Brian Rothenberg - Blog Police chief

It seems Brian Rothenberg, ODP press release writer went crying to the Dispatch. Not only that he seems to have had a hard time telling the truth.

Until recently, Brian Rothenberg admits, he was content to watch the phenomenon of Internet blogging from his perch at the Ohio Democratic Party, where he is the communications director.

Those days are over, and his baptism by fire to the blogosphere leaves no doubt that the medium is here to stay and also evolving.

Rothenberg and others who are paid to get the word out for political parties should take note. Someday, they’ll be hiring an assistant just to monitor bloggers and their ilk, trolling for the thoughts and phrasing, the kernels of truth that ignite conversation and consideration.

The joke is that bloggers are youngish, live in their mothers’ basements, work in their pajamas and have nothing better to do than wax away on any number of topics. Like most generalizations, that’s probably unfair.

Well Anne, if you had actually talked to any bloggers before writing your piece you would know that all of us are well over 30 and mostly married with kids, but anyway, back to Brian crying

In the meantime, Rothenberg and others are forced to navigate an unformed landscape, where few use their real names and ethics are just beginning to become an issue. And he’s been burned.

Some bloggers recently asked the Ohio Democratic Party for free passes to the state party dinner at Veterans Memorial on Saturday. Those otherwise anonymous bloggers wanted the proverbial rubberchicken dinner and a chance to hear the vaunted U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois work his oratorical magic on a room filled with true believers.

Rothenberg knows exactly who I and everyone else is. We have met in person numerous times. He also knows that the request wasn't for a rubber chicken dinner, but a chance to report on the event for our readers, since the event isn't public.

Finally, Rothenberg is concerned that in arguing for the tickets, some bloggers likened their craft to that of a newspaper reporter. Newspaper reporters may attend such events, but they don’t — or shouldn’t — take even as little as a salted cashew from the bowl at the bar. Reporters surely are not entitled to take a seat reserved for a paying customer. The event is, after all, a fundraiser.

He turned them down and felt the wrath of the blog.

This is just an outright lie. It was Rothenberg himself who likened bloggers to journalists - and did so in comments at Plunderbund, to which I responded

Brian,

Times are changing. I don’t think you can say bloggers are press or they are activists - it’s one bucket or the other.

It’s both and it’s neither.

Once you accept this then you realize that perhaps you need to come up with new approaches to things.

Some people get it, other don’t.

Rothenberg closes his crying session with this incredible statement

In the end, Obama paid for a blogger table. Still, Rothenberg is troubled, likening bloggers to the pamphleteers of the Revolutionary War period, without form or rules. "In time, they are going to start selfpolicing or they are going to be policed."

WTF ? We're going to be policed ? What are we fucking criminals ? whose going to do the policing Brian ? You ? You can't even keep your story straight. You need to grow up.