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I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
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Daily Blah for... Monday, November 17, 2003
MoveOn's Big Mo
Boy, this was a painful one. Karen and I wrote this story on the MoveOn phenomenon several weeks ago, and watched it languish in the "might run this week" pile for some time. Finally it runs in this week's issue -- but at half the original size. I did the butchery myself. There was a fair bit of blood on the floor. In this business, you pretty much have to be able to withstand any level of story surgery, all the way up to a cover story being cut down to a paragraph.
I N T E R N E T P O L I T I C S / C A M P A I G N ' 0 4
MoveOn's Big Moment
By CHRIS TAYLOR AND KAREN TUMULTY
Monday, Nov. 24, 2003
Few Democratic campaigns can boast matching funds from megarich financier George Soros, feisty speeches by Al Gore and a make-your-own-campaign-commercial contest conceived by pop star Moby. These are the trophies of MoveOn.org, an activist website with just seven staff members and no office. What it does have is an e-mail list with 1.8 million members, who have little more in common than anger and a tilt to the left.
The seven staff members focus that anger on the liberal topic du jour. One day, MoveOn's e-mail armada pushes a petition against the FCC's relaxing rules on media ownership; the next, a fund drive that brought in $1 million in 48 hours to support the Texas state senators who had fled the state to stop a G.O.P. redistricting plan. There are no membership dues, and gratification is as instant as a mouse click. "MoveOn is easily the largest political-action committee in the country," says Professor Michael Cornfield of George Washington University. "It's the Christian Coalition of the left."
MoveOn's latest campaign is its most ambitious — a $10 million drive to fund anti-Bush commercials in key battleground states later this month. Billionaires Soros and Peter Lewis last week offered to give $1 for every $2 given by members, up to a cap of $5 million. Meanwhile, Moby and a host of celebrity pals (like Jack Black and Janeane Garafolo) are getting ready to judge the best commercial made by members, which MoveOn will air around the State of the Union.
All this began with Wes Boyd and Joan Blades, a married couple of Berkeley-based computer entrepreneurs whose company was best known for a screensaver that featured flying toasters. In 1997 they sold it for $13.8 million. Then came impeachment. Wes and Joan put together a website and sent it to friends. Its title and policy: Censure and Move On. As an afterthought, the couple put together an e-mail list of supporters. "It was supposed to be a flash campaign," says Wes. "We're in, we're out, we're fixed."
But they were hooked. By 2000,MoveOn.org was raising $2 million for Democratic candidates, including more than $100,000 to help California's Adam Schiff beat Congressman James Rogan, one of the House managers during Clinton's impeachment trial. In mid-to late 2002, as the Iraq war loomed, the MoveOn e-mail list doubled, to 1 million. Wes and Joan hooked up with Zack Exley, whose parody campaign 2000 website, GWBush.com, caused candidate Bush to declare, "There ought to be some limits to freedom"; and Eli Pariser, 22, a New Yorker whose post-9/11 e-mail petition for peace was signed by 500,000 people worldwide. All four still work out of their homes, communicating by e-mail, instant messaging and a regular Tuesday conference call.
In June, MoveOn held what was billed as the first Internet presidential primary, and more than 317,000 members voted. Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean grabbed the top spot with 44%--not quite the 50% MoveOn required to endorse a candidate but enough to give his candidacy the momentum it still enjoys. Dean's rivals grumbled that MoveOn had advised Dean on how to market himself to its members. Exley says the site had made the same offer to others, but "back then, the Dean campaign was the only one desperate enough to take us up on it."
Now Wes and Joan's quiet Berkeley home plays host to a steady stream of consultants and candidates coming to pay homage. Those who seek endorsement are in for a disappointment. "I don't spend any time figuring out who the right candidate is," says Wes. "All I want to do is evangelize populism, so they go away thinking 'Whoa — there's someone other than wealthy donors I have to impress?'"
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