John Aravosis, editor of AMERICAblog.com, one of the most influential Democratic political blogs in Washington, DC, spoke this week to SIPA students about the role of blogs in Washington.

IMAC organizers were able to tear the well-known blogger away from Washington for a day to explain the role of liberal blogs during the 2008 presidential campaign, and current coverage of issues ranging from gay rights to health care reform.

He blasted the Obama administration’s current treatment of the gay community and liberal democrats. Since Obama hates conflict, his administration “panders to the people who beat up on them,” like the blue dog Democrats and the Republicans in Congress.   He expressed annoyance that the administration all but ignores the liberal and gay communities because they can be counted on for votes and donations. “I want them to look at the gay community and fear us, if they want our money, they need to follow up on their promises.”

Aravosis is exploring ways his blog can hold politicians to their promises.  His presentation at SIPA came just one day after calling for a temporary boycott of contributions to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) because of the backward steps the DNC has taken on gay rights.  The boycott had attracted so much media attention by that afternoon that Aravosis said, “We know from people talking to the White House that they are freaking out, and that is good.”

But how do you earn a living as a blogger?  Well, to John the key to blogging is credibility and “you establish credibility by being right.” Blogs are often the bell weather for news and analysis that appear in traditional media outlets a few days later. For example, Aravosis’ blog was the first to notice hesitancy on the part of the Obama administration regarding the healthcare bill’s public option—an issue that caught great media attention soon thereafter.

Aravosis likens his site to an op-ed page: “To me, blogs are very good at opinion journalism… [they] enlighten me, challenge me.  Good blogs provide the same thing.”

It is hard to quantify the impact of blogs, “We are influential but small; politicians read us but people still want to see the raw numbers to know you matter.” 

Looking toward the future Aravosis discussed the changing role that blogs have in Washington’s politics.  There are now many more blogs out there so it has gotten harder to get attention. Ad sales slumped last fall but are now picking up.  He noted that some sites like Huffington Post are now expanding into new ventures like sports, so as to increase their unique visitors and ad revenues.

The role of blogs is likely to continue expanding, however.  Throughout the Bush administration, the Fox news years, people on the left were looking for somewhere to go to discuss pressing issues that were being ignored by major media outlets.  Now the blogosphere has provided a “home” for these issues.