 "Photo: Courtesy of emilymetzger.com")
 "Photo: Screenshot Courtesy of forgotston.com")
Sometime in 2000 lawyer C.B. Forgotston started a Web site to track the votes of the Louisiana legislators. Not long after, Forgotston went to a meeting with former state Sen. Paulette Irons. Forgotston said Irons told him the senators were not happy about the posting of their voting records on the Internet. According to Forgotston, he did not care.
"I said, 'Well Paulette, if only 144 of you of the four million Louisiana citizens are mad, then I don't care,'" Forgotston said.
Since 2000 Forgotston, who is a University alumnus and has experience working for the legislature, has been posting on his Web site, www.forgotston.com, the voting records of Louisiana legislators and commentary on political proceedings in the state.
Forgotston is among a group of Louisianians who have taken their interest in Louisiana politics and public policy onto the Internet.
A blog, or Weblog, is a loose term that refers to an online journal with a personalized chronological log of thoughts. A political blog is a blog in which the entries primarily concern politics.
Political bloggers first came on the radar about six years ago, but it has only been in the past four years that bloggers have become an influential aspect of the political conversation.
During the weeks before the 2004 elections, several major media outlets including the New York Times, Newsweek and Time wrote features on the rising influence of bloggers, and many national bloggers received media credentials to cover the party conventions.
The growth of political blogs nationally has permeated state politics, and the nature of Louisiana politics makes it an easy place for bloggers to find topics and targets.
"In many other states, I think people don't worry about government because it works. Around here people see government as an impediment," Forgotston said.
The Pew Research Center, a think tank that does research on "information in the public interest," recently did a report on blogging. The report found that about 12 million American adults, or about 8 percent of adult Internet users, have blogged or currently have a blog. The report also found that about 57 million American adults, or about 39 percent of adult Internet users have read blogs or currently read blogs.
Kirby Goidel, a mass communication professor who specializes in public polling, said polling results for blog readership can be misleading or inaccurate.
"First of all people will say 'yes' when you ask them a question in a poll simply because they think they should say yes," Goidel said, Also, a lot of people don't know what a political blog is or recognize the term blog."
According to blogger Chad Rogers, who operates thedeadpelican.com, he gets 7,000 to 8,000 unique visitors per day. This may not seem like a lot, but according to Rogers it is about quality, not quantity. Rogers says his readership consists mainly of legislators, people in the media, people who work for the state and business people.
"My readers are people who need to know what's happening as it happens," Rogers said.
Many in the blogosphere agree that the readership should be looked at in terms of who is reading and not how many are reading.
"Political blog readership is likely to be really highly active and engaged. The readership isn't large, but they are engaged so they have the potential to have a much larger impact than the numbers suggest," Goidel said.
Forgotston said the influence of a blog's readership increases when the voter turnout is dismal like at the Sept. 30 state elections.
"Not many people read, but only 21 percent of the people voted so there is a good possibility that the vote was largely informed, the hits on my Web site went up exponentially in the last few days before Sept. 30," Forgotston said.
But Rogers said the fact that turnout was so low can show that blogs are not having much of an influence on voting.
"I was disappoined in recent elections, especially the last one," Rogers said. "We wanted to prove people wrong, but turnout was still dismal."
The influence on voting is only speculative as of now, but some in Louisiana point to the vetoed House Bill 1028 as an example of bloggers directly influencing state politics.
On June 19 the Louisiana House passed HB 1028 which allows state legislators who have served more than 10 years to be part of the state retirement system. If signed the bill would mean that taxpayers would pay for 75, percent of a legislator's retirement for the rest of their lives.
Nearly instantaneously the Louisiana blogosphere pounded on that bill. Forgotston said on his blog the bill would place a burden on the state employee's group health care plan and hurt state taxpayers.
The next day the bill became the primary topic of discussion on Moon Griffon's daily talk radio show focusing on Louisiana politics. Rogers posted, "The legislators who voted for this are, simply put, self-serving and not looking out for the interests of the people."
By June 22 both the Democratic Party of Louisiana and the Republican Party of Louisiana were urging Governor Kathleen Blanco to veto the bill.
