Issue Number 995 | Mike Rogers, Blog Activist | Advocate.com Mike Rogers, Blog Activist  | Dossier | Advocate.com

Continental promo
|| Home > Dossier  ||
 

Mike Rogers, Blog Activist

From The Advocate  October 23, 2007
Mike Rogers, Blog Activist

How did a veteran activist who once worked for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force become, according to The Washington Post, “the most feared man” on Capitol Hill? Just ask Larry Craig. Mike Rogers outed the Idaho senator on his Web site, BlogActive.com, nearly a year before news came of his arrest in an airport sex sting. Craig wasn’t the first politician -- or political aide -- that Rogers has exposed, and he certainly won’t be the last: The Craig case has generated more than 500 tips for him.

Do you believe you’re solely responsible for Senator Craig’s demise?
If I can take credit for one thing, it’s that I put up a blog post in October 2006 that resulted in the biggest paper [in Idaho] assigning their most important political reporter to this story for five months. As a result, the night that Craig’s arrest became public, the Idaho Statesman had ready a 3,800-word article outlining Craig’s history of cruising men.

What has surprised you most about the coverage?
That so many times the press would credit me -- The Washington Post, CNN, Inside Edition, CBS news affiliates. It shows that people are learning how to filter what is legitimate journalism printed on a blog versus gossip or opinion.

Has your work changed at all since this story took off?
I’m no longer reporting on staffers. I attended this event where a lot of GOP staffers came up to me and said, “I love your work.” So I thought, How can I build a bridge personally? Why focus on staffers when presumably a lot more people are going to come to my site because I’m reporting only against politicians?

Why did you target staffers in the first place?
People think our elected officials hold the power in Washington, but the power is really held by the bureaucracy. These staffers have a lot of influence.

Some of your detractors charge that you are exposing the seedy underbelly of gay sex.
Americans are smart enough to tell the difference between someone who lives their life honestly and openly versus someone who makes unhealthy decisions by having public, inappropriate sexual encounters. We’ve taken about 20 steps forward with [the Craig] story and three steps back. I’m cool with it.

Photo by Joe Tresh

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Be the first to comment on this story.

Back to top

Submit a comment for this story:

*Type your comment here (Required, 1000 characters max. HTML formatting and hyperlinks are NOT permitted.):

*Name (Required): 

*Hometown (Required): 

*E-mail address: (Required, but will not be displayed)

Is this comment for publication? 
Yes   No

Daytime phone number: (Required for print publication only and will not be displayed)

Please enter the words you see in the box, in order and separated by a space. Doing so helps prevent automated programs from abusing this service.

  

If you would like to submit a comment for posting, please fill out the form above. 

All comments submitted via this form are subject to posting or publication. (To send a private letter to an Advocate editor or writer, please use the e-mail button at the top of the page, or use snail mail.) If you would like your comment considered for publication in The Advocate magazine, please include your full name, your city of residence, and a phone number where you can be reached during business hours so that we can confirm your identity. Your e-mail address and telephone number are strictly confidential and will not be shared or used for any purpose other than to contact you about your comment.

See the Contact page for sending comments for reasons other than responding to Advocate editorial and news stories.

Please note that comments sent by fax or snail mail are unlikely to be posted, although they will be considered for publication along with all letters received via e-mail or via this Web page. Comments that chiefly concern Advocate.com content will be considered for posting only on the Web site. The Advocate reserves the right to edit submitted comments for grammar, spelling, obscenities, or libel; we will, however, do our best to preserve the original comment's style and intent. Comments considered for publication in The Advocate magazine may also be edited for length.