Mayor Larry keeps changing his blog in response to other bloggers’ criticisms of it.
The How Do You Like My New Website? poll disappeared when it became obvious that people weren’t overwhelmed by the site. You might have missed the poll because it was only on the French site (but, oddly, only in English). Last I checked before it disappeared, one person loved the site, six thought it was terrible, and three others said there was room for improvement. So what do you do when you don’t like the poll results? Delete the poll of course. (He could have just edited the poll to remove the offending options, but I suppose that would be tampering with the democratic process.)
He also removed from his website a damning Ottawa Citizen article which enumerated many of his controversial, misinformed, naive, embarrassing and/or criminal deeds since becoming mayor. I believe he did this in response to Apply-Liberally’s mocking of the fact that it was on the site in the first place.
I know in my original comments about the site I said he should write his own blog because it was a bit too slick to be authentic. I take it back. Upon further exploration, I’m inclined to think he’s not getting much help beyond technical assistance and translation.
Here’s an example.
“This website is as much mine as it is yours, it’s success comes from the conversations we will have in the days ahead.”
He probably meant “It’s as much yours as it is mine,” and any half-assed editor or proof-reader would have picked up on that catastrophic apostrophe error. (I fear the Word Cop or the Grammar Gestapo might set their sights on Larry if he’s not more careful.)
However, I do want to give him some credit. If he’s writing the blog all by himself, I’m very impressed. It’s a courageous move. Welcome to the blogosphere, Mayor Larry.
TAGS:
Politicians should never, EVER, blog. Especially not elected ones who are new to the Interweb. There’s an Alberta Senator named Elaine McCoy (http://www.albertasenator.ca/hullabaloos/) who started a blog last year and has done a decent job, but “Mayor Larry” is starting from a position of weakness… he’s mocked daily in the Ottawa media and he’s under investigation for numerous “misdeeds”, and a blog isn’t going to help with any of that because he can’t talk about any of them. All it’s going to do is expose him to more ridicule.
From a communications/public relations aspect, I don’t see who the audience for his blog are… is he trying to get “his truth” directly to The People? Politicians who think the media are out to get them are generally a month away from impeachment. The only use I can see for this blog is so Larry can have a place to give his opinion on the issues in front of council, but then it becomes a political forum and politicians in Larry’s situation can’t say what they really mean in real life, why would they ever say anything other than talking points on a blog? Especially in a forum he can be quoted from…
And if the blog ends up being a disaster, which it already seems to be — spelling and grammar mistakes, bad content, broken translations, then it just adds to the ammunition for the people who believe he’s a joke. Only now the reporters in the Technology section can write about him, as well as the City people.
It’s a total lose/lose/lose situation…
You make some valid points Gabriel, and I predict the mayor’s blog will fizzle out quickly when he realizes some of the risks.
On the other hand, he claimed to be starting a blog so that he could communicate directly with the people of Ottawa rather than allowing the media to act as the middle man. He clearly doesn’t trust the media. Having a blog is like having his own little subjective media outlet that he can control completely. If he wants to erase everything he just said, he can do that on his blog. 😉
The mayor’s pretty new to all this and he will make mistakes; I’m looking forward to them.
I still think it’s brave of him to take it on. (Maybe not particularly smart given the risks, but brave.)
The worst possible reason he could come up with to start a blog would be to bypass the media… if he wants to get his “message” out a blog will get it to about twenty people and nineteen of them will be bloggers who don’t really like or trust him. Meanwhile the real media will just source his blog, then call the Usual Suspects for reaction.
I think bravery can sometimes be confused with the acts of desperate people… even with him Ottawa politics is relatively stable — if you want to see The Politics of Farce, come down to one of our county council meetings. But if I were in Ottawa, I’d be rooting for him to blog away as well. However… if I were advising him I’d break his fingers.
Oh, yeah. Even if he purges the mainstream quotes, his previous media forays demonstrate he’s fully capable of manufacturing oodles of embarrassing and inappropriate content on his own.
In fact, maybe all Larry bloggers should rise in protest. Nailing him has been a sweet gig. Shooting pigeons in a barrel/ killing him with a Kindness Meter, as it were…. If he’s gonna do it to himself from now on, what’s left for us…?
Oh, wait, that’s it! It’s a clever and subtle scheme to put us all outta business… because he’s so… Oh, never mind.
Gabriel “I’d break his fingers” – you do have a way with words! 😉
Coyote, we’ll still be able to extract and highlight the choice bits and add a little clever commentary.
You know what’s funny? Between when I wrote this post (yesterday) and now, the mayor fixed the apostrophe and corrected the sentence to say the site is “as much yours as it is mine.”
Now if only I could get him to follow my policy advice…
Ah, finally O’Brien has found an answer to his question, “How do I erase everything I said?”
I was thinking, someone should buy a parking meter and convert it into a collection for a campaign to get rid of Mayor Larry…
– RG>