Blog Net News adds new features!

More tools for political junkies!

Besides being a gateway to the political blogosphere in each of the 50 states -- and I've already checked out the Minnesota blogosphere, home of the Republican National Convention in September -- Blog Net News has other features to help with the upcoming election season.

After weeks of testing, BNN added a major update ... now you can search all 50 states' political blogospheres from one widget.

Two other new features include www.blognetnews.com/elections and be sure to check out www.blognetnews.com/whitehouse08.

And, of course, don't forget BNN's Righty Blogs where all the right-of-center political blogs can be found including some that do not show up in the regular BNN aggregator.

Our thanks to Dave Mastio and crew for the great internet tools and gadgets they provide to those of us who are political junkies and always looking for another way to satisfy that political fix.

When is blogging not blogging?

JR and I agree on this one ... "Is a corporate or government blog blogging?" I would add newspaper journalists to his list, too.

Blogs driving the mainstream news....

Got a phone call yesterday from Cleve Wiese, a reporter with the Waynesboro News Virginian. Cleve had read the post on my blog about the NRA calling for weapons to be allowed in the national forests, and he wanted to know if I cared to comment about it. I was in a meeting about a story I was working on and could not speak with him at that time. He ran with the story and today's NV headlines, top of the fold, say, "Parks want opinions on new gun law."

Is that a case of the blogs driving the mainstream news?

Bob Goodlatte's new campaign blog

Congressman Bob Goodlatte's new campaign blog is up and running!

"Snapped Shot" a test of Fair Use Doctrine

The "Snapped Shot" case may be a test of the Fair Use Doctrine:

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test. It is based on free speech rights provided by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The term "fair use" is unique to the United States; a similar principle, fair dealing, exists in some other common law jurisdictions. Civil law jurisdictions have other limitations and exceptions to copyright.

More detailed information is available from Wikipedia.

Over at Jules Crittenden's blog, "bobby b" left the following comment that may be helpful to Snapped Shot's Brian Ledbetter:

C’mon - easily fair use.

- The purpose of the use is aimed specifically at the purpose of the work - i.e., AP tries to pass off faked, altered, unrepresentative photos as their own little contribution to bending world opinion to support their philosophies, and SS points out how this is so.

- the nature of the copyrighted work is a photograph, disseminated to the world to support a story, or to simply show us “what’s happening.” If AP is intentionally showing us a false light, SS’s use is dead-on allowable.

- SS shows the entire photo - but that’s not the point. This provision is aimed at the guy who prints, not a quote or a selection of a book or article, but the entire book or article. In order to critique the false light being presented by a photo, SS must show the entire photo.

- finally, critique of the accuracy and the honesty of the AP photo will, if successful, have a negative effect on the market value of the photo, but this factor is always going to lose out if AP has to argue that they have a right to disseminate false stories and false impressions with their photos.

He needs someone with good working experience with, and knowledge of, his state’s version of the anti-”Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation” statute version. Frankly, it’s easy and cheap to plead that as a counterclaim almost immediately. [emphasis added]

Any lawyers out there who want to break new ground on an issue that may become landmark in the blogosphere/free speech/fair use realm?

This case is snowballing in the blogosphere. It broke over the weekend but now that it's the work week many will be paying more attention.

- ODBA member "Snapped Shot," shut down by AP, receives national attention
- ODBA member "Snapped Shot" shut down by Associated Press

ODBA member Snapped Shot, shut down by AP, receives national attention

Media giant Associated Press was intimidted by ODBA member Snapped Shot because he called attention to inaccuracies in their work? Where's freedom of speech? Where's freedom of the press? "Old media" crushes down on "new media."

I like the way Jules Crittenden at the Boston Herald put it: "Plucky little Snapped Shot must have really touched a nerve."

Touch a nerve, he did. So the AP set their corporate lawyers on him and shut him down. Let's hope the blogosphere continues to amplify this, that the mainstream media sees it for what it is -- censorship -- and that Brian Ledbetter will be back with his Snapped Shot blog soon.

Hang in there, Brian. We're pulling for you.

The Virginia blogosphere following this story:

- From On High: ODBA Member Makes Waves
- Spark It Up!!! Snapped Shot gets snuffed out
- Isophorone: Islamic Rage Boy Interns at Associated Press (satire)
- Spank That Donkey: Don Beyer To Arise From Political Dead
- Black Velvet Bruce Li: Another Blogger Gets Legal Threats
- Scott's Morning Brew: Snapped Shot blog closed indefinitely ... threatened with legal action

The national blogosphere and MSM following this story ... from Snapped Shot's site ... with Brian's commentary. Check back often as he is updating it regularly:

