In Focus: The Romney Netroots - ROMNEYEXPERIENCEOctober 22nd, 2007 | Comments Off | Posted in In Focus: The Netroots for Romney, ROMNEYEXPERIENCE, Ryan Bell, This Site
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Today we start a new feature here at Elect Romney in 2008 (aka comMITTed to Romney). We’re going to begin spotlighting a Pro-Romney blog or website every week. This week we are starting with Ryan Bell’s ROMNEYEXPERIENCE. Every Monday we will post their writeup for the world to see, but obviously it won’t stay around long since other blog posts will be posted pretty quickly afterwards. That’s where our “In-Focus” tab at the top of the screen comes in. For their week, the website will appear on that front page. After their week is up, it will then be archived at the bottom of the page. So, if you’d like to spend some time perusing the list after we’ve had have few you’re more than welcome to check them out. Now onto this week’s “In-Focus” ROMNEYEXPERIENCE.
ROMNEYEXPERIENCE - http://www.romneyexperience.com
Ryan Bell
In the Spring of this year, Ryan Bell started seeing a trend in the coverage of Mitt Romney. Despite the excellent qualifications Romney brought to the campaign, a huge proportion of media coverage focused not on Romney’s resume, positions, or character, but on his religion. Worse still, much of that coverage showed real ignorance about Mormonism, often perpetuating stereotypes and half-truths about Mormonism, to the detriment of the Romney candidacy. What Ryan realized in reading these stories was that there was no one responding to them. Mitt Romney had taken the high road, choosing not to comment on the low grade attacks on his faith. The LDS Church, well-positioned to rebut charges against it, remained mostly silent, fearing to enter the political arena due to its policy of neutrality as to candidates, and lacking credibility with some journalists because of its vested interest in the debate. In other words, scores of people were attacking Romney’s faith, but no one was fighting back.
RomneyExperience was born to fill that role, and has been fighting back ever since. As a practicing Mormon and former blogger on religious topics, Ryan felt well-suited to discuss specific concerns being raised about Mormon doctrine, practice, and history. And as a committed Romney supporter, Ryan has always used his site to offer explanations that would help clarify the candidate’s religious background, with posts like “Would the LDS Church Control a Mormon President?” and “What Mitt’s Mormonism Does Mean.”
It proved to be an effective, and surprisingly provocative blogging niche. Just as Ryan began posting to his new blog, he began receiving media inquiries, and soon found his site featured on the front page of Politico.com. Since then, Ryan has made appearances on CNN and Fox News, spoken on several radio programs, and received links from numerous high-profile political websites. While you can never say for sure what impact you’re having, this exposure is one indication that RomneyExperience is helping to mold the public debate regarding Romney’s religion. Hopefully, that impact can continue to increase until Romney reaches the White House. Visit Ryan at www.romneyexperience.com, and feel free to pass his site on to everyone who is interested in questions of Religion and Politics.