From kos:
This is old stuff and a non-issue if you were running for office why not help the only real media out there anymore? The issue is with people HIDING this stuff and passing the reports off as legit. -Not the case here
OMG!! Dean paid bloggers! is old news!
by switzerblog
Sat Jan 15th, 2005 at 13:03:59 PST
Okay, so you guys have your panties all in a knot because Zephyr said Dean paid Kos and Jerome and the media's going apeshit about it. (by the 'media', we mean two dipshit assistant writers at WSJ, Chris Suellentrop - who's never been confused with a member of Mensa, and Bob Novak, who...well, you know) I got to thinking about this, and it occurred to me - this story isn't new. It's been used to try and bring the big man down before.
In October of 2003, The Hill broke the startling news that Dean was paying bloggers to keep things upbeat on his website (it's the right link, but it doesn't work. Anyone who can find the archived link gets one full kiss with tongue from switzer and I'll give you a four on your comment). This story was then picked up by Best of the Web, where it became a nefarious plot. Now, as we all know, Dean had the startling insight that if you run a blog you should probably hire people to write it for you. But the world wasn't ready for this revelation. The spinning began immediately at Little Green Footballs.
more after the jump...
Diaries :: switzerblog's diary ::
They later clarified in their own crazy way, but the story was off and running. It was picked up by Alpha Patriot, and of course the Freepers. We can ignore them, since they share Suellentropian intelligence, so no harm there.
It then grew legs and began morphing into a "are you f*@#ing kidding me?" story, in which folks with more than two smallish bits of quartz rolling around their pointy heads started to point out that it was a stupid story, since bloggers are people who blog, and the people who comment and chat are called 'visitors', 'commenters', or something other than bloggers. This angle was covered by the Thought Mesh, Calblog, Oliver Willis, Balloon Juice, and even Instapundit. btw, BFA doesn't seem to have dealt with the issue at all, and I couldn't find anything here on Kos, although I know we talked about it because I commented on it.
The problem then, as today, was twofold: establishment types don't like Dean so much (especially Right Wingers who don't like Democrats talking back), and people really don't get the whole blogging thing, despite it's seeming ubiquity. A third problem that is causing this week's bump in the road is that Zephyr has on overly rosy idea of what transparency should be. I think we all know people like this - people who will publicize every e-mail conversation they have on yahoo groups or blogs because they feel it's important to be "transparent" in their dealings. Folks who will, when you call a politician's behavior embarrassing and say he's being a 'jackass' in a private e-mail will send that politician an e-mail including the thread with your unkind words and ask him what he's going to do to fix his recent behavior (or did that only happen to me?). You know the type...anyway, I don't think this is a case of Zephyr's ego, it's a case of Zephyr having a unique and especially high threshold for honesty which gave her a different view of Kos and Jerome's relationship with DFA. So, she wrote what she thought, and it blew up. I disagree with her, but I don't think all the vituperation she's received here is necessary or accurate.
BTW, on the topic of Zephyr, look what I found at Philly.com (this is a google cache; I don't have a subscription to the actual website):
Teachout, now doing online work for America Coming Together, a Democratic voter mobilization group, said she is also aware of some credentialed bloggers who are paid political consultants. "One should not act like they are being journalists when they are writing about someone who pays them," she said, declining to name the individuals.
This is from July 25 - foreshadowing, anyone? She's felt this way for at least 7 months, according to this quote. This isn't a belief she just recently discovered. Interesting...
Bottom line: Dean did the tech stuff the right way. Everyone else will catch up in time, and stories like this will seem even sillier than they already do today. Nobody cares, Bob Novak can kiss my hairy white ass, and we'll all continue to have bigger fish to fry than this nonsense.
