June 02, 2005

6/2: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

The Hotline's Blogometer takes the daily temperature of the blogosphere. For more information on the thinking behind this feature, go to the end of the story.

Although the Blogometer focuses primarily on domestic politics and campaigns, we must first mention that one of the largest stories making its way around the blogosphere is the Dutch vote to reject the EU constitution. However, it is only an issue on the conservative blogs, or more accurately (and interestingly) on blogs that supported the Iraq invasion. Worthwhile posts are available Daniel Drezner and Secular Blasphemy.

In an interesting development for both WH politics and the blogosphere, John Edwards invited a number of well-known bloggers to his home in Georgetown for dinner. Most are staying mum, but a acknowledge the meeting on their blogs.

Just as the FEC is about to stop accepting public comments on the subject of regulating political blogs, a coalition of bloggers on the left and right get together and send in a letter.

Meanwhile, a blogger breaks another news story about a shake-up at a venerable journalistic institution.

TRACKBACKS: Deep, Deep Trouble

Where the blog swarm is headed, who's taking part, and what they're saying:

• The most popular link of late last p.m./this a.m., according to Memeorandum and Technorati, is to Washington Post asst. managing editor Bob Woodward's front-page story on "How Mark Felt Became Deep Throat."
  
  

  >> At the Huffington Post, Richard Bradley (nee Blow) asks: "The circumstantial evidence mounts that Mark Felt was not lucid enough to decide on his own to out himself as Deep Throat." Lefty Eric Alterman, after praising Felt: "Let's add a few complications, however. Mark Felt was a liar. ... My point here is not that he was good, but also bad. My point is that there are far worse things than lying, particularly in politics." After a reader wrote Talking Points Memo about a softball Chris Matthews interview with G. Gordon Liddy, TPM asks, "can anyone send me some particularly rich and egregious examples of chat-meisters on the various shows getting crooks and felons like Colson, Liddy et al. to dump on Mark Felt without pressing them on their own crimes?"
  

  >> A few conservative bloggers circulate an '02 post at Talking Points Memo that begins: "Oh, man, is Deep Throat ever Pat Buchanan!!!" At The Corner, Jonah Goldberg writes: "It's a big story to be sure, and I'm interested. But it offers the press the greatest opportunity to do what they love: talk about themselves. Over and over again. This story will be around for a while."

WAR ON TERRORISM: Gitmo And Get Democracy?

Iraq hawks mostly stand with Bush against Amnesty's charges against the Guantanamo detention center. Right-leaning Publius Pundit searches Google News for "'human rights abuses xxx' where xxx is the name of a country." He finds 2,740 stories related to the U.S., and among others, 824 for China, 374 for Iran, 142 for Saudi Arabia. "So while the press covered 2,740 stories on American 'human rights abuses,' it only covered with 2,917 stories combined those of some of the most degenerate regimes on the planet. Where, exactly, do the priorities of Amnesty International and the mainstream press lie?"

• Austin Bay, on Amnesty comparing Gitmo to a "gulag": "The collective leadership of Amnesty ... in pursuit of a public relations coup -- has demonstrated an inexcusable historical blindness. The false frame of moral equivalency compounds their mistake."
• Neo-libertarian QandO stands apart, making the "case for widespread torture, and present a solution to it."
• At liberal Gadflyer, Jonathan Weiler uses the dispute to criticize the Washington Post for implicitly siding with the Bush admin. He writes: "Amnesty used inappropriate language. But, the Post's ongoing failure to call the administration to account ... is a far more serious failing."

WHITE HOUSE '08: From Breck Girl To Blog Boy

Garance Franke-Ruta at Tapped: "Edwards isn't just taking to blogging like a fish to water over at TPMCafe, he's also doing some pretty serious outreach to those who occupy the new media space more generally. Last night the former vice-presidential candidate had a bunch of the political bloggers over for dinner at his D.C. house, I'm told, to meet with him, his internet team, and his wife. Attendees included: Taegan Goddard, Matt Stoller, Stirling Newberry, Ezra Klein, and Oliver Willis, among others. Focusing on the blogosphere is a pretty smart way for Edwards to keep his name in print and before the eyes of the mainstream media over the next few years."

