A Union For Bloggers?

Left-Leaning Bloggers Debate Organizing A Labor Union

(AP)  Do bloggers need their own Norma Rae?

In a move that might make some people scratch their heads, a loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers are trying to band together to form a labor union they hope will help them receive health insurance, conduct collective bargaining or even set professional standards.

The effort is an extension of the blogosphere's growing power and presence, especially within the political realm, and for many, evokes memories of the early labor organization of freelance writers in the early 1980s.

Organizers hope a bloggers' labor group will not only showcase the growing professionalism of the Web-based writers, but also the importance of their roles in candidates' campaigns.

"I think people have just gotten to the point where people outside the blogosphere understand the value of what it is that we do on the progressive side," said Susie Madrak, the author of Suburban Guerilla blog, who is active in the union campaign. "And I think they feel a little more entitled to ask for something now."

But just what that something is may be hard to say.

In a world as diverse, vocal and unwieldy as the blogosphere, there's no consensus about what type of organization is needed and who should be included. Some argue for a free-standing association for activist bloggers while others suggest a guild open to any blogger — from knitting fans to video gamers — that could be created within established labor groups.

Others see a blogger coalition as a way to find health insurance discounts, fight for press credentials or even establish guidelines for dealing with advertising and presenting data on page views.

"It would raise the professionalism," said Leslie Robinson, a writer at ColoradoConfidential.com. "Maybe we could get more jobs, bona fide jobs."

But not everyone is on board.

"The reason I like blogging is that it's very anarchistic. I can do whatever I want whenever I want, and oh my God, you're not going to tell me what to do," said Curt Hopkins, the founder of the Committee to Protect Bloggers.

"The blogsphere is such a weird term and such a weird idea. It's anyone who wants to do it," Hopkins said. "There's absolutely no commonality there. How will they find a commonality to go on? I think it's doomed to failure on any sort of large scale."

About 11 percent of American Internet users have created Web pages or blogs for others while eight percent have created their own online journals or Weblogs, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

With pages focused on everything from bird watching to celebrity footwear, more than 120,000 blogs are created every day and more than 58,000 new posts are made each hour, according to data from Technorati, which tracks more than 94 million blogs worldwide.

Few bloggers are paid for their posts and even less are able to make a living doing the work. But many say they often devote as much energy and time to their online musings as they do to their salaried careers.

While bloggers work to organize their own labor movement, their growing numbers are already being courted by some unions.

"Bloggers are on our radar screen right now for approaching and recruiting into the union," said Gerry Colby, president of the National Writers Union, a local of the United Auto Workers. "We're trying to develop strategies to reach bloggers and encourage them to join."

Unsurprisingly, there's decidedly less support for a union movement among conservative bloggers.

Mark Noonan, an editor at Blogs for Bush and a senior writer at GOP Bloggers, said he worries that a blogger union would undermine the freewheeling nature of the blogosphere, regardless of its political composition.

"We just go out there and write what is on our mind, damn the critics," he said. "To make a union is to start to provide a firm structure for the blogosphere and that would merely make the blogosphere a junior-league (mainstream media). ... Get us a union and other 'professional' organizations and we'll start to be conformist and we'll start to be just another special interest."

But that's not how Kirsten Burgard sees it.

Sitting at a panel titled "A Union for Bloggers: It's Time to Organize" at this week's YearlyKos Convention for bloggers in Chicago, Burgard said she'd welcome a chance to join a unionized blogging community.

"I sure would like to have that union bug on my Web site," said Burgard, a blogger who uses the moniker Bendy Girl.

Madrak hopes that regardless the form, the labor movement will help ultimately help bloggers pay for medical bills. It's important, she said, because some bloggers can spend hours a day tethered to computers as they update their Web sites.

"Blogging is very intense — physically, mentally," she said. "You're constantly scanning for news. You're constantly trying to come up with information that you think will mobilize your readers. In the meantime, you're sitting at a computer and your ass is getting wider and your arm and neck and shoulder are wearing out because you're constantly using a mouse."

[bloggerslove]

I wouldn't pay to read a blog. I don't pay to read other media sources - more credible media sources. Are the all somewhat biased - yes. But so are the bloggers.

Only fools will pay some uneducated keyboard jockey to spew their political opinions.

I don't pay to go to "b" movies - that's what cable is for. I pay for "a" movies - and "a" media (hard newspaper and others). Most blogs are "c" media at best - and not worth my hard earned dollars to support!

Please do spend all the money you wish paying these people to tell you their opinion. Enjoy :)

[brianbwb-2009]

A typical liberal reasoning..running on recklessness. Freedom of speech comes responsibility and accountability. Imagine scores of young liberals getting thier news from unregulated sources..
Posted by xzavierbrown

No need to imagine, dude, just turn on phuksnooze, for a the largest dise, and most of the others for a good dose of unregulated right wing propaganda posing as news.

[me4prezz]

Oh my goodness!!! I want a union as well. I spend a lot of time on my toilet and that requires much effort at times and I think that I need a union for that!!!

Unionize the "People for Poopin Toilet Goers"!!!!

Sign up today!

[uradufuss]

To bloggerslove: Well, I suppose that you could say that; when it comes to health insurance, However, you pay to go to movies, right? Then why not pay to read a blog where someone is calling you an idiot? (not me, of course)

[uradufuss]

Hello bobgee_1999: You make some good points, and I, personally, appreciate your views. I do not agree with them, but I do appreciate them. Nonetheless, when you call bloggers "the loudest idiots in the room," you can add that adjective to your own portfolio --because that is what you are doing now.

