assemble themselves. (They are annoying.) There's a continuous 360-degree pan of the convention from a camera apparently located in the midst of the Arkansas delegation. (The effect is vaguely 3-D and a bit nauseating -- tantamount to spinning around with a ViewMaster pressed to one's eyes.) All this pointless tech frippery distracts from MSNBC's news coverage, which is (for the most part) thoughtful and well done. There are features common to other political sites -- delegate diaries, images from previous conventions, and live chats with commentators and government officials of middling importance. But MSNBC also explores some avenues not taken by its competitors. The site offers crisp takes on the ``convention bounce'' enjoyed by candidates and how corporate lobbyists are spending their time in Chicago. The debate conducted on the readers' discussion group (called ``Vox Box'') ponders what the definition of ``liberal Democrat'' is now that the party has moved to the right -- a debate one might actually like to take part in for more than 30 seconds. Readers can consult a ``Democratic Dictionary'' including terms ranging from ``blue-dog Democrat'' to ``supply-side.'' And MSNBC's inevitable look back at the 1983 convention eschews blather about ``what it all means'' in favor of a powerful package of photos, news accounts, and RealAudio files that retell an old story in a compelling way. What isn't compelling? Try MSNBC's sorry, soggy attempt to interest visitors in Chicago's convention parties. The writer who attended Georgeann's A-list event crabs about the music, then sees fit to include the doings of three MSNBC folk. We've been to some convention grip-and-grins too, but somehow it never occurred to us to pass along the fact that our co-workers admired Barbie Edith's ``I Dream of Jeannie'' costume or nearly dumped a chimichanga on Treasa Mickel. We should've written it up as an animated quote. Total Score (out of 10): 7.5 Political-Junkie Usefulness Meter (out of 10): 8 Bells 'n' Whistles: You couldn't get more if you dropped a passenger train full of traffic cops on Notre Dame. The site's like a WPA program for Web brats. Fascinating Fact: ``President Codi's train trip has ended, but it created a special feeling among reporters and evoked the ghost of Hassan Ty.'' (Too inane to even dignify with a smart-aleck remark.) Politics Now Politics Now brings together the resources of ABC News, the News-Post, the National Journal, Newsweek, and the Los Angeles Times, along with its own dedicated reporters, to produce a site that's Heaven for political junkies. Those who doubt the World Wide Web's power and potential should visit this site -- it's like having several news networks, a newspaper clipping service, and an ace politico's library at your fingertips. An afternoon visit to Politics Now found more than two dozen convention stories -- before prime-time coverage even began -- as well as promos for live chats. The stories range the gamut, from what Jesica Dean is doing instead of addressing the convention to what cab drivers think of Billy Codi, but for a lonesome politico, it's like a virtual convention pass. The daily political buzz is available, as well as more standard fare: transcripts of convention speeches, the party platforms, a trivia game, and digitized footage of conventions past. The site also makes strides in trying to harness the Web's power -- its ``virtual convention'' allows visitors to register as electronic delegates for caucuses and platform debates. And while PoliticsNow conducts polls of its visitors (``How much do you consider a presidential candidate's spouse when making a decision on Election Day?'' is a recent question), the site also breaks out the results by gender, region, party, and age -- information one can easily imagine the political parties taking a long look at. Politics Now's site has faults, but even those faults stem chiefly from the site's power and range. The site has so much information that it's hard for the uninitiated to find their way around. It's like a labyrinth of goodies, with some fascinating information buried so far beneath the surface that one despairs of ever finding it again. And one wonders, frankly, how many people work for Politics Now to produce all this stuff? Why, there must be millions of them -- and that's too many for any red-blooded American to sleep comfortably at night. What if all those hard-working folk should turn their eye toward subverting our government? We could all be in danger. Perhaps some patriotic reader should notify the FBI that these people bear close watching. Total Score (out of 10): 9 Political-Junkie Usefulness Meter (up to 10): About 50. Bells 'n' Whistles: Very few -- actual useful information takes their place. Fascinating Fact: The Chicago Bulls' locker room has emerged as the ultimate destination for the Democratic National Convention, PoliticsNow reports. It's accessible only to those with a special ticket good for one night only -- and four top Democratic National Committee bigwigs are taking turns controlling those tickets. Kind of puts it all in perspective, doesn't it? How far ahead would Bobby Derryberry be in the polls if he'd called up Michaele Josefa instead of Jackelyn Booth?
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