• At his blog, Klein writes: "I just want to be clear that ... I was not her source for it. It's worth saying publicly because I thought the dinner was off the record. When I argued that case ... I was told that the dinner's existence was on the record, just not the content. Sigh. I clearly have much to learn about the ways of Washington."

The Russ Feingold for President blog returns after a 6-week hiatus coinciding with the divorce announcement: "[T]hanks to everyone who's still coming here and still believes in the Feingold for President cause."

Beltway Dem Ed Kilgore notes Sen. Sam Brownback's (R-KS) "use of Holocaust imagery" re: abortion and writes that Brownback has almost fully "internalized the America-as-Nazi-Germany logic of the most serious and extreme anti-abortion advocates."

BOLTON: Bush's Paula Jones?

MyDD's Chris Bowers links to a Douglas Jehl piece in the International Herald Tribune on the hold-up over U.N. Amb.-designate John Bolton, and writes: "It is growing increasingly obvious that the White House is not releasing its information on Bolton for reasons that have nothing to do with Bolton himself. Instead, it would appear that many Bush campaign contributors have illegally dealt weapons to totalitarian regimes, including those in the 'axis of evil.' ... The Bolton fight could lead to a huge scandal, the sort of thing that could drop Bush and the Republicans to new lows in terms of approval and outlook for 2006."

BLOGGERS VS. THE WORLD: Go FEC Yourself

Right-left cooperation The Online Coalition on 6/2 sent a letter to FEC general counsel Brad Deutch, a day before the end of the FEC's comments period. Headed by liberal Michael Bassik and conservative Mike Krempasky, they write: "The electorate is best served when the Commission crafts rules that remove actual corruption while encouraging more participation, opinions and choices to permeate the democratic process."

Conservative blogger signatories include Kevin Aylward from Wizbang, Patrick Hynes from Ankle Biting Pundits, and Edward Morrissey from Captain's Quarters. Liberal signatories include Jerome Armstrong from MyDD and Peter Daou from the Daou Report.

BLOGS VS. THE MSM: Is A CJR-Nation Merger Next?

On 5/31, right-leaning NYC blogger "DavidM" wrote: "Imagine this scenario: A supposedly unbiased publication is being run by someone with a clear political bias, and that person is not listed on the publication's masthead. It's just the type of story that media watchdog Columbia Journalism Review would love to uncover. Only in this case CJR is the perpetrator. This blog has learned that Victor Navasky, publisher, editorial director and apparently co-owner of iconic left wing journal The Nation, is running CJR; however he is not on the masthead. CJR executive editor Michael Hoyt said in a phone conversation today with this blog, 'I think he should be on the masthead as soon as possible.'" By 6/1, Editor and Publisher posted a story on the subject, crediting "DavidM" for the discovery. On 6/1, "DavidM" explained how the story came to be.

A blogger at The Left Coaster brings together elements from the New York Times' Dan Okrent/Paul Krugman debate (see 6/1 Blogometer) and Deep Throat: "This is the corrupt media that is the long-time dream of the Far Right. This is the media which Nixon probably dreamed about -- where his fellow crooks or brown shirts serve as "experts" to trash the guy who helped bring Nixon down. This is the illiberal corrupt media that Okrent enabled during his tenure."

INTRODUCING: Another Day, Another Blog

John Hawkins from Right Wing News has a new site: Conservative Grapevine, a message board linking to blog posts of interest. He explains: "Each day it's going to feature links to some of the best posts made by right-of-center bloggers. No muss, no fuss, no long spiel, just intriguing posts for busy conservatives who -- unlike me -- don't routinely read 90+ blogs a day."

