Reinventing the Right at TheConservatives.com

28 Oct
2009

For the past few months I’ve been quietly working with John Solomon, executive editor of The Washington Times, on the launch of a new website that brings together blogging and social media to advance the meritocracy of ideas for conservatives.

Appropriately, it’s called TheConservatives.com. The site launched in September and features contributors such as my boss, Heritage Foundation president Ed Feulner, former Reps. Newt Gingrich, Bob Barr and Ernest Istook, talk-show host Michael Reagan, and Jeri Thompson, wife for former presidential candidate Fred Thompson.

Under the direction of editor Brian Faughnan, we’ve been reporting on everything from the upcoming elections on Nov. 3 to the public policy debates on Capitol Hill. And with ace Times reporter (and former Human Events colleague) Amanda Carpenter contributing daily, the quality of content is top notch.

The website is powered by Movable Type’s new software called Motion (watch the video to learn how it works). By bringing together one of the most popular blogging platforms with the power of Motion’s social media aggregation, we’re able to track what conservatives are saying in real time.

My favorite aspect of the site is the “Right People” section, which features a live stream of social media updates from networks such as Twitter, YouTube, Delicious and Flickr — plus about 70 others. We’re tracking social media activity from our contributors plus people such as Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, Erick Erickson, Patrick Ruffini, Mary Katharine Ham, Ed Morrissey, and Reps. Eric Cantor, Mike Pence and Paul Ryan.

According to Six Apart chief executive Chris Alden, TheConservatives.com is the first political website to utilize its Motion platform. (Check out Bike Hugger for another example of how this is being used in another space.)

The launch of TheConservatives.com coincides with the Times’ tremendous growth under Solomon’s direction. Over the past year, traffic to WashingtonTimes.com increased 500% and the site now ranks 12th in traffic among U.S. newspapers (a year ago it was 216th).

Solomon spoke at yesterday’s Bloggers Briefing at Heritage (listen to the recording or watch AIM’s video) about the Times’ growth from a handful of distribution channels to a media company that no longer limits itself to just a newspaper. One year ago it had four ways of delivering the news; today it has 52 channels for its news. TheConservatives.com is one example.

Solomon said he envisions TheConservatives.com advancing a meritocracy of ideas generated from people across America: “Most conservatives speak down to the masses and then it gets disseminated to the grassroots. We wanted to reverse engineer the process. We wanted to build a tool that would empower them to speak up to the top leadership of their movement.”

I hope you’ll check out the site and let me know what you think in the comments below or by sending me an email. And if you’re interested in contributing, make sure you mention that as well.

http://theconservatives.com/author/newt-gingrich/

Video: What’s the Future of Journalism?

24 Oct
2009

Accuracy in Media held its 40th anniversary conference yesterday at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, D.C., and invited me to speak about new media and the future of journalism.

My two co-panelists, AIM’s Danny Glover and J.P. Freire of the Washington Examiner, are two of the right’s smartest thinkers on this subject, so it was a honor to spend an hour talking about our experiences in journalism and how conservatives could take advantage of modern media.

Here’s a link to video of the discussion, which was aired live on C-SPAN 2. I want to thank AIM chairman Don Irvine and Sarah Schaerr Norton for the invitation.

The Grass Is Finally Greener

18 Oct
2009

My lawn isn’t quite finished — there’s still some bare spots out back and brown areas in the front — but it has undergone a remarkable transformation since I wrote about it last month. Compare the picture at right with the one from September and you’ll see what I mean.

In late August, I hired Peter Haakon of Horticultural Solutions to kill the bad grass (including the invading Zoysia) and do a slice seeding. By mid-September all the grass was dead, new soil laid and seed spread. We had very little rain in the following weeks, so I invested in three sprinklers and watered the hard-to-reach areas each night.

My backyard, which was in horrible condition and lacked any grass in several spots, now looks like a lush carpet in some areas. The front yard always looked great in the summer, but in the fall, winter and early spring, it was unsightly. That’s because thick Zoysia didn’t do well in cooler temperatures.

Here’s an interesting tip about the life of a lawn in Northern Virginia from Haakon’s newsletter:

The majority of lawns in Northern Virginia are cool season turf. Cool season turf grows best with temperatures in the 60-75 degree range. The Mid-Atlantic region is known as the transition area for grass type and is the most difficult area to grow grass. The reason for this is twofold. Cool season turf struggles under our hot and humid summer conditions, as warm season grass such as Zoysia has a short season being dormat six months out of the year.