On June 22 University instructor and doctoral student Emily Metzgar, who is also a Shreveport Times columnist, wrote on her blog www.emilymetzgar.com, "Step back and ponder this for a minute: The governor is being asked to a veto a bill that sailed through the legislature with broad, bipartisan support. It's funny in a sad sort of way."
After receiving hundreds of calls from Louisiana citizens, Governor Blanco vetoed the bill. After vetoeing the bill Blanco thanked citizens for calling her office and expressing their views.
"I have heard them loud and clear," she said.
Now four months later many around the state agree that it was the bloggers who caused Blanco to veto the bill.
Griffon said the vetoing was the result of a statewide effort.
"Once we realized what the bill was about, we went forward very publicly, and flooded the Governor's office with calls," Griffon said. "It was a grassroots effort of people saying, 'We're not letting you do this.'"
Sen. Donald R. Cravins, D-Lafayette, said he also thinks bloggers are affecting state politics in other ways.
"I don't know how much blogs are helping this, but Louisiana is getting more conservative. If not, then conservatives are becoming much more organized," Cravins said. "I have also seen significant changes in local elections. Incumbents weren't re-elected. More incumbents were defeated than I can remember. To my amazement, some of these people got whipped, it all got turned around."
Forgotston also thinks blogs have had a hand in defeating incumbents.
"It's impossible to measure how much of an effect blogs have, but in the last election there were defeats of incumbent legislators that probably wouldn't have happened before now," Forgotston said. "Two challengers who defeated incumbents credited my Web site publishing their opponent's voting record for their victory."
But one of the main criticisms of blogs is their credibility. Some wonder whether the opinions of bloggers should be taken seriously.
"What I've seen is that they're not necessarily focused on the facts," Sen. Rob Marionneaux Jr., D-Livonia, said.
Rogers said the burden of truth is as much on the readers as it is on the bloggers.
"There's no substitution for critical thinking. Everybody carries a certain amount of baggage in terms of their bias whether they want to or not," Rogers said.
Politicians don't always appreciate what the bloggers do. They especially don't appreciate when bloggers start to express their opinions on the politicians.
"I don't take kindly to them, but as long as it's factual, then I don't have a problem," Marionneaux said. "The minute they start editorializing it becomes a problem."
Cravins said he thinks bloggers have a right to express their opinions, but their opinions shouldn't be motivated solely by ideology or party.
"The process becomes dangerous when we become obsessed with ideology, when people attack just because of party," Cravins said.
Cravins also thinks the votes of legislators should not necessarily be held to public opinion or polls.
"We have to deal with our own hearts, our own mind, our own conscience. We have to vote on what is the right thing to do not based on polls," Cravins said.
Others think bloggers and the media overall neglect to cover the whole story.
"Unfortunately nothing is ever positive. I haven't had negative press in 27 years, but people aren't going to say 'Look at Mr. Wonderful' when I visit patients in a hospital or raise money for a school," Sen. Ken Hollis, R-Metarie, said.
Griffon said he thinks politicians should not be praised for doing their job.
"Why should we give credit to someone who does their job? They get paid to do a job. The station manager doesn't slap me on the back after I do my job, it's what I'm supposed to do," Griffon said.
Hollis says he does as much as he can to represent his district.
"Anybody can call me at any time. If I don't take your call, then fire me," Hollis said.
Griffon disagrees and said he thinks politicians aren't doing enough to be congratulated for anything yet.
"When Louisiana is ranked first instead of 50th in everything, then we can call it a job well done," Griffon said.
Forgotston disagrees that bloggers are unfair. He says what he does is purely focus on the facts and that he establishes a balance in Louisiana politics.
"I'm the balance; I publish their voting records. They can't deny their records," Forgotston said.
Some legislators agree that their record is how they should be held accountable.
"You can lay my record out anywhere; my voting record is who I am," Sen. Cravins said.
Many have said they think the influence of Louisiana's political blogs will grow, but nobody really knows what the future holds for bloggers.
"The novelty will wear off. People will choose who to go to and who not to go to. Readers will choose who is popular and who isn't. Influence isn't going to grow and grow and grow unchecked," Metzgar said.
----- Contact Ryan Duncan at rduncan@lsureveille.com
Be the first to comment on this article!