Summary: As the "mainstream media's" overall influence and integrity continues to decline in the Internet age, blogs like Tony's Kansas City are taking on an air of pseudo-journalistic credibility as legitimate news outlets give him exposure. 09-18-2007
TONY'S KANSAS CITY BLOG HAS BECOME A MEDIA FORCE
A blog rating site (below) has reported that TonysKansasCity.com is the most influential political blog in Missouri. In an era of new media offerings (blogs, Web sites, Web cams, YouTube, etc.) his blog's rise in popularity is stunning.
In real life, "Tony" is Tony Botello. He lives with his mother in Kansas City, MO. He is Hispanic. He is a crusader for all minority causes, and in particular is a pro-immigration crusader. He blasts the local media routinely if he disagrees with anything reported. He hates suburban folks, who he refers to as "scumbags."
His comments are often racist and sexist (women are "bitches" and "broads") since he doesn't have to follow any journalistic guidelines. Half-nude women are featured on a daily basis. Typos and grammatical mistakes are routine.
What is remarkable is that many area media types religiously read Tony's rants on a daily basis and are very much influenced by them. KMBZ news hosts E.J. Becker and Ellen Schenk feature him on the air as a legitimate news source every Friday morning to give his views on any topics he chooses. The Kansas City Star links to his site.
KC Star columnists read his rants and sometimes quote items off his site. Many are fearful of Tony's wrath. Some like the Star's Dave Helling and TV folks are regular readers. They know his influence.
Last December Tony began viciously attacking KC Council candidate Beth Gottstein. Nearly every day he blasted her for a variety of alleged transgressions. His attacks were relentless and sometimes very, very ugly.
Even the folks at the Pitch, KC's alternative newspaper, felt the attacks on Gottstein were a bit much (calling it 'muckblogging') and investigated (http://www.pitch.com/2007-01-18/news/the-truth-about-tony/#comments). It turns out that Tony's mom--Rita Valenciano---was planning to run against Gottstein, and eventually did. Despite the attacks Gottstein was elected to city council.
These days Botello has aimed his attacks on KC Mayor Mark Funkhouser for a variety of reasons, but the main focus is on his appointment of 73-year-old Frances Semler to a non-paid KC Parks Board position. Shortly after the appointment it was discovered that Semler was a member of the "Minuteman" Civil Defense organization opposed to illegal immigration.
Now it turns out that Tony's mom Rita Valenciano is the chair of a group called the "Coalition of Hispanic Organizations." The mother-son duo have successfully combined to make the Semler appointment a major media issue for several weeks. The Star's editorial board and nearly all of the newspaper's columnists (see Steve Penn's column where he says the mayor should forget his principles and fire Semler) and editorial cartoonist have echoed Tony's rants.
As an example of this clout, Rita Valenciano was recently on the Shanin & Parks talk radio show on 980-KMBZ blasting the Mayor, Semler and the Minuteman organization. Some of her attacks were later found not to be based on truth, but have continued to remain topics of media conversation. Her son reportedly called into the show as "Anthony" supporting her views.
In this day and age it is remarkable that one individual with a computer and Internet access, but with no real media or journalistic credentials, can be such a force for political and civic activism and opinion in all media outlets.
With legitimate media outlets and reporters providing him exposure for his personal views there is no limit to the influence he can achieve in the future. With technology should come some responsibility.
BNN's Missouri Blogosphere Influence Rating combines a variety of data sets to determine which blogs are most powerfully influencing the direction of the Missouri political blogosphere. The exact method BNN uses to calculate influence scores must remain proprietary in order to prevent attempts to game the system. BNN's methodology takes into account the fact that all Internet data is profoundly limited in its reliability by using multiple data sets that, when combined, reveal a fair picture of activity in the blogosphere.
