Speaking Of Paying Pundits For Support…

  •  January 13, 2005

While Oliver Willis and other lefty bloggers carry on about Armstrong Williams it comes out that the Howard Dean campaign paid two major left-wing blogs for support (via Instapundit).

In this past election, at least a few prominent bloggers were paid as consultants by candidates and groups they regularly blogged about. . . .
On Dean’s campaign, we paid Markos [The Daily Kos] and Jerome Armstrong [MyDD] as consultants, largely in order to ensure that they said positive things about Dean. We paid them over twice as much as we paid two staffers of similar backgrounds, and they had several other clients.
While they ended up also providing useful advice, the initial reason for our outreach was explicitly to buy their airtime. To be very clear, they never committed to supporting Dean for the payment –

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  • http://www.captainnormal.org/ Don Myers

    Rob, don’t you ever get tired of being ill-informed?

  • http://www.captainnormal.org/ Don Myers

    You just absolutely, positively refuse to take any resposnsiblity for doing your own research or supporting your own arguments, don’t you Rob?

    It’s lucky for you you went to school in Jesusland—we northeastern intellectuals don’t let students get away with that.

    And just for the record, I’ve given you and Seth dozens of links over the past months—but I got tired of getting your standard “Well it’s totally biased because it’s not from The Moonie Times so I’m gonna stick my fingers in my ears and go la-la-la-la-la-la” response, so I quit.

  • Andrew

    Don,
    I don’t have a problem with you disagreeing or debating with Rob, as I’m sure he doesn’t mind one bit at all. The only problem is that you bully people if they don’t share your opinions, instead of a serious debate. Why must you resort to petty insults? It isn’t going to make anyone see, or even attempt to see, things from your perspective.

    Another thing, why must you insult Rob for being from “Jesusland”. I understand the whole “Northeastern intellectual”, being from the Northeast, viewpoint of being superior to the rest of the states. We’re taught that and like to believe it, but is there any real evidence that it is true?

  • http://www.dakotapundit.com/ Dakota Pundit

    Well, not to take away from Don’s tantrum or anything, but here’s what I’m waiting for: a standard, online “endorsement disclosure” — kind of like a Creative Commons License. It should be something that bloggers could link to and adapt, and readers could spot at a glance.

  • Seth Yantiss

    Hey, I was born on Cape Cod, Mass, and lived there till I was 13. I moved to Richmond, New Hampshire and then went to 11th and 12th grade in Saxtons River, VT… I moved South when I turned 20.

    But Don doesn’t think much of me… kinda throws his “Northeastern Intellectual” BS out the window, eh??

    Or perhaps I’m just the exception to his rule… ;)

  • http://slarrow.blogspot.com/ slarrow

    An endorsement disclosure…what a great idea!

    (Of course, it could also become something of a status thing. Us little fish don’t need no stinkin’ disclosure ‘cos no one knows who we are! *wink*)

    Seriously, though, an accurate disclosure could do a lot for establishing credibility of a source (especially if they forthrightly stated their biases on that or a similar document.)

  • http://www.wizbangblog.com/ Jay Tea

    Rob, notice how Don and Oliver don’t address the discrepancy between Kos’ disclosure (“I will not discuss my role within the Dean campaign, other than to say it’s technical, not message or strategy”) and Zonkette’s claim (“in order to ensure that they said positive things about Dean” and “the initial reason for our outreach was explicitly to buy their airtime”)?

    So, Don/Oliver… care to tell us which statement is true, and which is “no longer operative?”

    J.

  • http://limeshurbet.com/ Robert

    ROB – You told your readers you didn’t know whether they told their readers, and those like me, went and searched for ourselves, which I am just fine doing.

    Only lazy people expect everything to be done for them, DON. But, you being a Democrat, I am not at all surprised by your expectation that everything be handed to you on a silver platter.

  • http://www.captainnormal.org/ Don Myers

    Shifting the blame off yourself—get you! You’re just like Dubya!

  • http://www.captainnormal.org/ Don Myers

    Kid, you’re the one who started your post with “I don’t read The Daily Kos or MyDD regularly so I can’t say one way or the other, but I wonder if either of those guys bothered to tell their readers about these payments,”

    Translation: “I don’t know and I’m not gonna find out, but let me use it as the basic of my poorly-constructed six-paragraph argument.

    When it was pointed out that 1) your initial premise was completely wrong, 2) your conclusion was invalid, and 3) you didn’t do your homework, you become defensive and start trying to shift the blame.

    Yet I’m the one who’s childish?

    That’s the stroy your gonna go with?

  • Seth Yantiss

    OoooooHmmmmmm OoooooHmmmmmm :::chanting quietly to myself:::

    Don is not worth the strife or struggle. He refuses to provide context for his rants. He insinuates at lies and distortions; yet will provide no shred of evidence. He reminds me of Jesse Jackson, who speaks without proof until he finds someone who believes him based only upon his skin color.

    I’m Still waiting for the lies on This post:

    http://sayanythingblog.com/2005/01/12/the-memos-are-fakes/

    Proof “Up the wazoo” on this one:
    http://sayanythingblog.com/?year=2004&monthnum=10&day=21&hour=22&minute=00&second=36

    And, you never told me which VVAJK tale was disproved… not disputed, disproved on this one:
    http://sayanythingblog.com/2004/10/21/my-big-beef-with-kerry/

  • http://www.oliverwillis.com/ Oliver

    Everyone already knew Markos and Jerome did consulting work for Dean. No news here.

  • http://www.captainnormal.org/ Don Myers

    Here’s an idea, Rob—before you post an entire rant cluck-clucking about “I wonder if either of those guys bothered to tell their readers about these payments,” why not go to the sites in question, spend five minutes searching, and for once in your life DO YOUR OWN FUCKING HOMEWORK?

  • http://sayanythingblog.com robport

    Well…I’m not entirely certain there was any wrong-doing now that I’ve had a chance to take a closer look at the whole situation. I updated both my posts on this subject last night to reflect that.

    Dean’s campaign was already well-known for pioneering the use of blogging as a political device. The idea that Kos and Armstrong helped with this isnt much of a stretch. Both run excellent (if politically wrong-headed) blogs.

    Did they/do they do some extra cheer-leading for Dean since they got paid? Probably. But they did disclose it.

    Probably the only thing left the run down in this story are the other bloggers referred to in Zonkette’s post.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com robport

    Well Don, why don’t we turn it around and say that maybe you should, for once, provide some evidence when you come here and tell me I’m wrong instead of resorting to the “look it up yourself” tactic.

    That’s not very convincing.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com robport

    Another thing to keep in mind about such a disclosure is that any blogger using one loses their “plausible deniability” out. If they’ve filled out a disclaimer which supposedly lists all of their benefactors, etc. then later, should they be caught taking money from a source they haven’t reported, they can’t wriggle out. All such sources should have been on the disclaimer.

    Of course, no big bloggers actually taking such money would fill out any such thing.

    I wonder if this blog is popular enough that it needs a disclaimer…

  • http://sayanythingblog.com robport

    Like I pointed out in the post, I don’t read those blogs regularly so I don’t know if they’ve informed their readers of payments or not. If either of you had a link to either one of them informing readers of the situation I would gladly update my post to reflect it.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com robport

    Don, either provide some evidence to add to this conversation or kindly shut up.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com robport

    Baloney Don. You’ve given us links on two, maybe three occasions and each time your links lead to clearly partisan or inaccurate sources.

    Enough with the run around. Either you’re interested in discussing this matter or you’re not. You’re attempts to muddy the water and confuse the issue are childish.

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