Understanding 24/7

I just read an article on blogging, appropriately. The fellow interviewed is a habitual blogger. He goes on to explain many of the nuances of blogging, but what he focuses on mostly is time, or rather how the hobby of blogging consumes so much of it. His is almost a daily blog. Much of what he actually writes is his own material, but on many occasions he just posts links to other websites, including articles that are pertinent to the subject of his blog, which right now I forget.
Right now I am also not exactly sure of how many readers I still have on this blog. The internet is a tricky thing, especially when used as a mechanism for communication. Like a daily newspaper, you have to have constant change. What people read today they don't want to read tomorrow, or in some cases even a few hours from now. That might be why print media is suffering at the hands of the internet. If people are trully hungry for news, and sports and scores are a good example, they can practically get up-to-the-minute accounts on numerous websites of their choosing. None of us should be surprised what a difference this has made in our country and world over the last decade. It has been particularly interesting to watch the presidential elections/primaries this year, as the polls change daily, one day McCain leads Obama, the next Obama leads him. An ill-advised comment is made and webcast and the polls dip. The effect of some information, it seems, it instant.
I question to what extent our own situation in Grand Ronde might change if we were subject to this kind of ongoing scrutiny. My personal guess is either the politics would be cleaner, our Council would behave better, and more members would be involved, or there would be a complete crackdown on the coverage, kind of like what we've seen happen in places like China or the Soviet Union.
I will undoubtedly sound like a broken record when saying this, but members would be very alarmed over what gets said and done on a daily basis that would forever change their perception of what they know about our Tribe. I don't want people to think we are in chaos over here, but once again certain incidents recently have left me at a loss for words. Nothing that would change people's lives, but the kind of things you have to at least shake your head at, if not in disgust then confusion.
It is funny that the general idea out here is that we, as Tribal leaders are 24/7, because we are not covered like other politicians 24/7. If we were, my own suspicions are everywhere Tribal members would be familiarizing themselves with YouTube. You see, we consider ourselves working 24/7, but not covered and held accountable for what we do 24/7. And while our meetings are generally open to the public, we rarely get taken to task for our decisions or comments, some of which can be doozies, outside of Wednesday night meetings or General Council meetings. It is the time away from those meetings, I believe that many of the most critical decisions or historical turns of events are happening. We just don't have the press corps to report that.
I really hope that one day we can webcast every meeting, and record every word spoken on the record, either publicly or in chambers, in front of only staff. Some day, I think, some historian will be listening to all of our work sessions, and Council meetings. And he'll laugh some times at what he hears.