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White House Goes to the Blogs
Tuesday, Aug 17, 2004; 12:23 PM
Jimmy Orr, the White House's Internet guru, wants the White House Web site to get bloggier.
"We're trying to make it more bloggish," he says in an interview. "People need to see that we're on the site and we're listening to what they have to say."
So, he says: "We're going to try -- as questions come in, and as people have comments about the events of the day -- to be more proactive."
Blogs -- short for Web logs -- are all the rage these days. And while some people use them for such things as chronicling their sex lives, they have more significantly emerged as a potent vehicle for news and views on the Internet.
Two of the most seminal features of blogs are interaction with readers and immediacy. And the White House Web site under Orr, an enthusiastic 37-year-old press office staffer, has already taken some steps in that direction.
White House Interactive is generally updated daily with a new e-mail question from the public and an answer, typically from someone fairly high up in the White House staff.
One of Orr's biggest accomplishments was the launching last April of "Ask the White House," a live discussion that has featured guests such as Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., first lady Laura Bush and White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier.
(While many guests only take softball questions, that's not always the case. Check out, for instance, this Karen Hughes performance in January.)
A next step, Orr says, could be to use the site to communicate with the public throughout the day, for instance by reporting what the president is doing right now. "We need to be more live," he says. And it's doable -- "'Cause we're here. We just need to communicate that better with the public."
A while back, Orr was his own guest on "Ask the White House" One questioner raised the topic of blogging. And it turns out Orr's a fan.
"Bloggers are very instrumental. They are important. They can lead the news. And they've been underestimated," he wrote.
"Here's what the bloggers do. They notice something in the news or something they've observed that maybe the 'traditional' media hasn't covered or isn't spending much time on. But they think it is significant. So, they give the story a second life (or first). And they talk about it. And others talk about it. Before you know it, it is leading the news."
In his online appearance, Orr mentioned a few blogs he reads regularly. He e-mailed me a more extensive list:
The Note, from ABC News
Noted Now, also from ABC News
Andrew Sullivan
Instapundit
OpinionJournal.com's Best of the Web Today
HyperGeneMediaBlog
White House Briefing (You're reading it.)
James Lileks
And he's not the only one in the White House who reads blogs, he says. Far from it.
"They're important here," he says. "I can tell you that a lot of people read them."
Note to White House officials (and others): Don't forget to nominate your favorites for washingtonpost.com's 2004 Best Blogs - Politics and Elections Readers' Choice Awards.
