There’s something in this. Honestly. It comes from the brilliant Hugo Rifkind where he discusses the simple idea that the Labour Party views us, the general public, as sheep who need to be driven, rather than goats who need to be led.
For those that need an update on the story, refresh yourselves here. In short, the Mcbride, Draper and the whole Red Rag Blog debacle was founded on the fact that when looking into blogosphere, the Labour Party noticed that there seemed to be a distinct lack of independent bloggers eulogising over the Labour mission. ‘Bugger’, they thought, ‘we’re just going to have to do all it ourselves’.
Which is, of course, a huge mistake. Brands, whether Starbucks or the Labour Party, can not micro manage conversation in the blog world. If you do, your blog will be unreadable, and as a result, unread. Controlling conversation is exactly what Labour wanted to do. Seeding rumours, innuendos and insults into existing independent bloggers simply wasn’t an option – after all, what if they then went and said something slightly off message. So they tried to do it all themselves. An independent, trouble making, interesting blog controlled entirely and to the finest detail by the Labour Party itself. Regardless of the publication of the actual smears, the project was alway going to end in an inevitable disaster.
Ironically, the project was undermined by the very person the Labour wanted, so badly, to emulate. Paul Stains’ Guido Fawkes blog, housed at www.order-order.com, is a cheerfully obsessive right wing libertarian with a good network and political nose. Sure, certainly with Conservative Party leanings, but hardly a mouth piece. Yet he is viewed by many in Labour Party as the smiling front of a Tory acid tounged machine.
Does he receive inside gossip from the Tory party? Sure. Does he discuss rumours and possible attacks with Conservative members? Almost certainly. Has Paul Stains and the Conservative party built a mutually beneficial relationship upon which the Guido Fawkes blog gains access to at least part of his insider news and gossip? Absolutely.
But this is the point. Paul Stains is an independent blogger. He is also a very successful blogger with a large readership who enjoy and agree with his viewpoint – a viewpoint which, on many occasions, does not concur with (in truth, often attacks) Tory policy, Tory ideology, Tory thinking.
But he can only be successful BECAUSE of this. He stands out as a voice that wants to be heard, and use them correctly, seed interesting information to them, provide content without trying to control any other aspects of their output (even if ‘off message’), and you create an incredibly powerful and effective channel for your seeded story.
So, to conclude, we have a tail of two political blogs. One controlled from the centre, with a remit only to support the actions of the Labour Party and undermine the opposition. One an independent with right of centre leanings who has forged success through accessing content and gossip (much of which is probably as scandalous, unfounded, and derogatory as the Mcbride emails) through successful insider relationships.
The outcome of the debacle is a lesson not just for Political parties, but for brands of all types worried about how to control conversation in blogosphere.
