That’s my prediction of what the Big Blog Stores are going to be saying when the new lefty blogosphere bursts on the scene suddenly.
That thought occured to me when MABlue drew my attention to the nasty innuendo in a post from John Aravosis that was highlighted on TalkLeft.
What is John going to say? That Hillary is a lesbian? Yeah, right, like we haven’t heard *that* before. And like we would care anyway. What about Bill? What more can they explore that we don’t already know that wasn’t printed in the NYTimes for our titillation? Yes, I think they’re empty threats. But it sure seems like the so-called progressive blogosphere is becoming unhinged over the merest possibility that Clinton could win OH and TX. What’s that all about? I mean, the stakes are high for us too but we’re not going around threatening people. The Big Blogs seem to have invested so much of their energy in pushing Obama down our throats it seems like they just can’t comprehend why their sheer willpower alone isn’t sufficient for him to win. It’s weird. It’s almost like the rest of us voters don’t have a right to exist. Am I interpreting this right?
You know what’s also strange? Granted this is a little outpost in the middle of nowhere but we’ve managed to get almost 36000 hits since I opened the doors and I get very, very few Obamaphiles through here. So, are they just hoping that if they ignore me and Corrente and some of the other nascent blogs that we’ll just go away? Or do they have a blind spot where the neutral to pro-Hillary blogs are concerned?
Someday, they may wake up and find that their traffic has been siphoned off to TalkLeft, MyDD and Corrente, that Anglachel is the new Digby and lots of little blogs like this one sprang up because there was a need that they pretended so hard didn’t exist that they bought their own spin. The ad revenue will be like water, seeking the path of least resistance and the blogs that lost their heads will be marginalized. Maybe FireDogLake will even get the recognition it deserves. At least FDL has taken pains to be fair even if it occasionally misses.
For Kos and Josh and Matt and Chris, there may be a rude awakening.
Filed under: Blogosphere | Tagged: Big Blog Stores, rude awakening. |
The Confluence 
I think that about 75 or so of those 36000 hits are mine and I’ve just discovered your place about two weeks ago.
Thanks for putting out your shingle. I’ve noticed that I do not go to DKos, OpenLeft, HuffingtonPost or TPM anymore. They certainly have marginalized themselves by making anyone not on the Obama bandwagon very unwelcome. My top hangouts are now Riverdaughter, TaylorMarsh, NoQuarter, Atrios and TalkLeft. You guys are the best.
It’ll be interesting on how all of this washes out after both the primary and the general elections. Will the big boy blogs have fractured the Dem Blogosphere? Or can we look at it another way? Maybe the Feminists will have gain a new power and place on the blog. I think that DKos and TPM are going to rue the day that they drove away so many of their previous readers. What a bunch of knuckle heads.
On a personal note. I love your pic at the top of this blog. I’m originally from Braddock, about 15 minutes from Pittsburgh. I really miss the old place. Go Steelers.
Hi. I am glad that I was NEVER a regular visitor to DKos, HuffPost, TPM, or any of those other blogs. I just became a regular blog visitor in January when I had enough of the mainstream media and began searching for bloggers who supported Hillary. I am so glad for blogs like The Confluence, Anglachel’s Journal, Hillary is 44, and Taylor Marsh. All of you have kept me sane and gave me hope that there actually are people out there who still support Hillary.
This election has become much more than Hillary winning for me. I want her to prove all of these bloggers, MSNBC, and certain NYTimes columnists wrong. And I want there to be a new left blogosphere to develop that won’t resort to sexism the next time we have a woman run for president. I can’t wait to see these jerks go down whether it is when Hillary wins the nomination or when Obama loses to McCain in the general.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. The new progressive blogosphere needs to be much less centralized. I noticed a problem way early on. There was a tendency to prop up selected blogs in what seemed to me to be a high-school cliquish manner. That led, IMO, to less quality and more homogeneous thoughts–Orwell’s Animal Farm, if you will. I never entirely agreed with Kossacks, or FDLers or much of the lefty blogosphere. [Perhaps because I reject full-sail Libertarian Philosophy and though I could be considered “creative class”, I have friends struggling in the “worker class” who are smarter than even some of the folks I go to graduate school with. The elitism reeked and I was never drawn to that.]