- Jawa Report
- LGF (link updated)
- Elder of Ziyon
- doubleplusundead
- Ace of Spades
- The National Review (And yes, it does.)
- This Goes To 11 (For the record, I neither endorse nor condone in any way the escalation - described here. For obvious reasons, I hope.)
- Confederate Yankee
- Riehl World View
- Pirate's Cove
- TNOYF (Nice! A famed "TNOYF Top 9 List!" It's definitely #4, btw. ;) )
- Newsbusters, Stop the ACLU, Grizzly Groundswell, Blogger News, Publius Forum (With my deepest gratitude to WTH!)
- Winds of Jihad
- P.C. Perspective
- /.
- A Second Hand Conjecture
- Protein Wisdom
- Al Salibiyyah
- Lamplighter News
- Note To Self
- Bydio
- BVBL
- Support Your Local Gunfighter
- This Ain't Hell, but you can see it from here
- FreeRepublic
- AP Check (sounds like a blog I should associate more closely with!)
= Scott's Morning Brew
- Bob's Bites
- Atlas Shrugs
- Another funny one from TNOYF. Thanks for the laugh, Buckley!
- Jules Crittenden - The Newspaperman speaketh! Thanks, Jules! :)
- Anorak
- The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
- RightNation
- Daily Pundit
- Media Backspin
- Small Dead Animals
- The guys at TNOYF have come across a transcript of the behind-the-scenes AP meeting that resulted in this little SNAFU. I should've known Mahmoud Abbas was involved in this somehow!
- Instapundit links to Jules. Guess that means he missed the couple of e-mails I sent him?
- Mark's Soapbox
- Infidel Blogger's Alliance
- Freedom Folks
- Spank That Donkey
- Wolking's World
- Moonbattery
- This Goes To 11 has identified some "creative" ways to get around copyright issues. I'm not sure that the alteration is dramatic enough for the AP lawyers to notice the difference from the original, though. ;)
- Bill Hobbs
- Blonde Sagacity
- Mister Snitch
- Fellow ODBA member SWAC Girl
- Likelihood of Confusion
- And a funny explanation from fellow ODBA member Isophorone

Blog Net News continues to add new features

Dave Mastio has added new features to Blog Net News that will continue to make it a useful research tool for bloggers. Here is what BNN had to say about it:

BNN has something new we hope you'll think is cool and maybe find useful. You can find it at BNN/FeedCentral.

In short, you can pick any section of BNN, then slice and dice it by blog, by category, by key words, then sort the new feeds by popularity (most linked, most clicked, most commented) and then have it delivered to your cell phone, your RSS reader, your email (hourly update or daily summary) your blackberry or a custom widget on your web page.

For instance, here's the RSS feed of the most clicked posts from Iowa blogs about the current battle between Hillary and Obama ...

... or a feed to track the most recent wisdom from New Hampshire bloggers on Romney's religion.

The element of this that I am most proud of is our partnership with BuzzMob.com. Working together, we're making blogs available in a way they never have been before and hopefully expanding the reach of blogs and the blogosphere another important step.

It is exactly this sort of thing that I had in mind when I founded BNN. By combining smart, human-edited aggregation with cutting edge technology we can make the blogosphere more useful to more people at the same time we help build readership for the best blogs.

I hope you'll help us spread the word.

Dave Mastio

BlogNetNews.com
We Serve Blogging

Sounds as if BNN does not intend to be just an aggregator ... it is striving to be the # 1 tool for bloggers' use to stay updated and use in their research.

Don't feed the trolls....

Don't feed the trolls....

Troll, n., giant, demon: a dwarf or giant in Scandinavian folklore inhabiting caves or hills: also,

... people who are just being rude and obnoxious who generally try to offend, shock, harass, and/or abuse who otherwise annoy people.

We ask that you not feed the trolls for this reason:

Dealing with trolls can often be difficult, but they should not go unwarned, un-removed or unbanned. Trolls can destroy a community, and often this is their goal.

One of the more prominent trolls who has stalked the SWAC blogs is exposed by RightsideVA.

Don't feed the trolls....

BlogNetNews

Thanks, BNN, for the # 1 ranking this week ... don't know what I did to deserve it but am grateful.

Angry Right? Point that finger back at yourselves....

I agree with Charles at Two Conservatives on this one ... I don't see an "angry right," as reported by lefty bloggers ... and Angry Left Practices Projection says it much better than I.

Republican Roundup ... the bloggers

Bloggers, bloggers, bloggers ... they were at the Republican Roundup. I saw a couple of blogger friends ... and missed others that I know from online but have not met in person. Several people told me they read SWAC Girl ... and I thank them for that. The primary purpose of my blogging is to get the conservative message out so it is nice to know that is happening.

Proud Republican from Virginia Virtucon was circulating petitions ... CR President Jarrett Ray from the College Republican blog was working their booth.

Received the following comment from Concrete Bob of United Conservatives of Virginia:

Well, Just Damn, Girl. CargoSquid and I were running around trying to find you after Jane told us you were there. Next time. We have GOT to figure out a way to ID each other at these functions. Great pic of the Governor and my friend Neil Miller BTW.

I am sorry to have missed those two patriotic bloggers. Received an email from Conservativa saying she and the guys were looking for me. Next time, for sure.

Update: Conservativa reminded me that Governor Gilmore (Virginia Patriot) and Governor Allen both blog now along with Matt Wells who posts on RPV.org and Cristen from the Richmond Young Republicans. That makes a total now of 10 bloggers. Great group!