Kara Swisher’s BoomTown

When you’ve got access to the most influential people in an industry, you might as well bring your video camera along. Kara Swisher of BoomTown — which is part of AllThingsD, which is part of the Wall Street Journal, which is part of Dow Jones, which is part of News Corp. — has incredible access as a long-time reporter in the technology business, and when she started blogging last year she brought along a tiny Flip camera.

Her shaky, low-budget videos, often posted in the wee hours of the morning after some exclusive party or event, are candid and direct. Swisher never turns around the camera on herself, but rather jabs it in her subject’s faces, disarming them with both her filming style and her probing questions.

Swisher’s not the least bit afraid to interrupt her subjects if they’re bulls***ting her with marketing-speak, and she usually has a witty comeback, like in this video of another high-falutin’ dinner party, where she tells investor Ross Levinsohn, “Now you’re kissing up to me. I like that in a man.”

Through BoomTown, Swisher has set an example for reporters (including this one) to just get out there and videoblog, rather than worrying about production skills and making the lighting perfect. However, I do think the videos are a little too low-budget to justify the recent addition of a 15-second pre-roll ad — meh, I’d rather just skip it.