Anyway, even though I enjoy you and Taylor and lambert and Susan Hu/Larry Johnson, we ought, ourselves, to be careful not to fall into the trap that TPM and co. did. I think the difference between the MSMblogs and the new lefty blogosphere was much more about the principles than the candidate. Obama, to his credit, swept many off their feet and principle–particularly anti-sexism, and strong progressive advocacy–was left at the door. Even though I have doubts about maintaining my Dem status, seeing folks fighting for principles does restore some of my faith.
I have been stunned that America Blog is so pro-BO considering his embrace of the homophobe minister BO moved around from rally to rally.
It’s another of the blogs that I try never to visit unless it’s to troll rate some ass.
What’s up with Firedoglake – I am having a hard time getting a read on them (although I confess not to reading it everyday.)?
“What’s up with Firedoglake – I am having a hard time getting a read on them (although I confess not to reading it everyday.)?”
I used to live at FDL but now I make it there maybe twice a week. Sometimes I wonder is Jane is self-censoring herself so as not to rock the boat with the A-List boy bloggers. I’m still trying to figure out what is up. Maybe she just wants to be a place were they remain above the fray. But I’m like you, it’s really hard to get a handle on what is really going on.
I cant figure out what makes blogs tick unless I hang one for a long time…and i tend not to do that – I like to go around and try new places so I never stay too long at one place. Just my curious nature. Bbut it makes me look like a troll because until lately, I could never remeber what silly name I had come up with tho use…like my cats name or an old dog I had years ago.
It is nice that this blog has taken off so well…
lisadawn: They *have* tried to remain above the fray and I know that they’ve struggled from time to time to not take sides. On the whole though, I think they’ve exerted greater self-control than the others. I particularly enjoy Scarecrow’s posts. They are uniformly high quality. And I will never forget that they were the avant garde with respect to the CT primary and keeping the Plame Affair in the news. Jane deserves much more credit than she gets even if she does occasionally go off the rails.
But I’m with you. Since I was banished from DailyKos, I’ve found that the blogosphere has a lot more tasty diversity than I thought. I guess a lot of us got stuck in a rut until we were forced to go elsewhere.
TPM is very worthwhile, but Josh just misjudged the moment and thought Obama was a done deal that he’d better go with. I don’t think he has anything invested (in any sense of the word) in Obama as opposed to Clinton, and he’s probably kicking himself.
Blogs like Huffington Post and DailyKos sound so mainstream and part of what is considered to be “journalism” these days that they should’ve known better not to support one democratic candidate over the other. Blogs like the Confluence should be able to participate on these sites without being banished. Individual bloggers like Anglachel’s Journal have a right to post whatever she wants but the difference is that she doesn’t get millions of hits each day or get mentioned as real news on MSNBC. It’s really ridiculous and I’m very disappointed in the way these “progressives” have done everything in their power to villify a Democratic candidate more than any of the Republicans in the last several months. Really appalling and I hope they all pay when Hillary is elected president!
Rich: I’d like to believe that and for all we know, Josh might have bet on the right horse. But I just find that he’s like all of the others. The minute there’s a new trend, he defenestrates his logic and then follows the crowd. It’s been a real disappointment to watch. The latest thing over Clinton’s “As far as I know” comment was really over the top. I can’t read him now and take him seriously. It actually has nothing to do with Clinton. It’s more a feeling like he’s really let me down. I expected better from him. Heck, I think I even sent him money early on. I dunno. The money I sent to Media Matters was a better investment.
I agree riverdaughter. TPM used to be one of my daily stops and over time I started to see the shift and the bias – and, yes, sometimes, nastiness, – toward Clinton. When I “freed myself” of the big orange satan, I left a lot of similar blogs behind.
I only go “over there” to get a good laugh these days…oh, and to poke a stick in some of their eyes, too.
Sorry. I confess!
We will call ourselves the reality-based bloggers.
That was me, donna darko, of Hillary1000.
Let’s remember Josh, Kevin Drum and other latter-day obamites (Yglesias, I think) bought into the Iraq invasion with the same all-in enthusiasm and same all-out blindness to all the red flags.
Same dynamics. Same process.
They’ve all bought in to the circular Hillary-is-evil logic. Looks like they all bought in to the race-baiting flim-flam.
Hillary is a threat to our way of life, and we can’t let her smoking gun be a mushroom cloud. Or Something.
Same dynamics. Same process. Same regrets later, probably.
Hello … 😉 .. hey I just saw that Jeralyn over at Talk Left gave You a nice mention. Well deserved .. !
