Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Remember That Gambit Article About Blogs?

The article that only mentioned conservative bloggers. Not only were all the blogs in the article conservative, some of them were blogs that might be said to be for sale to the highest bidder. So, I was little surprised by something in this week's Gambit:
Francis' attacks were initially confined to political blogs that hold themselves out as independent or "news" blogs, but which actually are for sale to the highest bidder. If you buy the services of the blogger, you get yourself pumped up and your opponent smeared regularly -- sometimes with emails to the legitimate press thrown in for good measure as "news alerts" and the like. (Not all blogs do this, only some.)

Clancy was good enough to make that parenthetical note, but I couldn't help but remember some (not all) of the blogs that his newspaper covered last month:
In Louisiana, the now-defunct DeductBox.com is credited with starting it all in the late 90s, but the tradition is being carried on by many, such as LaPoliticalNews.Blogspot.com, BayouBuzz.com and PoliticsLa.com. Even independent journalist John Maginnis, known nationally for his political reporting, has moved some of his writings online, as has former Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown. Emily Metzgar, a columnist for The Shreveport Times, has also been taken in by the kooks because she now has her own blog.

That followed several paragraphs about C.B. Forgotston (whose ethics I wouldn't question) and the Dead Pelican. That does remind me of something that a little-read local blogger who doesn't accept advertising Benjamins (yeah, so he doesn't get offered them either) wrote back in March:
It is interesting that somebody so interested in the appearance of impropriety in a political campaign would be so unconcerned about the appearance of journalistic impropriety on his own web site. Mind you, I'm not suggesting anything untoward, it just seems oddly curious that the two ads on Rogers' website this weekend are for Mike Francis and Geaux Web. I seriously doubt that there's any quid pro quo involved, but Rogers does seem to have a strong interest in appearances.

I don't know if DuBos was referring to BayouBias, but I do know that, during the election, Steve Sabludowsky certainly helped lead the "backlash against the guy who wrote politics (sic) commentary at the wrong time--Douglas Brinkley, a historian."

Actually, I don't believe that a guy's blog should be held to the same grammatical standards as his "scholarly" writings. However, some of the disinformation in the post containing that quote is disturbing:

He beat a political machine on Saturday night in one hard-fought but clean New Orleans election campaign Who really had the machine?

When others were talking bankruptcy, he talked with banks and provided enough details the day of the election to make voters believe he could pull it off. He waited until the day of the election, because the terms weren't favorable.

Or as Sabludowsky said in a later post:
After the WWL debate, Nagin gave further details to me about the priorities of various lending institutions including a French bank.

On election eve at midnight, Nagin released even more details about the pending loan including the names of the banks involved.

Comments:
great post.

The one thing that keeps me going is that N.O. has such a wealth of bloggers who are truly trying to get to the truth out...not make a buck.

Thanks for Quallifying this..
 
one l.....why is it so hard to spell correctly on comments?
 
I find that I tend to leave out words or make other mistakes that alter the meaning of sentences.
 
Clancy has been too busy getting Holy Cross situated to get his blogs straight.
 
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