GOP to hold 'mastering blogs' session with Stephen Colbert

http://rawstory.com/news/2006/GOP_to_hold_mastering_blogosphere_session_0302.html



In the 1990s, talk radio was crucial to disseminating the ideas of the Republican revolutionaries. Today, House GOP Conference Vice Chairman Jack Kingston (Ga.) believes that the blogosphere is poised to become the next big thing in the GOP communication machine’s armada, ROLL CALL reports Thursday, RAW STORY has learned.

“If you look at what blogs have impacted, from the Swift Boat situation to the Dan Rather retirement, they are very effective,” Kingston said. In the past three years, 100,000 Web logs have grown into 29 million, according to Kingston.

With that in mind, Kingston’s “Theme Team,” a group of 85 Members responsible for helping articulate the House Republican message, is convening a workshop on the blogosphere in Rayburn 2181 at 10 a.m. Friday.
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The seminar — covering everything from “What is a blog?” to strategies for pitching stories and ideas to bloggers — will feature discussions with bloggers from such conservative sites as TownHall.com and Human Events Online.

In addition, attendees will hear from some of Washington’s top blog watchers and from fellow House aides whose bosses are at the forefront of outreach to the blogosphere, including Ken Spain, the press secretary to avid blogger and podcaster Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), and Brad Dayspring, the communications director for Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) who last month helped organize the first-ever House hearing open to live blogging. RNC eCampaign Director Patrick Ruffini will also participate.

Comedian Stephen Colbert, who is planning to be on the Hill Friday taping interviews for “The Colbert Report’s” “Better Know a District” segment, is slated to drop by the event to pitch his Comedy Central show, which each week spotlights a different House Member and district. (Kingston, who sat for the first installment of Colbert’s series, invited the TV host.<snip>

Ummm, ew! What's this about?

If Colbert can slip a camera into the event, he will get weeks of material. There's nothing funnier than Republicans trying to get "with it." Might as well hand Ward Cleaver a cell phone.

They can't take a joke, so they think all those interviews with Democratic members of Congress are for real.

not a re-packager.

From the LBN rules:
Please make an effort to link directly to the original source of an article, instead of linking to sites that have re-published someone else's content, or re-packaged someone else's content as their own


Source is Roll Call

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/51_90/news/12364-1.html

:thumbsup: