John Battelle's Searchblog

Available here:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/01/1424259

or here:

http://www.c-span.org/2004vote/convention.asp?Cat=Current_Event&Code=GOP&ShowVidNum=10&Rot_Cat_CD=GOP&Rot_HT=&Rot_WD=&ShowVidDays=100&ShowVidDesc=&ArchiveDays=365
(First Lady Laura Bush Speech at Republican Convention clip)

I was about to refer to some of your work in my internal corporate blog, but when you start making political statements that have nothing to do with the purported subject of your blog it makes me very hesitant to point people to this source. Direct political speech, especially with an implied vicious streak, does not mix well with the information I expect from you. It diminishes your credibility and in this case, the reach of your thoughts.

Agree. This has been a decent "pure" read up until that post. What does a cheap political slam have to do with the subject of search?? I happen to be fairly successful in the search industry and happen to be Republican and will be voting for Bush. But my politics have nothing to do with my professional judgement or ability. I work with Democrats and Independents all the time, but whenever someone makes the misstep of injecting political opinion into a conversation, it's an obvious faux pax. Why not try making some religious comment ... maybe against Catholics ... and see how your readership enjoys that?

John, we need you to keep your blog pure, in this war on terror.

Zeitgeist? Isn't that a weekly thing?

It's old news at that point! :-)

i before e except (1) after c, and (2) in the word 'zeitgeist'.

There's no political statement there, just a reference to a joke about Bush not being good at public speech. Do y'all get similarly upset if someone references a joke about Kerry being dry and wooden?

Huh.

I considered that post to be one stating that regardless of how you may feel about President Bush's leadership capability, he is not a particularly good "off-the-cuff" speaker. (e.g. NASA scientists being "Spacial Entrepeneurs")

Still, some folks are just sensitive to that sort of thing and feel the need to be protective, I prefer to simply ignore them.

This is the man's personal blog. He makes some great points, and I use this blog everyday for search engine and online marketing updates. I agree with the person that said this was a JOKE, not a political statement. A statement like "Bush is a horrible president" would be political. Everyone makes fun of Bush's speech-making skills. So no offense, get over yourself.

BTW, John, if I see a video clip I'll let you know.

>zietgiest (sorry Yahoofolk, but it's a good word)

But it's even better if you spell it right: Zeitgeist.

Holy cr*p! Who woulda thought an offhand remark would have drawn so much commentary. Thanks to those who defended my Bush aside, after all, stating (or in my case, implying) that Bush is speech-challenged is simply not political opinion, it's objective fact. As is the fact that his daughters gave a terrible speech, apparently.

Now, misspelling "zeitgeist" is unacceptable, and I'll correct that one.

RE:(sorry Yahoofolk, but it's a good word) - No, i disagree - it's not a good word to use if the masses can't spell or pronounce it correctly. (heh) - mike

I made a similar mistake a few days ago and posted somthing political. You should have seen the scandal it caused. I think some readers need to realize that this is a blog and consequently, you're going to inject your personal opinions. To do so is not "off topic".

Andy,

As Feedster works to build ever-better relevancy algorithms, I find myself disagreeing with your point. We get lots of requests for figuring out how consistent the subject matter is across the life of a blog. Just because the publishing format being used is a blog doesn't mean that its readers expect it to be a personal journal where anything goes. In a way that benefits each of us commercially and societally, blogging has matured beyond that expectation and entered the commercial publishing world.

John can clearly write anything he darn well pleases, but I tend to take a "the customer is always right" perspective. John has quickly built this outlet into a well respected trade publication focused on high-level analysis of the search industry. That focus has built up his readership and can be a great tool to later sell his upcoming book. Spreading out the subject matter this way is commercially risky and is why so many professional writers have multiple blogs - personal vs. professional, by topic, etc.

I actually just decided to say the hell with it and throw something political in the blog every few months...just to keep my readership pure. (There are certain people I would rather not help anyway)

I would rather have honest and interesting over politically correct and muted any day. Part of what makes blogging awesome is that a person can express themselves in it.

When the word "fuckers" appeared in this blog
http://battellemedia.com/archives/000668.php
it was no big deal, but to state an obvious fact about the president is sinful. Why?

If people are so closed off that they can not accept that the president is not good at speaking then that is their own problem. Bet those offended same people watch Fox "News" ;)

Hey Teresa...Shove This!!!!!!!!!!!
Laura Bush will still be First Lady after the November Election. as Gov.Schwarzenegger would say"Hasta La Vista Baby"

I can't believe people flew so off the handle about this. Your blog is unusually focused, but jeez.

Anyway, you can also get the speech from iTunes (no video), they spoke with their mom. http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=21854344&selectedItemId=21854344

Also you can find any of the DNC or RNC speeches there for free by using those search terms.