What do former President Bill Clinton, cyclist Lance Armstrong, Sen. Hillary Clinton, cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, TV producer Norman Lear, Republican political strategist Karen Hughes, singer Jon Bon Jovi, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and American Idol judge Randy Jackson have in common … besides their varying degrees of celebrity?
Right, not much, but they are among the 80-plus “nationally known opinion drivers” who have lent their names to and reportedly will participate in the early days of Hotsoup.com, which bills itself as “the premier online community for the millions of influencers who want a say in how to improve America.” Lofty stuff, and that’s what they say about themselves even before tomorrow’s sneak-peek preview or Thursday’s public launch of the site.
Personally, I’m having a hard time working up an appetite for this one.
While site organizers are selling the sizzle — that list of 80-plus celebrities/opinion drivers from the worlds of politics, entertainment, academia, public service and religion — they claim in their promotional materials that the meat of the enterprise will be more egalitarian in nature: “Hotsoup.com is an interactive community that seeks to level the playing field of public discourse by bridging the divide between the nation’s insiders and outsiders. Using social networking technology, Hotsoup.com will connect America’s 30 million opinion drivers, from household names to grassroots, community influencers, allowing them to engage in smart, productive dialogue about the most pressing issues of the day. Anyone and everyone will have the chance to make a statement, take a stand and have a say in how American institutions can work better.”
Based on what I’ve read about the enterprise, it seems like MySpace meets Wikipedia meets The Huffington Post meets Free Republic meets Digg: This isn’t a mashup, it’s more like a train wreck waiting to happen — at least sight-unseen.
“If an online community can give grassroots opinion leaders a platform for smart, civil debate, it will fill a huge void in today’s politics,” says Sen. Barack Obama, another Hotsouper, in a press release.
Rarely does an “if” loom larger. Who says opinion leaders want a platform for smart, civil debate? And who says millions of opinion consumers want to read the fruits of such an undertaking? Were such the case it would be PBS rolling in dough and Fox conducting telethons.
The site’s co-founders are serious people, at least in the world of serious politics: They include Mark McKinnon, who directed ad campaigns for President Bush; Joe Lockhart, press secretary to President Clinton; Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the ’04 Bush-Cheney campaign; Carter Eskew, chief strategist for Al Gore’s 2000 campaign; and, Ron Fournier, a former political writer for the Associated Press.
This group cannot be operating under the illusion that all they have to do is provide a platform and the Lincoln-Douglas debates will break out. They must know there’s a good chance that not every Hotsouper will come willing to bridge divides, celebrate differences and gain enlightenment.
Also, there must be a half-dozen potential presidential candidates among the celebrity 80 and a top-heavy supporting cast of other politicos. By and large, these are people whose primary interest at the moment — make that at every moment — is maintaining their position in American institutions, not getting them to work better. The pabulum police had better be ready to respond because this has all the earmarks of a spin-fest.
Not too hot, not too cold — this soup has to be just right — and that’s going to be a tall order.
