08/24/2008
An Introduction from the DNCC
I was honored to be appointed by the Obama Campaign this past June to the Rules Committee for the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week. There are three committees that govern the Convention. They are the Rules Committee, Platform Committee and Credentials Committee.
The Rules Committee governs how the Convention will run and it's made up of 186 members from every state and territory in the United States.
We met on Saturday morning and after adopting the "Rules of the Convention", I received a nice surprise during the meeting.
The Obama Campaign asked me if I'd be one of three people on the committee that would stand and speak to the entire committee on nominations. I was asked to nominate the Vice-Chairs and Secretary of the Convention.
I stood up and introduced myself as a member from New York State and then nominated the Vice-Chairs of the Convention who were Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, Florida Congressman Robert Wexler, the Mayor of Columbus Ohio Michael Coleman and Maria Elena Durazo, the Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. I nominated the Secretary of the Democratic National Committee, Alice Travis-Germond to be the Secretary for the Convention.
It was a nice start to the historic and incredible week that's on the horizon here in Denver and I'm excited to be teaming up with Andy all week to bring you the best we have to offer.
Keep checking back for great interviews, photographs and videos this week from the Mile-High City.
Posted 7:56 PM EST by Corey Johnson in Democratic National Convention, Democratic Party, Denver, News | Permalink
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Neat! Congratulations!
Looking forward to the coverage!
Posted by: Kevinvt | Aug 24, 2008 8:59:53 PM
cool - keep us posted
Posted by: KFLO | Aug 24, 2008 10:27:21 PM
BillDo is going to have an aneurysm. Not only are you there at the convention, you are actually visible!!
I am always kind of intrigued by the formalities at meetings like this, it is cool you are getting to participate.
Posted by: PDX Guy | Aug 24, 2008 10:53:06 PM
Way to go!
Congratulations!
I'm looking forward to your reports.
Posted by: Sandol | Aug 24, 2008 11:38:59 PM
Is Pam Spaulding the only gay blogger with a basic understanding of Journalism 101? As a working journalist, you cannot be a part (in this case, a delegate, a DNC member, an appointee to the Riles Committee) of an organization/event you're covering. It is a huge and glaring conflict of interest.
I knew that 2 of the 3 bloggers sent by Bitterico were participating in the convention, and were thus compromised. I didn't realize that Andy had committed the same error.
Corey's great. He has an inspirational story, and both his writing and activism are much appreciated. But as a DNC committee member, he should not be covering this convention.
Posted by: 24play | Aug 24, 2008 11:46:10 PM
I don't know, 24play. I think it's pretty clear that Corey's a member of the DNC and that his writing will be from the perspective of someone involved with the Democrats and their convention.
I don't think it's any different than having a McCain or Obama surrogate writing an opinion piece in a newspaper.
Posted by: Sami | Aug 25, 2008 12:13:05 AM
We're not talking about writing opinion pieces, Sami. We're talking about reporting. Journalism.
How would you feel about McCain's press secretary writing daily news articles about his boss for the front page of the New York Times? How about Sam Brownback reporting on the Senate for CNN? Arlen Specter reporting on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the next Supreme Court nomination hearings?
It would be great if Corey wrote an opinion piece for Towleroad from his perspective as a Rules Committee member. But only two national LGBT blogs were granted press credentials for the convention. They should both be covering it as independent reporters.
I know that not much of interest actually happens at the conventions these days. But if they're covered by delegates, or other people involved, you can be damn sure there won't be any news reported.
What if all the news you got from the White House were reported by White House staffers? How much would we know about the machinations of the Bush administration?
Posted by: 24play | Aug 25, 2008 12:31:29 AM
Congrats Andy on this Honor. I am sure you will do us all proud, regardless of some people's concerns about objectivity. As a footnote, if a person is looking at ANY blog for unbiased, objective journalism, then perhaps that person is looking in the wrong place. I might suggest one of the major news outlets for news coverage of the event.
Blogs, by nature, are written from a personal perspective and the author/owner of the blog is free to write what they want and readers are not obligated to read the blog. This is not CNN.
Again, Andy, Congratulations on being chosen for the committee and for being asked to speak. It says a great deal about your commitment to reporting on LGBT issues that you are respected enough to be part of this event.
Posted by: Chad | Aug 25, 2008 1:50:19 AM
Congrats Andy
So 24Play, please do us a favor and write down exactly what rules bloggers are supposed to follow. And post them on your blog so we can read them.
Posted by: homer | Aug 25, 2008 6:56:57 AM
Gotta agree. Now I realize why we're not holding the Obama campaign's feet to the fire regarding lgbt rights in the DNC's platform. "Chosen by Obama", how special you are. Please ask him about his kissing up to the evangelical wing of American politics, "The Gospel Tour" featuring Donnie McClurkin. And ask Wexler when he plans to move from Washington down here to live with us folks he is supposed to be representing and why he let the DNC ignore our 1.7 million voters in the primary but recognized the 15,000 to 35,000 voters in Caucus states that gave Obama more delegates than Florida or Michigan.
Posted by: Glennmcgahee | Aug 25, 2008 8:18:41 AM
I think its pretty apparent from the start that this is hardly a unbiased legit. news site. You get some great info here sometimes but I would hardly call half of what goes on here as news anyway.
The fact that Andy is working with the DNC at least is being disclosed. Half the time most so called journalism people wouldn't bother they would just keep feeding you the party talking points and lines disguised as news.
Take Andy's stuff for what it is and digest it yourself as mostly slanted news.
Posted by: Las Vegas | Aug 25, 2008 11:51:24 AM
Congratulations, Andy, for taking such an important role in American government.
If more citizens would take part in their government, rather than sit at keyboards angrily denouncing and offering nothing but criticism, we might not have had the nightmare of the past eight years. The depth of ignorance of how our political system works is something I have been working to fight for ten years. Sadly, it is still a daily battle, as evidenced by some remarks here.
I look forward to your posts from Denver.
Posted by: DwH | Aug 25, 2008 12:54:35 PM