FiredUpMissouri started out as a political site run by Roy Temple, a Missouri Democrat and powerful consultant, with the blessing of Jean Carnahan and a goal to drive news coverage helpful to Missouri Democrats. The target of a lawsuit by the MO GOP which claimed FiredUp was a partisan site that should be regulated as part of the Democratic Party, the site won and was defined as a newssite with a media exemption, which means it could write what it wanted, based on citizen reporters who signed up and reported news.
From the early days, this site has been a convenient vehicle for Democratic spokesman to launch vitriolic attacks from anonymous pen names, and while it has enraged Republicans, there hasn't been much the MO GOP could do about it.
The basic role of FiredUp is simple. Missouri Democrats send off press releases and emails to reporters at state and local papers. If the reporter buys the spin and prints it, a FiredUp blogger would post the article and praise the reporter. An example is here, where FiredUp posts an opinion piece from the Daily Star Journal. What FiredUp doesn't tell you is the publisher of the Daily Star gave $250 to Robin Carnahan in March for her Senate campaign. See how that works?
If the reporter declined to report the spin, FiredUp would post their own version, and in extreme cases, attack the newspaper or reporter directly. Jo Mannies and the KC Star took a lot of the fire (just do a search on JO at firedup and peruse a few posts (all anonymous, of course). Newsies across the state tolerated this conduct for years because FiredUp was written by political professionals, and they often leaked stories that the reporter could use.
In other words, FiredUp was run by political hacks hiding behind fake names attempting to influence news coverage and pretending to be average citizens.
That was all well and good when Republicans were in power, but as Democrats have taken office, the number of people available to write on FiredUp has shrunk, as ostensibly members of the Nixon and Carnahan administrations aren't technically supposed to be writing nasty partisan attacks on government computers while getting a check from the state of Missouri. Longtime readers and watchers of FiredUp have noticed a tremendous drop in the quality of coverage at FiredUp since the beginning of the year. Sean Soendker Nicholson, the new webmaster for FiredUp, was brought in to keep the site fresh, but the lack of Missouri knowledge and quite frankly the tendency to copy and paste arguments from smarter people has turned the site from a Democratic spin machine to yet another tiresome blog written by a know-nothing political wannabe. But more about Sean in later in the week.
Let's take a look at how Sean got to be the main blogger at FiredUp first. It's difficult to penetrate this web, as anonymous bloggers aren't the easiest to track, but you can track the activities of pseudonyms online, and that can often give you clues.
First let's start with Howard Beale. Howard was a good writer, and his "inside baseball" knowledge of Missouri politics was excellent. While a clear partisan, Howard's clever name and the information he broke to the press made him a must read for political junkies. He was clearly somebody, and the list of those names was a game played until January 9th, 2009, when Howard dropped off the map. Many people wonder, but most of those in Jefferson City are pretty sure Howard was none other than Jack Cardetti, the current director of communications for Jay Nixon. Jack's name in the running makes the most sense, as Beale was a constant writer for the site, right up until the time that Cardetti went to work on the state's payroll. Cardetti may be many things, but he's smart enough not to blog on state time. As Spokesman for the Missouri Democratic Party, Cardetti would have had the resources to dig up the information Beale constantly had at his fingertips, and it would fit the profile of someone trying to influence reporters to write favorable spin. Cardetti was also listed as someone going to the DNC and writing for FiredUp, but no posts came. Howard Beale also went pretty silent during the 2008 DNC, writing only 3 blogposts from August 23rd to September 2nd, and two of them about Kenny Hulshof. Beale wrote on FiredUp from October 2005-January 2009. Jack Cardetti served as Communications Director for the Missouri Democratic Party from August 2004- January 2009. Coincidence? I think not!
The pattern of leaks, spins, and posts also fits in with what a Communications Director would do. This is why Ryan Hobart's move to the MDP will be interesting. Can he do what Jack did? If Jack was Beale, as it likely, will the name be resurrected? And who else is writing at FiredUp? More tomorrow.
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