Voice of Utah

Note: See also yesterday's post, with photos.

Apparently, all of us who were participating online in yesterday's blogfest with Chris Cannon lost the video feed early on. Maybe that explains the lack of posts showing up on the main Utah political blogroll. But since nearly two dozen bloggers attended in person, we went looking for posts via Technorati.

Here's the deal: We want this kind of thing to succeed, to be considered worthwhile to both the politicians and the guy putting it together. Why? Because it's one of the first real efforts to involve Utah bloggers directly in the political process, to let us gather information directly, instead of having to rely on local papers or KSL or other people's websites. We want more of these opportunities. We want bloggers (if they so desire) to be invited to press conferences, to be granted interviews, to get hot tips--to contribute not only to the discourse but to the information on a subject. Wannabe journalists? Maybe, but without the constraints of objectivity.

Having said that, this is what we found on yesterday's experiment:

DigitalThom started doing what the host had requested, which was liveblogging (although that would seem difficult while listening to a Q & A). He got through one pre-session post and one regular post, but then the video feed failed.

Kitchen Sink Web Marketing told an interesting story about his prior experience with Cannon on an internet pornography issue. He mentions that his questions about dealing with internet porn and about gay marriage, and his partner Janet's question about how Cannon is using the internet in his campaign, were asked, but unfortunately doesn't tell us what Cannon's answers were (outsiders were feedless by then).

The aforesaid Janet, aka Newspapergrl, gives some interesting insight about the difficulty of writing questions while listening (most people did not turn in questions before the event began), and Cannon's observations that it got a little "boring" for everyone to sit there silently while he did all the talking. She also mentions Cannon's vague response to her internet query.

Cliff over at Une Utah groused a bit in a comment to an earlier post. We can quote the whole thing: "I went. Cannon is still an ass. A slick willy. It quickly became apparent there was no use in asking him questions. He contradicted himself with consistency. His concern for real solutions is virtually absent. He is but a political monster. His constituents have what they deserve." Love ya, Cliff, but if you're trying to get invited back to the next one, um... (In fairness to Cliff, he did elaborate a bit upon cross-examination.)

UPDATE: Here are two we missed: Steve Petersen of The Bivings Group offers an interesting perspective of the event, discussing Cannon's willingness to make himself the guinea pig for these kinds of events. And Dave Rodeback gives some interesting impressions.

We hope more of these political outreaches to bloggers are scheduled, particularly as early glitches get worked out. And it will be nice if video archives are available. Most of us are not trained in the art of recording quotes accurately. It would be nice to be able to doublecheck important quotes against the actual video.