PERRY BACON JR from Time.com had a critical article about the limits of the Netroots campaign on Sunday, September 24. Bacon concludes the article with saying: …Netroots won't be kingmakers. The fact is, day-to-day campaigning in 2006 is not very different from how it was in 1996: candidates call a few very rich people to ask them to give money so the campaign can run ads on television and hope soccer moms catch them between cooking dinner and driving to practice. If the Democrats win in the fall elections, the roots of that victory will not be on the Net.
Bacon's article met with harsh critique from TMPcafe blogger Stirling Newberry who claimed that:
"...one reason we have problems in this country is the number of lying idiots who work for major press outlets. The lastest entrant in the media class twit of the year sweepstakes is Perry Bacon Jr. who says "the Netroots hit their limits" because "Liberal online activists are finding you can't move elections with just modems and IM.
Furthermore, Newberry adds that:
The Democratic kingmakers are the big donors and the town and county level activists. These are the people whose support, makes or breaks candidates. Bloggers, at best, can break a candidate into the national spotlight. Bloggers can turn viable candidates with local bases of support into nationally visible candidates. This is not kingmaking, but it is something that is important. Tester, Lamont, Patrick are all candidates who won with blogger support, but they were viable candidates because of local discontent with the status quo. And every honest blogger knows that.
Newberry goes on and breaks down Bacon JR’s article piece by piece. I strongly suggest that people reads his work.The two articles make for interesting reading and the discussion is absolutelyworth having. Personally, I find that Newberry’s piece reflects reality far more accurately than the dirty and smudged mirror Perry Bacon JR shows us. To me, it seems like Bacon Jr. does not manage to follow the rapidly changing field of online communications and the tools and channels that political strategists have to consider, operate within, and adapt to in order to follow the trends and changes in our modern society.