Last week, before our region was drenched with rain for several days, Haakon did another seeding. I hope that takes care of the bare spots and brown areas. With cooler weather on the horizon, the seed will continue to develop and grow strong roots over the next few months. When spring arrives, I’m hopeful my son, who will probably be walking, has a nice thick carpet on which to play.

Wedding Weekend in Saratoga Springs

14 Sep
2009

My wife and I have known our friends Maureen and Mike for as long as they’ve known each other. We were there the night they met five years ago at an Ithaca College happy hour in Washington, D.C. Even though all four of us graduated from the same college, it was only after we moved to D.C. that our friendship blossomed.

That’s why their wedding on Saturday in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. was so special for both of us. Add to that the mystique of Saratoga — one of our favorite places to visit each year — and the weekend was blast. It was also our baby’s second road trip in his five months since birth. Although he didn’t go to the wedding (his grandparents delighted in babysitting duty), it didn’t stop Maureen from finding him for a photo.

Wedding photography is so much fun and among the most enjoyable pictures one could ever take. A slideshow of my album is below.

Terrelle Pryor Is Just Another a Dumb Jock

7 Sep
2009

Longtime readers of this blog will probably recall my obsession with Terrelle Pryor during his senior year at Jeannette High School. The star football and basketball player led the Jayhawks to the state championship in both sports and was heavily recruited by several Division 1-A football powerhouses. Pryor eventually picked Ohio State, where he led the Buckeyes to victory over Navy on Saturday.

During the game, Pryor had the words “Mike Vick” on his eye-black, and after the game explained his allegiance to his boyhood idol. Dr. Saturday posted the video.

You heard that correctly: “Not everybody is a perfect person in the world. Everyone kills people, murder people, steals from you, steals from me, whatever.”

Vick served jail time for his role in an illegal dog fighting ring, not killing someone. (Perhaps he confused Vick with Donte Stallworth.) I agree that Vick deserves another chance and wish him well this year with the Eagles. My beef is with Pryor. Why does he think it’s OK to condone murder? Or even stealing for that matter?

This is a kid who had great athletic potential and will probably go on to do great things during his college and professional career. He inspired downtrodden Jeannette as a local hero. Kids throughout Western Pennsylvania worshiped him as a hero. I know he’s young, but someone of his stature should know better.

Jim Tressel has a rough week in advance of Saturday’s game against USC. Now he needs to spend time tutoring Terrelle.

In Search of the Perfect Lawn

6 Sep
2009

Many people would probably say it’s not worth the effort. Or simply a waste of time and money. But for me, having the perfect lawn is a matter of pride. I want my yard to be the best in the neighborhood.

This spring I started transforming it from an unkempt mess by focusing on the front landscaping and the cracked concrete walk and steps. The previous owners left the concrete driveway in great condition (it was installed in 2004) but the plants in front and walk/steps left a lot to be desired.

That’s why in April I decided it was time to do something about it. I had finished painting every room in the house over the winter, but largely neglected the outside since we moved last July.

On the recommendation of my landscaper, I hired Darhele Associates to install a brick-and-flagstone walk on top of my existing concrete walk and steps. I’ve always wanted a walk like this from the time my parents had one installed when I was a kid. It’s amazing how much it can add to the look of the home.

Once work was done on the walk and steps, it was time to rip out the hodgepodge of plants that had outgrown the space in front of our house. We wanted much smaller plants that were easier to manage. The island with our crab apple tree was in disrepair and needed something to spruce it up. The logical place to go was Hybla Valley Nursery, which did the work at our previous home, and is just a few minutes away.

Now, as we enter fall, it was time to turn my attention to the grass. Part of my yard was covered with Zoysia grass, a very thick grass that turns brown in the winter. Because it doesn’t cover the entire yard, it’s not exactly the most attractive grass for the winter months (especially when we don’t have snow to cover it). In the back yard, the grass has receded in many spots and dirt is all that remains.

It didn’t much matter this summer. My son can’t even crawl yet, let alone walk. But by the time spring rolls around, I know we’ll be spending much more time outdoors on the grass. I didn’t want him playing in mud patches.

