These muckraking bloggers say they have stepped in to fill the government watchdog vacuum. Some are anonymous, others are scurrilous and, on occasion, possibly libelous. And to local politicians, most are a royal pain in the tuchis.
Bloggers in the San Gabriel Valley have raised the alarm about a possible budget crisis in Sierra Madre; ones in the Inland Empire have written about the high costs of trimming city trees in Claremont and allegations that killers are getting away with murder in Pomona.
"We realize in today’s electronic environment, it’s a fact of life," said Grand Terrace City Manager Thomas Schwab. "The thing that’s the most disturbing is they can put things on the blog that have no basis in fact, and you really can’t refute it."
Joseph Mailander comments on MayorSam:
Let it be noted at the very top: the Times tries to cover a story on the impact of blogs on local governments without even listing the web address of a single blog. Isn’t that just special? Maybe going forward local bloggers should talk about Times articles without linking them either. Nah—we’re not that petty.
Next up: which blogs will the fishwrap cover as aim-takers of City governments? Blogdowntown, CurbedLA, LukeFord.net, LAObserved, even MayorSam? Nope. Jonathan Abrams has to venture far into the suburban hinterlands—Pomona, Claremont, Grand Terrace—to find blogs that have an impact on local governments.
