(UPDATE…JAY ROSEN, CREATOR OF PRESSTHINK AND CO-PUBLISHER OF OTB, HAS MADE IT CLEAR THAT OTB HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WRITING, EDITING, OR PRESENTATION OF THE STORY IN QUESTION — and I believe him. )

“Off the Bus” is a joint venture by Jay (Pressthink) Rosen and Ariana Huffington that encourages “citizen’s journalism.” The idea is that us “little people” can attend campaign events, and report them, just as well as the corporate media.

Recently, Off the Bus made news when an Obama supporter, Mayhill Fowler, reported on remarks made by Obama at a San Francisco fundraiser — the “bitter/clinging” controversy. Rosen addressed the controversy over at Pressthink, explaining the care and attention given to Fowler’s piece.

Then yesterday, Off the Bush published a hit piece on Clinton, based on a two month old recording. Off the Bus apparently has two different standards — one for Obama, and another for Clinton.

Fowler’s piece was an extended meditiation on the Pennsylvania campaign — the report about the San Francisco fund-raiser didn’t show up until the sixth paragraph, and her critique of what Obama said concerned the context in which he said it (“I’m not sure this is what at least this lot of Californians needed to hear about Pennsylvanians. Such phrases can reinforce negative stereotypes among Californians, who are a people in a state already surfeited with a smug sense of superiority and, as an ironic consequence, a parochialism and insularity at odds with the innovation, prosperity and openness for which California is rightly known.”)

She didn’t accuse Obama of being an elitist, she simply said that it wasn’t helpful to reinforce negative stereotypes that wealthy Californians have about working class Pennsylvanians.

Fowler was vilified by Obama supporters for her reporting, and Jay Rosen did a very good job of explaining the process (and defending Mayhill) that resulted in the piece being published under the Off The Bus banner.

But it appears that there are two different “Off the Bus” standards — one for reporting that might place Obama in a bad light, and another for hit
pieces on Hillary Clinton.

Consider the contrasts

FOWLER was an Obama Supporter, doing an “insider critque” of the context in which Obama had said something.

FREMON is a self-loathing Clinton-hater*, who is slamming Clinton from ’outside’ the Clinton camp, and is writing not about the context, but about what was said, in an accusatory manner.

FOWLER WAS THERE. There is nothing that suggests that FREMON was at the CLinton fundraiser.

FOWLER wrote about contemporaneous events, FREMON writes about a two month old tape recording.

FOWLER’s piece was accompanied by an audio link that included the full context (in context, Obama comes off as tone-deaf, rather than “elitist”) of Obama’s remarks, and a full transcript of those remarks. FREMON provides only a short clip, which sounds like it has been edited in order for maximum attack value.

FOWLER provide the full “campaign” context. FREMON deliberately distorts that context. Fremon writes about Nevada and Texas caucuses in an attempt to impeach Clinton’s remarks about how her supporters felt intimiated by Move-On people at caucuses. The tape was reportedly made right after Super-Tuesday, when there were SIX caucus states selecting delegates (KS, CO, ID, MN, SD, AK), and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Move-On member did flood some caucues in at least two of those states (CO, MN) and act in a way that made Clinton supporters feel uncomfortable and intimidated. But Fremon would have you think that this is impossible.

If Jay Rosen wants OTB to have any credibility, the same standards and thought must be applied to something like Fremon’s piece that are applied to something like Fowler’s piece. I mean, otherwise, should I just take my misogyny series, rewrite it as an anti-Obama screed, and headline it OBAMA MARGINS BASED ON SEXISM/MISOGYNY — WINNING IN STATES THANX TO THE WOMEN-HATING VOTE and demand that it be published?

*when someone goes to the lengths that Fremon— or should I say “Celeste” or “Cel”, since Fremon uses “Hillary” and “Hil” but never refers to Obama as “Barack” or “Barry” —goes to trash Clinton for even mentioning that she’s a woman, while giving Obama a free pass for exploiting his race, you’re talking about someone who has internalized the imperatives of a sexist culture