Mr. Consumerist Goes to Washington
Good news everyone! The White House has invited two of the bloggers behind the peerless Consumerist to come to Washington and conduct an on-camera Q&A with senior economic adviser Austan Goolsbee. They will be talking about credit card reform, which the President has been pushing hard lately, and the team from the Consumerist is soliciting questions from their readers (click the link above and submit your questions in the comments). Originally part of Gawker, the Consumerist was recently cut loose and then purchased by the Consumer’s Union. That move from commercial blog to non-profit advocacy probably made this invitation possible, but it is hard to say.
This is a great. Though not as true as it used to be, many organizations are still nervous about bloggers, who don’t play by the older media/source rules. Because bloggers tend to blur those lines between opinion and reporting, the simple act of sitting down with them and soliciting their input can go a long way towards getting them on your side. Additionally, many people in government and business underestimate how much bloggers can bring to the table in terms of knowledge of the issues they write about and the best way to present them to the public.
On another level, I love this because I now know there will be a video and transcripts of Goolsbee answering basic questions about credit card reform. My only fear is that the team from The Consumerist will be awed by their surroundings and won’t hold Goolsbee’s feet to the fire and press for plain-English answers to their questions.