To help get my yard in picture-perfect condition, I hired Horticultural Solutions. Over the past couple of weeks, my Zoysia has died (as you can see from the picture). Although my yard is unsightly now, it had to get worse before it got better. Later this week the yard with get a “power seeding,” where the grass seed is sprayed underneath the soil.

I’m doing all of this knowing that my son will probably follow in my footsteps. When I was young, I made a batter’s box and pitcher’s mound in my parents’ backyard. And like any loving father, my Dad let me do it, knowing that there’s something more important than the perfect lawn — the imagination of a child.

Facebook, Twitter Aren’t One in the Same

5 Sep
2009

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been using the Twitter application for Facebook to automatically publish my tweets as my status updates. As an early adopter of Twitter — way back in April 2007 — I initially thought it was a convenient way to save time while promoting my views in both communities.

I first began to reconsider this when Facebook made real-time updates the centerpiece of its March release, which put an even greater value on the status update — and served as a direct response to Twitter’s growing popularity.

Over the next several months, there was nothing more annoying than to see RT or @ or #hashtag in the Facebook news feed — yet I’m amazed at how many savvy people continue to do it. Months ago I began deleting my re-tweets (RT) from Facebook as soon as I published them. I also avoided using the @ in the tweets that would show up on Facebook and abandoned hashtags (#) altogether. In trying to keep my Facebook updates free of Twitter jargon, I ended up using Twitter less, particularly from my iPhone, where it wasn’t as easy to remove Facebook status updates.

This week I finally had enough. Facebook and Twitter are two different communities. The people who follow me on Twitter are much more political in nature and interested in my conservative views. My friends on Facebook date back to my youth and, more often than not, would rather hear about my family, hobbies, work, and only occasionally politics. There will still be overlap at times, of course, but there’s no reason to be duplicative.

Am I making a mistake by abandoning the lazy man’s Facebook update? Based on the early response, I don’t think so. Take my friend Ryan Miller, an online strategist at Romanelli Communications. He didn’t much care from my live-tweeting of an Obama news conference earlier this year. He told me, “Rob, how about we just leave politics out of our FB discussions and we’ll probably both be better off.” While I can’t promise to never write about politics on Facebook, I’ll probably reserve my harshest critiques for Twitter. And I certainly won’t bombard people with another live-tweeting experience. That’s a surefire way to lose friends on Facebook or outright annoy them.

Already in the few days since I’ve turned off the Twitter application, I’ve noticed much more active participation on Facebook, which tells me it’s working. “[I]t is amazing how so many people don’t get it. Twitter updates are NOT the same. Too much “insider jargon” with #hashtags, @, RT, etc…. not the same audience at all,” writes Shaun Dakin. Adds Johnny Rice, “Thank you. I follow you on both hoping to see richer content over here.”

When it comes to Twitter and Facebook, don’t try to kill two birds with one stone.

My Encounter With Sen. Teddy Kennedy

26 Aug
2009

Anyone who has spent any time on Capitol Hill probably has a story about Teddy Kennedy, the liberal Massachusetts senator who died today from brain cancer. Mine dates to April 2004 when I was working my first reporting job in Washington at Cybercast News Service.

I was tracking down leads for my first big story as a 24-year-old reporter on Capitol Hill when my investigation led to Kennedy. The story involved leaked memos and a high-stakes plan by two Kennedy staffers to delay the confirmation of President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees.

Seeking answers, I trekked to a Senate office building on April 7, 2004, where Kennedy was holding a press conference. After he was done talking about pension relief for small businesses, I confronted Kennedy with a question about the actions of two former aides — Olati Johnson, his judiciary counsel, and Melody Barnes, his chief counsel. (You might recognize Barnes’ name; she’s currently the White House domestic policy adviser.)

What happened next still amazes me to this day. My question flustered Kennedy so much that he was left speechless. He abruptly ended the press conference and was whisked away by staff as Washington Times reporter Charles Hurt chased him down the hallway to ask a follow-up question. Here’s the report I filed:

U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) appeared flustered Wednesday when confronted with allegations that two of his former aides plotted to delay the confirmation of one of President Bush’s judicial nominees solely to influence a high-profile affirmative action case. …

When CNSNews.com asked Kennedy about the allegations Wednesday, the senator stumbled over his words, shook his head and was quickly escorted from the room by his staff.

“No. I’m not gonna, uh, re, uh,” Kennedy muttered.

He also wouldn’t confirm or deny whether Johnson and Barnes were responsible for contents of the memo.

