That old saw about there being no such thing as bad publicity may be true in a general sense -- but betcha Jared Polis would gladly have done without his appearance on the front of the Denver Post's local section today. "Bloggers Killed Rocky, Polis Asserts" quotes from a speech the Boulder congressman gave at a February 28 event for Netroots Nation, a national progressive organization. "Who killed the Rocky Mountain News?" he asked in a recording that can be heard on this ColoradoPulse.org link. "We're all part of it, for better or worse, and I argue it's mostly for the better... The media is dead and long live the new media."
Predictably, Polis retrenched when quizzed about these remarks by the Post, talking about lost jobs and yada-yada-yada. But the damage from his hamhanded comments has been done. No doubt the Netroots crowd didn't bat an eye at his observations -- but today's politicos need to remember that because everything they do in public (and often in private) is recorded, they can no longer say one thing to a certain constituency and something entirely different to another. If Polis, who made his fortune on the Internet, didn't realize that before, he certainly should now.
