The Internet is specifically like reality television. Much has been made of the “transparency” of Change.gov — but it actually is to real transparency what reality TV is to reality.

A Republican consultant for online strategy, Patrick Ruffini, offers a critique of the Obama approach to open government being promoted via Change.org.

First, he makes an important point about the coming of age of internet in terms of politics:

“The Internet is now a mass medium. More people watched the Sarah Palin SNL skits on Hulu than live on television. Obama videos were watched for 1 billion minutes on YouTube. That works out to about 7 minutes for every American that voted on November 4th, or the equivalent of 14 thirty second spots.

The Internet has become television. Or, at least, there is now a powerful streak within the Internet that allows broadly popular candidates with mass (not niche) appeal to survive. This has coincided with the rise of web video, which allows the pecking order of celebrity in the offline world to be recreated online.”

And here is the crux of the critique:

“The Internet is specifically like reality television. Much has been made of the “transparency” of Change.gov — but it actually is to real transparency what reality TV is to reality. Submitting your story on why the health system sucks does not allow you to discuss alternatives to some sort of nationalization of the health system under Obama. It’s using Web 2.0 and the illusion of openness to support an existing policy position which is unlikely to change. The politicians are using the Internet to justify what they were going to do anyway. This is very shrewd on their part, but a far cry from what transparency advocates say they are for.”