Liveblog-A-Go-Go! Seriously, Everyone's A Goddamned Expert These Days
Last night, we at ETP live-blogged the Democratic Debate in Philadelphia...along with everyone and their brother, it seems. Suddenly live-blogging is the new black — look no further for proof than last night's NYT homepage, with a pic and a tease of Kit Seelye's "Caucus" liveblog as the lead item. That's the NYT's lead item. Remember when the California wildfires didn't even make that grade? Well, the times are a-changing because the liveblogging zone was flooded last night, with Ana Marie Cox over at Time.com (with, we're pleased to say, the same loopy, drink-beside-the-keyboard sensibility that she evinced at Wonkette); Ben Smith at Politico; the NBC/MSNBC team like Chuck Todd, Domenico Montanaro, Athena Jones, and Carrie Dann; chiming in with observations throughout (though no images! And non-working livestream! MSNBC, you failed me last night); TPM's Josh Marshall; the NRO here and here, with this suggested question from Kathryn Jean Lopez: "Senator Clinton, would you allow aliens from outer space to have driver's licenses?"; Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic (with the night's great coinage, "ObBiDoddWardsSonnich Versus Hillary" - sounds suspiciously like Obi-Won-Kenobe, which would make Hillary Darth Vader). Some notable exceptions to the live-blogging rule: Newsweek's The Gaggle, which was last updated yesterday afternoon (come on, Newsweek, you are giving online supremacy to Swampland on a platter here); Wonkette's Ken Layne, who, alas, broke with his tradition of bitingly hilarious livebloggery (though he did have this takeaway); The Note, which has liveblogged in the past and who knows, may have done so last night but as we've noted in the past, it's really freaking hard to find stuff on that site; and Mark Halperin's Time.com page, aka "The Page," which is not set up like a blog but is updated in reverse chronological order so it'll do, but also, though Halperin didn't liveblog per se there is a great collection of clips and of course his own take (Hillary ate it; Biden's Giuliani swipe was "World-Class").
The upshot is, liveblogging is an easy, no-brainer of an activity — for a lack of brains, I point you to my cogent observations about pizza — but it's a quick and easy way to get a jump on the conversation and become an early participant. It's by no means a replacement for thoughtful, carefully-considered analysis, but since people — voters — watch these debates in real time and form their impressions accordingly, it's an interesting and fresh way to register what those impressions are. And it's easy to do damn well, as the NYT and Seelye — still relatively new to the blogging thing — clearly demonstrates with her smooth, smart, quick liveblogging — made possible by obvious support from the NYT in the form of providing her with quick transcripts and that amazing video-and-transcript analyzer tool. For Time to pull in Cox was a no-brainer, too (and a tip o' the hat to her as well for the clarification at 10:53), just as it makes perfect sense for Ambinder, Smith and, well, us to establish ourselves as reliable stops on the liveblog tour following each debate (it's a tour that Hillary Clinton's people know well). We've been here from the start of the debate season, hitting most of them, but it's definitely a lot less lonely now than it was back in April, or even August or September, depending. As the campaign wears on, expect to see the analysis and attention on the debates sharpen and intensify, and liveblogging will no doubt continue to be a part of that.
NB: Livebloggers also have difficulty turning off the TV set after...which is why this clip of Bill Richardson talking about the possible existence of UFOs is getting huge play today. See more here.
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Huffington Post Rachel Sklar First Posted: 03/28/08 03:45 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 01:15 PM ET