Del Martin, one half of the first couple to be married in San Francisco after gay marriage was legalized, died today.

I realize that this is heresy, but it’s time that papers drop AP’s political coverage (or at least any piece bylined by Fournier). It’s becoming pretty obvious that the AP’s political editor Ron Fournier has a dog in this race and isn’t just reporting the straight news (with or without extra commentary). His latest piece covering Clinton’s speech is pretty transparently lifting from Republican attacks on Obama:

From there, Fournier recites the very quotes from the Democratic primaries that the McCain campaign has been pushing desperately all week. So, to hear the AP’s Washington bureau chief tell it, the most important takeaway from Clinton’s stirring speech at the convention is the criticism she directed at Obama as far back as nine months ago. And this, coincidentally, just happens to be what Republicans want to see emphasized this week more than anything else.

Reading the Fournier piece shows that it’s entirely filled with speculation about Clinton’s motives and deepest desires, things Fournier can’t know because he actually hasn’t done any reporting. He’s interviewed no one, quotes no one, and does his psychoanalysis from afar. It’s embarrassing.

More importantly, he’s doing AP customers/members and their readers a disservice. These biases aren’t ideological but purely partisan and thus are completely useless to readers who want political news. In an ideal world, when choosing between a Republican and a Democrat, I don’t need to hear from someone who supports the Democrat and someone who supports the Republican, but from people who share goals I’m interested in (e.g. ending dependence on foreign oil, ending the war, preventing abortions, etc.) and then hearing how they measure the candidates among those goals.

Even in a color piece like this that’s supposed to give context to the events at the convention, Fournier should resist the temptation to add in sheer speculation about the motivations of people unless he has some mind reading device he hasn’t told the rest of us about. He’s literally making stuff up, which is pretty bad reporting.

I’m going to write more about this soon, but go read Benen’s piece at The Washington Monthly. He covers the ground on Fournier’s issues. Even mainstream outlets are starting to see some issues with Fournier’s reporting. What’s worse is that he’s in charge of their political reporting, so his hand is in a lot of the political coverage coming out of the AP.

Which brings me back to the headline of this piece.

One of the things I love about Coolspotters is that it’s pretty easy to quickly create pages for people or products that give people a quick background on a celebrity’s tastes and personal story. In one way, it’s a research tool where you can record the things you read about people in the public eye so that someone else can benefit from that too.

I’m also a political news nut on top of being a music and TV geek (or at least, music and TV geek wanna be). With the political conventions upon us, I know we’re going to see a lot of people in the news that I want to know more about. I’m sure I’m not alone. For example, I didn’t know much about Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama’s brother, so I started filling his profile out. (I didn’t know how much her brother has accomplished, by the way.)

If you see anything interesting about the convention speakers, including video, photos, or links (we call this “media” for simplicity), I’d appreciate it if you could add them to the 2008 Democratic National Convention profile on Coolspotters. Add the people, sponsors, etc. as spots to that profile. I’m a fan of the 2008 DNC profile, so I’ll see any spots or any media you add in my news feed. If you become a fan of that profile, too, you’ll see any media I or others add in your feed.

Keep in mind that this is Coolspotters and not a news site, so I’m interested in the personal stories of these folks, not the straight news. If you read anything interesting, like their musical tastes, any sports they played in high school or college, or any charities they work with, for example, add them as spots. Anything you find cool, add it.

Just go to the 2008 DNC page at Coolspotters and start adding spots to the profile. If we don’t have a page for the folks, sponsors, or other things you’re entering, the site will guide you through a simple process to create a page for them.

Adding media to profiles is also really easy. You can find a link on the left of every profile page that says “Add” (see the image below):

Click the word “Add” and it will walk you through adding web pages, videos, or photos to the profiles. That link is on Spot pages as well, though on the right as blue link.

We’ll be doing the same thing for the 2008 Republican National Convention speakers too, so feel free to add those. The same idea applies to any other celebrity or product you love. That’s the essence of the Coolspotters community, after all. We’re trying to create a place where people share info about the celebrities, products, and things they love.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message.

Thanks for helping out!

(crossposted at the Coolspotters blog)

This is a behind-the-scenes clip and message from Michelle Obama. She’s speaking tonight at 10:30 PM ET from the convention. I’m looking forward to this speech.

By the way, if the talking heads on the news networks are bugging you as much as they bug me, I strongly recommend watching the convention via the online stream. You can get to it at the Democratic Convention site. It’s worth installing the plugins. The technology used here is Move Networks’ very cool streaming video solution. It’s used by ABC for their online episode viewer. While at ESPN, I got a look a rundown of how it works from the EVP in charge of ABC’s online and technology businesses. This stuff is cool, clever, amazing. When the bandwidth is there, it’s been as clear as the HDTV downstairs even running full screen.

Very, very tempting. And, since Heidi claims she no longer reads my blog regularly, I can probably buy it, blog about it, and she doesn’t even need to know!

(Expecting a call from Heidi in 10… 9… 8… )

Here’s the link to the $100 off Kindle Offer. Maybe someone else wants one.

There is a catch, which is that you’ll need to get an Amazon credit card. I really don’t want another credit card, so I guess no Kindle for me.