“No. No,” Kennedy said as he scurried for the door.

During the five years I spent covering politics in Washington, I interviewed scores of lawmakers, but no one ever quite compared to the liberal lion of the Senate. The episode taught me a valuable lesson about politicians and their desire to avoid hard questions. It also gave me the motivation to keep confronting members of Congress — both Republicans and Democrats — with tough questions each week when I reported on Congress for Human Events. That’s a trait sorely lacking among many reporters and an even greater number of bloggers.

Although my encounter with Kennedy lasted but a minute, it’s one that I’ll never forget.

Robert Novak, R.I.P.

19 Aug
2009

Robert Novak’s death yesterday from brain cancer marks the passing of yet another conservative legend who had a profound impact on America. For me personally, he played an even greater role. When I was offered a job doing conservative journalism in 2002, I was conflicted if that was the direction I should take my career. Unsure but willing to give it a try, I looked to the Novak model as a way to approach reporting. After five years working at Cybercast News Service and Human Events, Novak had become my role model.

My career later moved away from reporting, but I count it as a blessing that I was able to briefly serve as managing editor of his biweekly Evans-Novak Political Report in 2005 when I was working at Eagle Publishing. When I took a job at The Heritage Foundation in 2007, I proudly hosted two events with him as the featured speaker. While those occasions offered a real-life glimpse of “The Prince of Darkness,” it was the work he put into his column and other journalistic ventures that had the greatest influence.

For this reason, there are few compliments more meaningful to me than the one Edelman executive Marshall Manson offered in late 2007. Writing at the blog On Tap, Manson said this:

          Rob is an emerging leader in the conservative movement. He’s smart, insightful, well connected, and understands the value of action. He’s also a veteran Hill reporter who retains first rate sources. And he understands new media as well or better than anyone on the Right.

          I recently finished Bob Novak’s autobiographical tome, and had been contemplating who would step in to fill his shoes when the old, crusty columnist finally hangs up his type writer. It’s hard to imagine a better choice than Rob Bluey.

          Novak’s column embodies an unusual combination — he both reports news and analyzes it. Bluey does the same, and does it well. He’s also tireless and hard-working. In my view, he’s destined for stardom, and if Novak wanted to leave a lasting legacy, he’d bring Rob aboard, not as his flunky, but as his partner, so that Rob might continue the column after Novak has faded from view.

Manson’s kind words came at a time of transition in my career. I was moving away from journalism after leaving Human Events earlier in the year. My job as The Heritage Foundation’s chief blogger was transitioning into a managerial role that required me to be an editor. I’ve continued to move further away now that I’m overseeing Heritage’s online strategy. But rarely a day passes when journalism isn’t on mind in some capacity.

Novak was a great journalist because he broke news — putting the value of reporting ahead of punditry. Three days a week in the Washington Post, I would turn to the commentary page and find his column. Other pundits on the page would bloviate, but Novak would never disappoint. That made him stand out.

Fortunately, Novak’s legacy will live on in the people he mentored. I count three of them as friends. Tim Carney, David Freddoso and Charlie Spiering are young journalists who had the privilege of working under Novak and are better people for it.

Unfortunately, there are too few people like them. In fact, just a few days ago at the RightOnline conference in Pittsburgh, I invoked Novak’s name during the closing panel when discussing the need for more reporters following in his footsteps. Novak, in fact, would be the ideal 21st century blogger.

May he rest in peace.

Video: How the Right Can Win Online

18 Aug
2009

I had the opportunity over the weekend to attend the second annual RightOnline conference in Pittsburgh. Last year’s event in Austin, Tex., was such a big hit that the Americans for Prosperity Foundation decided to follow Netroots Nation to the Steel City.

This year’s conference was just as fun — and provided a refreshing change from my normal inside-the-beltway life. Seeing and hearing from so many enthusiastic Pennsylvanians was a great experience. Meeting many online friends for the first time was an added bonus. Major props to Erik Telford for putting together a phenomenal conference.

My friends Erick Erickson of RedState and John Hawkins of Right Wing News offer some highlights from the conference.

As you can see from the photo, I had the opportunity to moderate the closing panel, “Map to Victory: How the Right Can Win Online,” with Erickson (left) and Matt Lewis of Townhall.com and Politics Daily. It was a great exchange of ideas. C-SPAN has an archive of the video if you’d like to watch it online.

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