MISCELLANY: Lawyers, Blogs And Money

• Raw Story circulates an excerpt of an upcoming Rolling Stone review with Senate Min. Leader Harry Reid, wherein Reid insists that Bush is a "liar." Lefties at Swing State Project and MyDD agree: "Bush lied, people died."
• Libertarian UCLA prof Eugene Volokh notes that AFL-CIO member Nat'l Writers Union has "proudly filed an amicus brief urging the same result that Justice [Janice] Brown endorsed [in the controversial Aguilar v. Avis Rent-a-Car decision]. Now of course the AFL-CIO need not agree with everything its member unions say. But if a member union takes a particular pro-free-speech view, it does seem odd that the AFL-CIO ... would label that view 'troubling and extreme.'"
• Liberal Whiskey Bar makes the latest case for a housing bubble in the U.S.: "It's easy to imagine ways in which the bubble could burst -- as it eventually must. As always, the most likely scenario involves higher interest rates, either as a result of a more resolute monetary policy from the Federal Reserve or a sudden change of direction by our foreign creditors."
• Making its way around the net is an off-color San Francisco 49ers video -- reported on by Editor and Publisher -- is available here.
• Liberal Crooked Timber is "irritated" with France.
• Conservative Balloon Juice points out that several "activist" judge who ruled against Arthur Andersen were conservative GOP appointees.

BLOGGER SPOTLIGHT: Malkin It For All It's Worthy

Today the blogometer talks to righty Michelle Malkin, author of the eponymous blog at MichelleMalkin.com.

What is your full name?

Full pen name is Michelle Malkin. Full maiden/legal name is Michelle Maglalang.

What is your age?

34

Where did you grow up?

Absecon, New Jersey

Where do you live now?

Montgomery Co., MD

What is your occupation? Have you ever worked on a political campaign or for the mainstream media?

I am a full-time journalist. I briefly worked for the [Michael] Huffington for Senate campaign in the fall of 1994. I worked for the Seattle Times from 1996-99 and the Los Angeles Daily News from 1992-94. I did an internship for NBC News in 1992. I've been working as a FNC contributor since 2000. My syndicated column appears in almost 200 MSM newspapers across the country.

When did you start blogging and why?

June 2004. My columns appear once a week. That's 52 columns a year limited to 600-700 words each. The column runs without pictures, documents, audio, or video. I started my blog mainly because I wanted to be able to report and publish pieces of any length on any topic at any time without delay. No limits.

What has been your favorite post, or favorite story to write about, in that time?

My favorite was the Eason Jordan story. I was the first to publish comments by two of the people who were present when Jordan made his controversial remarks (Barney Frank and David Gergen).

Describe your typical blogging schedule. And what is your average output?

I blog all day every weekday, with less blogging on the weekends. I usually do at least 10 posts per weekday.

Who is your favorite political blogger? Favorite non-political blogger?

Political blogger: Ed Morrissey, Captain's Quarters. Non-political blogger: Brian Stelter, TV Newser.

Who is your favorite mainstream media columnist?

Mark Steyn

What is your favorite television news program, either network or cable?

"O'Reilly Factor"

What MSM-produced websites (i.e. newspapers, magazines) do you visit on a daily basis?

Washington Post, New York Times

What non-MSM websites (i.e. blogs) do you visit on a daily basis?

Blogs:Ace of Spades , Austin Bay, Captain's Quarters, Instapundit, JustOneMinute, Little Green Footballs, Outside the Beltway, Power Line, Right Wing News, TV Newser. I track about a dozen others on BlogLines. Others: Drudge Report, Lucianne, Free Republic

How often, or do you ever, read a newspaper in its dead-tree (i.e. print) form?

Once a month.

How do you see the new media and old media affecting and influencing each other in the next five years?

MSM will continue to dominate breaking news; blogs will increasingly dominate media criticism and general op-ed/commentary.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Capitaleftism

Lefty John Aravosis, on the "left's fear of money": "Whether it's concern over the heads of liberal non-profits or big corporations making too much money, or snarky comments I get whenever I try to raise money off the site or, God forbid, actually take a vacation, there's a certain disdain amongst a certain segment of the left for having or spending money in any way beyond bare subsistence, and I'm trying to figure out why. ... I, for one, worry that it's something that holds us back. A fear of success, a fear of money, a fear of living well, a fear of becoming too much like the people we're fighting ... That somehow by wanting to make money ourselves, we've debased ourselves and our cause and become "like them."

LEST WE FORGET: Even Better Than The Real Thing

Birdparty "posts and answers personal ads," and then posts to the blog the "very best conversations." You can see where this is going: the pictures have been anonymized, but "Birdparty" is a fake. The site contains graphic language, and may be off-putting for some. But if you can handle it, the classic, now-retired, and oft more-vulgar Amber Forever Chatlogs is a must-read. For a non-vulgar example, read this.

Posted by at June 2, 2005 12:00 PM