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December 29, 2004

Downtrodden=brussel sprouts

I like a good cage match as much as the next girl. So when I heard that Power Line blog was in a snit over a column by Nick Coleman of the Star Tribune, I readied my popcorn.

For those of you unfamiliar with the blokes at Power Line, they were the self congratulatory scourge who "outed" Dan Rather's documents against Bush's National Guard service. Their claims that the documents were forgeries were demonstrably false. And just in case that isn't demonstrable enough for you there's more here and here and here and here.

Power Line was named Time Magazine's Blog of the Year for 2004. This award was no doubt due to the toppling of Rather's story. Interesting how the "liberal media" dismissed the entire series of stories debunking Power Lines claims...but I digress.

Coleman eviscerates the boys at Power Line, outing their real names, vocations and employers (although I don't think that information was especially secret before Coleman's column). Coleman refers to them as "Extreme bloggers" whose lust for power so eclipses them that facts are nonexistent in the Power Line realm.

The most entertaining part of Coleman's anti-Power Line screed is his "blogger style fact checking", which I found hilarious and a bit thought provoking:

1) "It's totally unexpected," Johnson, the banker, told the newspaper after Powerline won "Blog of the Year."

But the Aw Shucks Act doesn't fly. Powerline campaigned shamelessly for awards, winning an online "Best Blog of 2004" a week before the Time honor. That online award was a bloggers' poll, and Powerline linked its readers to the award site 10 times during the balloting, shilling for votes.

2) "We keep it very much separate from our day jobs," said Hinderaker, meaning the boys don't blog at work.

But they do. Johnson recently had time at his bank job to post a despicable item sliming Sen. Mark Dayton. If I had the money they think I do, I'd put it all in TCF. Then I'd pull it out.

3) Powerline sells thousands of dollars in ads, including one for T-shirts that say, "Hung Like a Republican."

But does Powerline or its mighty righty allies take money from political parties, campaigns or well-heeled benefactors who hope to affect Minnesota's politics from behind the scenes? We don't know, and they don't have to say. They are not Mainstream.

Does Powerline get money from the Republican Party? Does Kos (the largest lefty blog) get money from the Democratic Party? I don't know the answers for sure. We certainly don't get any money from anyone. But then again we're exponentially tinier than the big boys.

Blogs are certainly a media outlet. But then so is Rush Limbaugh and he's hardly a bastion of truth and fact. Journalism is about fact, or so we're taught. Coleman also sees journalism as "in service to the downtrodden". Power Line labels this an "agenda" on Coleman's part. Perhaps it is. Interestingly though..."service to the downtrodden" is posted on Power Line in such a way as I might write about eating brussel sprouts: a nasty, disgusting, horrible thing.

"Deacon" at Power Line suggests that they have their own agenda. I'm curious what that might be...since service to the downtrodden is so enormously heinous.

Posted by Carla at December 29, 2004 01:33 PM