Ouch. I get no love from the Walberg campaign, according to the Citizen Patriot's Chris Gautz:

During lunch Thursday I listened in on a conference call U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg's campaign set up with area bloggers, which I thought was a great way for the Congressman to interact with members of the "new media."

I was expecting the questions to come from young, hip, bloggers, calling in live from their Mom's basement in between bites of funyuns, but those on the call were mostly all members of the "old media," with mostly boring newspaper reporters asking the questions.

(Just to be clear, I still count myself in the "boring newspaper reporter" category.)

Walberg's campaign told me certain liberal bloggers were not invited to take part, but earlier in the week, Walberg took part in a meeting with conservative bloggers.

If you're going to have a conference call with bloggers, I think it's only appropriate to invite some, including those who might disagree with you. Especially after seeing the video from the conservative bloggers meeting where Walberg is filmed saying "I always enjoy being with bloggers."

(Emphasis added.)

In case you didn't notice, the "certain liberal bloggers" link above points to... Walberg Watch. I'm not sure if they singled me out or if Chris Gautz just assumed that they meant me. Either way, I was not invited.

But don't feel too sorry for me. I didn't even know I was not invited. Indeed, I had no idea that such a conference call was going to take place.

Come on, Congressman Walberg. If you're going to snub me, the least you could do is tell me that you're going to snub me! A phone call or an e-mail would have been more than enough!

Tonight's going to be another big catch-up night. I hope you all enjoy the presidential debate, and I hope you all hurry back to Walberg Watch to read all the new stuff.

UPDATE: For the record, while my mother says she loves me very much, I doubt that she would want me to be blogging from her basement. Speaking from first-hand knowledge, it's not all that comfortable, though they do have a ping-pong table, which would be the source of hours of entertainment. And, also, until reading this piece, I had no idea what a "funyun" was. I guess I'm not all that hip.

More seriously, while it was a funny read, those sorts of comments don't really help. A lot of people rely on blogs and other new media for information and analysis, and, strangely enough, there are even some people that take Walberg Watch pretty seriously. Belittling the medium makes more enemies than friends-- especially when you're using some new media techniques in your old media job.

I don't think there's anything wrong with more traditional media-- it fills its own role, and I fill mine. Can't we all just get along?

Labels: 2008 Election, Netroots, Tim Walberg