I neglected to cover one point when I was mocking Jane Hamsher below...she concludes her screed with:
Right wing bloggers at the top of the food chain don't have to worry about this dynamic, because they're well compensated through a variety of means -- and also conspicuously silent on the subject. It's the toadies on the bottom who churn right wing propaganda for free who are whining, and they clearly don't understand the financial structure that both traditional media outlets and liberal blogs are operating within.Hmmm, let's go to the record:
Technorati Top 100 Blogs (by influence) as of April 9, 2009
1. Huffington Post - Liberal, venture funded
17. Daily Kos - Liberal, ad funded
32. Andrew Sullivan - Liberal, The Atlantic
42. Think Progress - Liberal, Media Matters
45. Michelle Malkin - Conservative, ad funded
46. Talking Points Memo - Liberal, ad and grant funded
51. Pajamas Media (really, Instapundit) - Conservative, investor funded
53. The Corner - Conservative, National Review
56. Hot Air - Conservative, ad funded
63. Ben Smith - Moderate, Politico
65. Crooks And Liars - Liberal, ad funded
76. Glenn Greenwald - Liberal, Salon
96. Powerline - Conservative, ad funded
So we've got 7 liberals, 4 conservatives, and 1 moderate. Of the liberals, 2 are ad funded - 29%. Of the conservatives, 3 are ad funded - 75%.
So when Hamsher says that 'Right wing bloggers at the top of the food chain don't have to worry about this dynamic, because they're well compensated through a variety of means -- and also conspicuously silent on the subject.' I guess she includes the Power Line guys' income from practicing law...I wrote a long time ago that the top liberal bloggers tended to have been hired to blog, and that continues to be true - Hamsher's dishonest comments to the contrary.
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