<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Controversy is good.\u00A0 Last week was full of controversy - from political controversy to racial controversy, the blogosphere was a buzz, and several issues rarely brought to the attention of the Web 2.0 set was put in the forefront. There was so much of it going on, it caused me to pause and reflect elsewhere about the usefulness of controversy as a tool.\nThat's the topic that Sean and I tackled today as we re-examine the whole controversy regarding the whole issue of censorship of Twitter, Qik and other social media services' use by US congressmen. The post that brought this issue back to the fore was a a statement US Rep John Culberson made to TechDirt regarding his politicization of the issue:\n\"I agree and I never should have brought up Democrat or Republican.... My goal is to shine a light into the Congress and I'll keep partisan labels out of it. And I'm going to stay focused on the goal.... The two things the internet has helped me do is the community has helped me understand to keep the partisan labels out of it, that's good advice which I have taken to heart. And the other good advice I got was that I mean and actually through this debate and TechnoSailor in particular, I think his name's Aaron, had some really good posts on his blog that kind of when you walk through his and a couple of other good blogs out there, I realize that I was targeting the wrong thing, that the existing rules make it illegal for me to post on Twitter, to post on a Qik website, under existing rules I'm operating in the Twilight Zone.\"\nI wasn't particularly sure that it was the wrong move to politicize this, as political censorship was a very plausible motive to ascribe at the time. In retrospect, it was more likely motivated by Ludditism, but the partisanship was what brought this issue to the fore, and ignited a good discussion on the matter.\nGrab the MP4 here or play the embed below.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNever Miss an Episode!\nGet the Mashable Conversations podcast here (video feed).\nGet the Mashable Conversations podcast here (audio feed)."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/07/15/culberson-partisanship/>