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/3/3/2127/63617
my reading has gone back to the days when I first started paying a lot of attention to blogs – I knew nothing and no one .. I found my own stuff .. then when I found the Ofluff – the good , reliable ones took a back seat .. No more – tpm – yikes – gone over the edge just like Ofluff , imo. all of them who have been a part of this Hillary hate and extreme misogyny & unfairness in the media I am simply not in the least bit interested in any more – Yes , I still go to Ofluff – to find Allegra’s posts and make sure I recommend & tip etc.. but that is just about it for them .. I also think Jane has been fair etc… I still go there everyday , in the morn and eve.
Another Lady I never see mentioned that I found on my own when I first started this stuff is TENNESSEE GUERILLA WOMEN – She has been fantastic in our fight for Hillary and she is far from a slouch on any progressive issue ..
http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/
Love my new hangout – The Confluence – 😉
Thanks again so much for starting this .
whoa .. big day tomorrow .. my stomach is all ready getting nervous .. lol .
Same song, Ron…second verse. And the melody lingers on…
I have a feeling, tho, before this party is over, some people will be singing a different tune…maybe something by Muddy Waters.
They’re going batshit crazy over at the Daily Obama because Hillary has supposedly endorsed McCain over Obama. There are several diaries on it, but I couldn’t even bring myself to open them. HILLARY IS SATAN is really all you need to know.
I am about to leave the office, but I have miles to go before I sleep — hearing tomorrow and not yet quite prepared. It’s going to be a media circus.
(Must.remember.to.wear.slimming.black.pantsuit.)
I’ll be offline all day and early evening. For those of you working in Texas in Ohio, or following the news closely, I salute you. I will be trying to keep a little anti-immigrant snot from harassing undocumented immigrants.
Forbes came out with a piece stating that the Nafta thing is not true sorta defending Obama
“But the Canadian Embassy in Washington released a statement essentially backing up the Obama camp’s version of the meeting between adviser Austan Goolsbee and officials at the Canadian consulate in Chicago.
“There was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private, including about NAFTA,” the embassy statement said. “We deeply regret any inference that may have been drawn to that effect.”
read the whole thing
http://www.forbes.com/reuters/feeds/reuters/2008/03/03/2008-03-04T000047Z_01_N03391783_RTRIDST_0_CANADA-OBAMA-UPDATE-1.html
It’s hard to catch a break these days..
I must admit that I am a member of a cult. It is the “I will not give those guys even one hit”cult. Sometimes, a stupid things one of them says will be noted and I will mistakenly click on to the site and get really mad at myself.. I guess it is my background in advertising and my realization that every click is counted on the web. If you want to read it , go ahead but pls. beware that they sell every click to advertisers. I am much happier now that I click on sites that do not raise my blood pressure.
Here’s the link for the Hillary 1000 that Donna Darko and I blog at:
http://www.hillary1000.wordpress.com
Yay riverdaughter!!
Found this at Slate:
http://www.slate.com/features/delegatecounter/
you can put in whatever scenario you like and presto, you get the total pledged delegates.
Hello from Canada! Great to find your blog 🙂
I’ve been *so* dismayed at the violent and hateful tone directed at Sen. Clinton. It’s been a real eye-opener. I can’t imagine I would explain this phenomenon if I had a daughter–it’s really not supposed to be this way!
We have serious gender imbalances in our House of Commons and at the provincial level of politics, here in Canada. When a female Member of Parliament crossed the floor in 2005 (from the Conservative to the Liberal benches) she was called a “whore” in about a thousand different ways (mostly by Conservatives). It’s disgusting.
I’m crossing my fingers that the Kos-fratboys will actually ACCEPT a Clinton win, in any of the remaining states, without accusing her of fraud or something dreadful 😦
Please keep the faith! And thanks for blogging!
GDK
Nice post!
BTW, I have been checking blog traffics on Alexa (well, take that with a huge grain is salt… for variety of reasons). What I see is very encouraging. Blogs such as TalkLeft and TaylorMarsh has really taken off. Few of bigger blogs (among them Washingtonmonthly, with Kevin Drum) have their traffic steadily decreasing, and now TalkLeft is catching up (or has caught up) nicely with them. The traffic from the biggest blogs have been steaily, but this is the period for traffic to shoot up, since it’s the primaries.
When this settles a bit, I would love that sound of implosion coming from big places. HuffPuff will just go back to Paris Hilton, but not sure how others will fare.
The dot.bomb first now the blog bomb, they proved they are neither journalists or progressives. Simple