[tbweb]

Posted by bobgee_1999 at 05:39 PM : Aug 06, 2007,,,

Freedom of Speech does not play favorites. All of us are entitled to express this right, everyone on the left and the right, the smartest and the dumbest, the rich and the poor, the Internet enhances this right by leveling the playing field. More often than not, the left, the right, the liberals, the neocons all agree on the problems, where they part ways in most cases is on the remedy, the solutions, that's where the left, the right, the liberals and the neocons really start to stick out and part ways. Left wing types will say things like "live and let live", while right wing types will say things like "load up the B52's and carpet bomb them into submission!" and then everything in between those 2 extremes are degrees of the middle.

[bobgee_1999]

"Bloggers" are merely the loudest idiots in the room, not necessarily the most numerous and certainly not representative of anything. It will turn out to have been a mistake for either party to have paid any attention to them. Bloggers are frequently sub-literate, uninformed, openly biased, and lacking in credibility---much like most of the people here.

And let's clear something up for those of you sitting in the back of the classroom playing with paper footballs: Joseph Goebbels, spokesman for the Nazi Party, made it perfectly clear that National Socialism had absolutely nothing to do with "Marxian Socialism" (Marxism/Leninism)---which is mainly what people mean today when they talk about socialism. Further, Left and Right are relative terms, depending upon the existing power structure. Since the two terms owe their roots to the French Revolution, it's rather comical that Conservatives use them at all, given their disdain for all things French.

Anyway, those who spout history---usually revisionist, flawed history---to support their views have some responsibility to be conversant with their subject matter. Fascists, Nazis, and Islamofascists (whatever the hell that's supposed to mean) were/are all vehemently anti-Liberal, and no amount of hysterical finger-pointing is going to change that reality. But maybe it should tell us something.

[bloggerslove]

If blogging is so difficult, doesn't provide health insurance and no one is paying you to do it - it's not a job!!

Go get a job that someone actually values and you'll get pay and health insurance. Who are these people going to lobby for health benefits - my IP address??

Stop whining and get a job!

[xzavierbrown]

labor unions and left winged liberal organization does not mix.

"The reason I like blogging is that it's very anarchistic. I can do whatever I want whenever I want, and oh my God, you're not going to tell me what to do," said Curt Hopkins, the founder of the Committee to Protect Bloggers.

A typical liberal reasoning..running on recklessness. Freedom of speech comes responsibility and accountability. Imagine scores of young liberals getting thier news from unregulated sources..

[shingles1]

You can continue to support America's mob-run unions...... but I'm not.
Posted by perception5 at 02:05 PM : Aug 06, 2007

I guess this means that perception5 doesn't believe in "Buying American". He'd rather hand his money over to the Chinese or the Saudis rather than support American workers. Nice.

[uradufuss]

To perception5: When you speak of feathers: At least I can say that my feathers are that of an Eagle --while your's are taken from a turkey vulcher.

[jsilver2th]

Oh the ANARCHISTS UNITE syndrome...

[uradufuss]

So, what "perception5" is saying is that we should not have the freedom to share our thoughts on the internet, as we are doing now. He feels threatened by the common person; because the common person should be "seen and not heard." Only "the wealthy" should be heard. --That sounds a lot like the state of France, before the French Revolution.

[klingon69]

....uradufuss, your intolerant liberal feathers are showing. You can continue to support America's mob-run unions...... but I'm not.
Posted by perception5 at 02:05 PM : Aug 06, 2007
unfortunately, you do support them anytime you buy union-made products. So as far as supporting them, ehhhh. Unions are good in some instances, the problem is like everything, you are only shown the bad side of it. I myself get upset when I see people out striking for something who are already making 2-3 times my salary.

[uradufuss]

To perception5: Well now, it seems that you have been studying up on these "National Socialists?" You seem to know all about them. The truth is, regardless of what they chose to call themselves, the Nazis were not handing-out civil liberties --they were taking them away. And, taking away civil liberties appears to be the theme in all of your blogs, right? The Nazis also practiced the art of deception through rhetoric --which is exactly what you are doing, now. So, the truth is, the "National Socialists" were closer to the right than they were to the left.

[shingles1]

"The Germans you refer to were "National Socialists" just like your hero's in the Democrat party.....get a clue dude."

Actually, perception5, YOU need to get a clue and read some history. Hitler rose to power largely on the basis of his virulent anti-Communism, which he perceived as part of a larger "Jewish conspiracy". And likewise, Hitler made sure to wipe out the German Communists among with other leftists.

According to your "logic", that Governments are exactly what they say they are, the old East German Communist state must have been a wonderful paradise since it was named "The German Democratic Republic".

[infidel_us]

I can hardly wait for the REAL election to begin. This stuff WILL come back to haunt the eventual demolib nomoniee! Pandering to the extreme left. Good luck.....you're gonna need it.

[perception5]

Fascist Courts they are almost non existent. You fascist are disgusting PLUS you are just plain LIARS.
Posted by MCVet at 01:11 PM : Aug 06, 2007


....MCVet, you're like the rest of the liberals on this website, clueless. The Germans you refer to were "National Socialists" just like your hero's in the Democrat party.....get a clue dude.
And when are you and your fellow liberal Demcrats going to do something about all the proverty and dispair in America's "deep blue cities" ??

[perception5]

Perception5: This "donor" that your are now looking at, is not as much of threat as the one that your mother used to father you.
Posted by uradufuss at 01:50 PM : Aug 06, 2007


....uradufuss, your intolerant liberal feathers are showing. You can continue to support America's mob-run unions...... but I'm not.

[uradufuss]

Perception5: This "donor" that your are now looking at, is not as much of threat as the one that your mother used to father you.