To Blog or Not to Blog
Jonathan Singer '06 and Politics Professor John Seery find political blogging to be an exhilarating--and sometimes dangerous--habit.

By Laura Tiffany

For John Seery, it started with an intimidating visit from the Feds--or at least, their reps from the L.A. Sheriff's Office--to his colleague, Latin American History Professor Miguel Tinker Salas, asking questions about Tinker Salas' academic work and about Venezuela, a topic he is quoted on frequently. That visit made Seery angry. Angry enough to blog.

A former student of Seery’s, Michael Owen ’05, was an editor for Huffington Post at that time, and had long been encouraging Seery to jump on board, but Seery wasn’t sure he wanted to get involved. The site had been a strong blogging presence since it began, due to Arianna Huffington’s fame as a conservative-turned-liberal author and politico and her large stash of celebrity pals who post on the site. But it wasn’t enough to draw Seery into the blogosphere until he felt compelled to share what happened to Tinker Salas.

The two posts he wrote garnered national attention for Tinker Salas and Seery soon became a regular blogger on the site. “It showed me the power of [blogging],” says Seery. “It was exhilarating. It was a little frightening. I also got inundated with e-mails and responses, and I like that interactivity.”

During the days when Seery was still leery of blogging, Pomona student Jonathan Singer ’06 was already carving out his own niche in the blogosphere. In 2004, Singer started interviewing politicians and posting the audio and transcriptions.

His first interview was with John Anderson, who ran for president in 1980 as an independent. “I interviewed him over the phone from KSPC using their equipment,” recalls Singer, who majored in politics at Pomona and is currently in his first year at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. “It was kind of a lark. I [did] some interviews with jazz musicians because I was the jazz director at the radio station. I was like, the facilities are here and no one’s using them. Why not try to do some political interviews as well?”

Since that light bulb lit up, Singer has interviewed many big-name politicians, including most of the major Democratic players in the 2008 election. He no longer has a personal blog, but is the editor of MyDD.com, a prominent liberal blog. Singer credits his blogging with many unique opportunities.

“I’m 24 and I’ve been able to speak and meet with the leaders of our country. And not just Democrats—I’ve spoken with Bob Dole and a number of Republicans as well,” says Singer.

“The Internet democratizes the process of getting involved. I wouldn’t say that there was no luck involved in my having the opportunities I did, but also, someone who works hard can have opportunities that maybe weren’t there 10 years ago.”

One highlight from Singer’s blogging career came during an April 2007 interview with John Kerry. News had emerged about discussions regarding Kerry and McCain running on the same ticket in 2004, but Singer was the first to ask Kerry: Who approached whom? Kerry said it was McCain’s staff and the news hit the national media circuit.

“[The interview] ended up on CNN and Fox. McCain’s top staff responded to it. At the time our site was getting maybe 30,000 readers a day. I think that day we had 250,000 or 300,000 people come to the site. It was a big boost.” It continues to be news: Singer’s original scoop was mentioned again in The New York Times in March.

Seery’s blog has also brought him national attention—like during the Tinker Salas incident and later when he humorously posted a memo from his kids’ school requesting no limousines at the sixth-grade graduation—but the attention hasn’t always been good.

Reacting to President Bush’s announcement of the Iraq War surge in January 2007, Seery penned a scathing satire calling for a contest to predict the number of U.S. troop deaths in the next year. “I really thought the surge was playing with people’s lives, and it just bothered me to no end,” says Seery. “I know the limitations of political blogging and I don’t harbor any pretenses that it will necessarily change the world. So I was kind of despondent whether a straightforward condemnation would catch anyone’s attention.”

Unfortunately, some readers just didn’t get—or didn’t want to get—the satirical piece. “It surprised me because I did not think it was a difficult post to discern. I felt these impending deaths deeply.” Many commenters on the post called Seery “sick” and conservative bloggers went on the offensive, believing Seery was welcoming troop deaths. One blogger posted such a violent, insulting response that it’s unfit for reproduction here. Seery even received e-mailed death threats.

He chose not to respond to the explosive reactions and “went underground for awhile.” No blog posts since then have garnered as much controversy, in part, Seery says, to more widespread condemnation of the war and also because Seery has dropped satire. “I decided not to be cutesy—that’s one thing I have learned. While it’s great to get what I consider worthy and careful readers, it’s really depressing if someone misses the point altogether.”

Despite that imbroglio, Seery has found blogging to be a rewarding activity—in small doses. “I try to [write] no more than once a week. I like that periodicity. I like that rhythm. What it does for me, aside from having some sort of potential national venue for bloviating my views, is it allows me to keep my writing lubricated when I’m otherwise teaching or doing administrative work.”

For Singer, who spends upwards of 30 hours per week working for MyDD.com, it’s up in the air whether blogging will play a role in his future career. He has a summer internship at Perkins Coie’s political law group in Washington D.C.; in the past, he’s worked on legislative campaigns and as an Internet consultant for a congressman. “I think that no matter what, I’ll always have this love,’’ says Singer. “I don’t know exactly how and in what form I’ll be doing this—politics and the law and the Internet—but I definitely know I’ll be doing it in some fashion for the rest of my life.”