More on How Overpaid We All Are in the B-Sphere.

by Little Miss Attila on April 22, 2009

Paid? Some people get paid?

Everyone seems to agree that there is a sharp left/right divide about how monetized blogs are. A Beltway-based source passes this along on our collective whine-o-ramic meltdown yesterday:

You should compare the top Left and Right blogs. You’ll notice the uncomfortable pattern that the Left’s A-list is filled with people who are getting paid to blog. No, it’s not the free market at work: Left-wing organizations like the Center for American Progress pay bloggers (ThinkProgress, Matthew Yglesias). There’s also Media Matters. Talking Points Memo appears to combine ad revenue with donations and sugar daddies, whereas The Huffington Post loses venture capitalists’ money.

Right-leaning organizations need to take the online world more seriously by funding content producers (bloggers, video wizards, software developers). At the very least, money that’s wasted on $1 million cable TV ad buys could be used for buying blogads on thousands of sites. When it’s full-time bloggers on one side vs. part-time on the other, it’s no surprise at all that the Right is behind.

And:

This has all been said among DC online people for a while. The problem is it’s not penetrating to leaders who control the money.

Imagine the trouble Stacy McCain could cause if the Media Research Center, Accuracy in Media, or some other conservative group covered his salary and expenses?

Yet you’ll keep on seeing million-dollar cable ad buys that last a few weeks and are forgotten afterward.

Hm. I don’t suppose we could get the pursestrings people to re-read read A Room of One’s Own, substituting “center-right” or “conservative” for “women” and “female,” could we? And replacing “books” and “writing” with “movement-building” and “activism”?

“No”? How do you mean that?

Meanwhile, a tongue-in-cheek response:

I’m not sure what Robert Stacy and Little Miss Attila are complaining about. My blog bucks are rolling in fine. In fact, I think the numbers’s are a bit on the low end. How else could I have taken an extended weekend off and visited Kiawah Island?

. . . [I]t was right after the Richmond Tea Party. I had to met with Dick Army and Newt and debrief them on how well the astroturfed event went over. It’s amazing how cleaned up a horde of homeless folks be after a promised bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 and a Big Mac value meal. It was more expensive getting them clothes from Goodwill to make them look presentable. But cost is no object when you are going for appearance.

See, astroturfing is easy.

Anyway, back at the resort. Sean Hannity showed up and we went for a round of golf. Then — like any evil good Republican — the ritualistic sacrifice of the goat. Then more golf.

Right now we are working on the new subliminal messages Fox News will be sending out to the few people in the crowds that weren’t homeless. The obvious message will be, “Keep on watching Fox News”. The others will make themselves obvious soon enough.

He forgot to write out the villain laugh . . .

Read the whole thing. Then cry into your store-brand coffee and reheated bargain Danish.

{ 2 trackbacks }

Moe Lane » ‘I’m a subscriber to revival.’
April 22, 2009 at 6:43 pm
What SHE said — Cynthia Yockey
April 23, 2009 at 10:24 am

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

Cynthia Yockey, A Conservative Lesbian April 22, 2009 at 1:49 pm

Why, I believe on March 30 I DID imagine the trouble Stacy McCain would cause if conservative organizations had the sense to pay him!

Cynthia

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Robert Stacy McCain April 23, 2009 at 8:59 am

Of course, it’s the expenses that are the sticking point in my negotiations with the Right-Wing Billionaires. My idea — “Give me an AmEx card, pay the bills, and don’t ask questions” — is not exactly their idea. One can imagine the phone conversation:
“What’s this? $1,500 for fireworks?”
“But that was necessary to my reporting.”
“And this bill for $60-a-bottle single-malt whiskey?”
“Again, necessary to my reporting.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Look, if you want your sources to dish out the really good information, you’ve got to get them relaxed, off-guard, friendly. So we threw a Fourth of July shindig at the lake, plied the congressman with fine whiskey and . . . Well, haven’t you figured out who that ‘unnamed source’ was?”

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Michael April 23, 2009 at 3:41 pm

For what it’s worth, voluntary donations are part of the free market at work. People value something (like blogs of high quality or desired political views) enough to give money for it. This is called demand.

Aside from individuals, conservative groups like AEI have plenty of money. Thinkprogress or anyone else spending to support bloggers isn’t free market failure. What, you think they stole their money or something? They are just faster on the technological uptake.

How much do you think it costs AEI to keep John Bolton, John Yoo, Paul Wolfowitz etc. on retainer (as fellows/scholars)? Think they’d be broke without those stipends or honoraria?

Complain to them. Don’t try to make the free market in actions seem like socialism. Liberal advocacy groups aren’t the government.

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