January 12, 2006
BLOGGER SPOTLIGHT: About Schmitt
Today the Blogometer talks to liberal Mark Schmitt, who writes The Decembrist and contributes to TPM Cafe.
What is your full name?
Mark Schmitt
What is your age?
43
Where did you grow up?
New Haven, CT
Where do you live now?
Washington, DC, returning recently after several years in New York.
What is your occupation? Have you ever worked on a political campaign or for the mainstream media?
I'm a senior fellow at a think tank, so I don't have any idea how to answer a question like "what is your occupation." On my marriage license, I wrote, "writer," and my wife looked at me funny, prompting the clerk to ask, "Are you really a writer?" But they let it stand. I have worked on political campaigns, although the only one since high school (when I worked on a lot of them) was Bill Bradley's 2000 presidential campaign. I've written plenty of op-eds and opinion articles, and recently started a regular column in The American Prospect, but I've never been employed full-time in the mainstream media.
When did you start blogging and why?
I started my blog in September 2003. I had a brief sabbatical from a previous job and a blog seemed like it would be a good way to make use of the free time that sabbatical provided. What appealed to me about blogging was, and remains, the flexibility of the format. You can comment casually on a dozen things that you come across, or dig into some issue with great depth, and everything in between. At first, my blog was a slavish imitation of Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo, probably right down to the tone.
What has been your favorite post, or favorite story to write about, in that time?
I particularly enjoyed writing about the Nuclear Option over judicial filibusters last spring. Because I've worked in the Senate, I had some particular background to contribute to the debate, and I was relatively certain of my opinions. But in a way the niche I prefer is not to get caught up in the day-to-day scandals, but try to look at them in a broader historical and forward-looking context. For example, through the 2004 presidential campaign, I tried to keep a thread going on the question of what would happen if Kerry won -- the fights about budget priorities, dealing with a hostile Congress, etc. Obviously, not applicable, but at the time nobody was publicly talking about any of those topics.
Describe your typical blogging schedule. And what is your average output?
It varies. My recent schedule has been three or four posts a week, on my own blog, The Decembrist, or on TPM Cafe, or cross-posted. But I sometimes go a week without posting anything.
Who is your favorite political blogger? Favorite non-political blogger?
Both questions are hard to answer. On the first, I'll say that lately I have really been enjoying Laura Rozen's War and Piece blog. She strikes the perfect balance between her own reporting, her own insights, and simply pulling together other things that someone should read, and she has a Joe Friday-like economy of language that others should learn from. Favorite non-political blog these days is Overheard in New York, because it gives me the daily dose of sheer lunacy that I need and that Washington doesn't quite provide.
Who is your favorite mainstream media columnist?
Martin Wolf, Financial Times. Ron Brownstein, L.A. Times.
What is your favorite television news program, either network or cable?
"Hardball." (Not that I watch any television these days.)
What MSM-produced websites (i.e. newspapers, magazines) do you visit on a daily basis?
WashingtonPost.com, NYTimes, Financial Times, MSNBC
What non-MSM websites (i.e. blogs) do you visit on a daily basis?
Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, RedState, Crooked Timber, Arts and Letters Daily.
How often, or do you ever, read a newspaper in its dead-tree (i.e. print) form?
Daily. And if I don't, I get caught, because I miss something that just doesn't show up online.
How do you see the new media and old media affecting and influencing each other in the next five years?
I hope it's a significant change from the way they affect and influence each other at the moment, in which many of the new media (bloggers, in particular) regard the "MSM" as a useless dinosaur or worse, and newspapers and magazines stumble over themselves to capture the perceived hipness of new media for themselves, but only get the form -- e.g., reporters being required to write blogs in addition to their other deadlines. New media should recognize that we are often parasites on old media -- absorbing and commenting on stories that we don't have the resources or background to write. Traditional media should recognize that the open-source innovations in tone and format pioneered on the blogs can refresh stale formats such as the op-ed page. Five years from now, however, I doubt these distinctions will be meaningful and the term "new media" will seem quaint.
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