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Pomona
College senior scores interviews with Bob Dole, Wesley Clark,
Gary Hart and other big-name politicians to run on
his popular blog.
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By Peter Enzminger '08
Puttering around his dorm room on a pleasant spring morning,
Friday the 13th of May, 2005, to be exact, Pomona senior
Jonathan Singer received a call on his cell phone. “Jonathan
Singer?” the voice inquired. “I have Senator Bob Dole on the
line.”
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Jonathan Singer '06 lands interviews with big-name politicos for his blog. |
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After little more than a year managing his
blog, Jonathan
Singer ’06 recently notched his 100,000th unique visitor, or
‘hit,’ in Web-speak. Named in honor of jazz great Count
Basie, his blog not only chronicles the daily twists and
turns of partisan politics but features interviews with
big-name political figures such as former Senate Majority
Leader Dole and former Vice President Walter Mondale. Singer
also has scored interviews with Michael Dukakis, Gen. Wesley
Clark, Carol Mosley Braun and Gary Hart, who all previously
have vied for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Singer typically arranges the interview for a particular
time, so he can use the recording facilities at campus radio
station KSPC. But a set appointment isn’t always possible,
as was the case when Dole's secretary called while Singer
was relaxing in his dorm room. "I asked her to give me five
minutes, and I dropped everything I was doing and sprinted
to the radio station,” Singer says. “I got there, made the
call, and greeted Senator Dole while trying to conceal how
entirely out of breath I was. As he answered my first
question I turned off my microphone so I could catch my
breath because I was just heaving air.”
Singer's rise in the world of bloggers has been equally
breathless. Basie!
only began in the summer of 2004, when
Singer was working for America Abroad Media, a public
broadcasting organization based in Washington, D.C. Starting
a blog seemed a convenient way to keep family and friends
back home in Portland, Oregon updated on his life in the
Capitol. Naming it after Count Basie was also an easy
decision: Singer has played the jazz bass for more than a
decade and “probably owns more than 30 Basie albums.” From
this beginning, Basie! has evolved from a shared diary into
a political forum where Singer posts 10 to 15 stories a day,
each with his own commentary and analysis.
Singer had entered Pomona College considering a possible
history major, despite an already proven track record of
political involvement – he volunteered for the Gore campaign
in 2000 as a junior in high school. Explains Singer: “The
politics bug really bit me freshman year when I took
Professor David Menefee-Libbey’s Congress course. We
discussed politics after class and outside of class, he gave
me a half dozen books to read to deepen my own understanding
beyond the assigned coursework, and really encouraged me to
pursue my interest in politics.” Inspired by Menefee-Libbey,
he decided to major in politics.
Singer spends at least an hour or two every day searching
the web for interesting politic stories to link, adding
commentary and contacting potential interview subjects. On
top of a full academic course load, this makes running a
blog quite a time commitment. But it complements his
politics coursework rather nicely. After all, not every
undergraduate politics major can claim to have interviewed a
four star general and ex-presidential nominee prior to
testimony before the House Armed Service Committee – yet
that’s exactly what Singer did when he was one of only three
people in a conference call with Wesley Clark in April. “The
only other people on the call were a professor from the
University of Michigan conducting research for a book, and a
writer for the Daily Kos,” Singer explains. (To elaborate,
the Daily Kos lands on virtually every list of top political
blogs, regularly receiving over 20 million visits per
month.) “I thought it was a little audacious of me to be
talking to a four star general with only two other people
from such high profile positions.”
All of which begs the question, how does Singer land such
interviews? How does he have a one-on-one chat with Bob
Dole, a conference call with Wesley Clark, or most recently,
an interview with Craig Crawford, a columnist, published
author and political pundit appearing frequently on MSNBC
and CBS? The answer: he gives it the old college try. Singer
began by interviewing political figures as they came through
the Claremont Colleges on lecture tours. Now, he reaches out
to politicians instead of letting them come to him. From his
Pomona e-mail account, he sends a brief e-mail introducing
himself as a politics major and the editor of Basie!, and
politely requests a 10 to 15 minute phone conversation.
Sometimes the subjects take weeks to respond, and sometimes
they never do, but Singer takes such setbacks in stride. His
steadily growing resumé certainly reflects what a little
ambition, a little initiative, and the occasional wind
sprint can accomplish.
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