A note on Dave’s interview of Trippi
Dave Winer interviewed Trippi (transcript) about the Zephyr affair. In the course of it, Dave says:
Let me just say this. The times, the New York Times, interviewed — go back through the archive, it’d be interesting to see — but I believe the New York Times interviewed people who were on the Dean advisory board — like David Weinberger, who was the tech advisor to the Dean campaign without saying that he was basically, you know, not exactly an employee, but although for all I know maybe they were getting money
For the record: No, I wasn’t paid in any form. I was not an employee or sort of an employee. I was a volunteer and proud to be one. But I can see why Dave might be confused: Joe gave me the title Senior Internet Advisor to the campaign. When I got interviewed I always tried to make my role clear as a volunteer consultant who deserves no credit for the brilliance of the campaign; for that I’d point primarily to Joe, Zephyr and Mathew. (And while I’m setting “the record” straight, I was a policy advisor, not a tech advisor.)
One more thing. Trippi says: “On the Sleepless Summer tour, we were letting any blogger that wanted to travel with us go.” That wasn’t my impression. I got a call from Mathew Gross, Dean’s chief blogger, a day before the tour was to begin, saying one blogger had been invited for each of the four legs, and would I like to do the first leg. And how! I was, I believe, the only external blogger on the flight, and my posts were cross-posted on to the official campaign blog. I even said something like the following to Joe on the flight: “Hey, I’m the first blogger to be credentialed to go on a presidential candidate’s press plane.” So, my impression is that the Sleepless Summer Tour was not open to any blogger that wanted to travel with it. On the other hand, I was just an advisor to the campaign and my memory totally sucks.
Disclosure: The campaign paid for my flight to DC, the first stop on the Sleepless Summer Tour. Here is the disclosure statement I made at the time (Aug. 22, 2003):
[Disclosure: I work for the Dean campaign as Senior Internet Advisor. No money changes hands, but the campaign is paying my airfare. I am partisan.]
Categories: Uncategorized dw
Jeez, what craziness. I can’t imagine anybody thought you were secretly paid to blog for Dean, David–hard to imagine Dean could have paid you enough to make up for the hours you devoted to working for him.
The WSJ must be delighted, watching lefties snarl and rend each other over their slanted “news” story. Kos disclosed that he was Dean’s paid internet consultant–how is it Kos’s sin if Zephyr secretly hoped the pay was also buying his loyalty?
I was trying to figure out Winer’s point there. Obviously, the Times, by identifying your title with the campaign, was, identifying your relationship with the campaign. I was kinda surprised that he didn’t know whether you were paid. But the more important thing you got was access, no?
see my summary and analysis of the podcast.
Jon
Dave, If you had just told Dave Winer taht you were a post-operative transvestite lesbian, you might have gotten away with a simple “f— you”.
Well, they caught someone on the cheap. :)