But I think I’m with Ezra on this one: I have my problems with Kos, but this sort of gotcha journalism is silly.
I don’t like Kos one bit* (and I dislike The New Republic even more). And I’ll be honest, I rarely if ever read Daily Kos (although I did today after reading about this non-scandal at Eschaton). But even I think that this whole thing is dumb.
The story goes something like this: There was a story in the New York Times about a developing scandal involving Kos and Jerome Armstrong, essentially suggesting that any politicians who employed Armstrong as a consultant would get Kos’s support. For legal reasons, Armstrong can’t talk about the case right now. Markos sends out an email to the big liberal bloggers asking that they “starve [the story] of oxygen” by simply ignoring it. Big friggin deal. Bloggers have publicly suggested taking the same tactic with all kinds of issues (the most recent example I can think of is the suggestion to ignore Ann Coulter, because nothing irritates her more than being starved for attention). But TNR is suggesting that Kos has some sort of hold over the liberal blogosphere, and that no one would dare challenge his authority by ignoring his rather mild suggestion that liberal bloggers hold off on this one until Jerome is able to comment.
Now, Feministe isn’t exactly part of the mainstream liberal blogging world as conceptualized by the Big Boys like Kos, MyDD, Atrios, etc. And I tend to kick around the feminist blogosphere much more than I do the mainstream left-o-sphere. But it seems fairly obvious to me that even the mainstream lefties aren’t all Kos-worshipping copy-cats. Kos has been criticized all over the board, and the worst punishment I’ve seen him dole out is taking someone off his blogroll. Boohoo.
So this all strikes me as a load of crap. Although I do look forward to seeing what Jerome and Kos have to say once they’re able to talk about the actual scandal-in-progress.
Markos himself gives you the goods on the TNR piece. Although I did smirk at his last line:
Sad, perhaps. But this is apparently the price one pays for crashing the gate.
Oh Markos, you rebel you. Keep speaking truth to power, or something.
*Fine. I’m just mad that I’m not on the secret email list of the biggest bloggers, ok?
I will admit to a certain amount of admiration for his flawlessly-executed diary pyramid scheme.
Hell, if Pandagon is still on his blogroll (is it?)…
I disbelieve this would be your reaction if, say, Instapundit sent out an e-mail telling right-wing and libertarian bloggers to “starve the story of oxygen” after Hugh Hewitt was named in an indictment.
The difference here is that Kos and Armstrong have a vested and personal interest in seeing this story quieted. I don’t see how the Coulter comparison tracks.
Lauren: Nope. Pandagon, was, I believe, purged from the orange blogroll.
Pandagon was removed from his blogroll right after they panned his book.
.oO
norbizness: what do you mean by diary pyramid scheme?
Someone who’s farther into law school than me*: How is the original thing even a scandal? Kos agrees to endorse anyone who Jerome consults for…and? They’re good friends (at least on the surface), Kos got his start because of Jerome, so what’s the problem with Kos endorsing candidates Jerome works for?
*OK, technically i’m not even in law school, but there’s 50-75% chance i will be in a year, and i’m currently a pre-law political science major, so work with me.
It’s two seperate scandals, only one of which actually is. Armstrong was part of a pump and dump operation back durng the tech boom. He was paid to pump garbage stocks. The SEC caught him, and Armstrong made a deal, about which he is allowed to speak, but not to claim innocence. Kos is defending him, like friends do, stupidly, like friends do. But Kos wasn’t involved.
On the tails of that, this bogus, Kos only likes Warner because Warner paid Armstrong scandal, was floated. Since Armstrong’s isn’t much of a pelt, the big game hunters went looking for a way to screw Kos. It’s not particularly in character for Kos to dig Warner, as he seems to, but he’d have to like Armstrong more than anybody on earth does, to sell himself for Armstrong’s career. Though it’s possible that Warner thinks of his hiring Armstrong as Kos insurance (just like Dean did), there’s no reason to suppose Kos does, which would be necessary for it to be at all scandalous.
The double super secret email list is funny, and when you only have one of the emails as a reference point, it could seem possible, were one so inclined as to belive it, that Kos was sending out marching orders. Even in what I expect is the proper context, it still sounds a little Grover Norquistian, no?
I thought Hulk Hogan was the Orange Goblin.
Wait, have he and Kos ever been seen together?
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Ok, I just don’t get it, maybe KOS needs to go out and breath some fresh air, go camping or something to get a check on reality. Maybe flip burgers for a month. He’s getting trivial.
And as for his suddenly brilliant revelation that the New Republic is nothing more than a satellite of the National Review, all I can say is, “Where the hell you been boy?”
I remember back in the day, about 1994 or something I had subscriptions to a variety of political mags, The New Republic being one of them. My father, I remember had a subscription when I was but a wee one, back when Vietnam was raging and liberal wasn’t a bad word. Being a creature of tradition, I signed on.
It was a respected bastion of progressive leftism, but no more. I don’t know when they began their descent into hell, but I can tell you when I had my subscription in the early 90′s I watched as Andrew Sullivan took over with his Log Cabin Republicanism and then hired on journalist newling, Laura Ingraham as a writer.
Good god almighty, I had to bend my mind in all kinds of contortions to understand how on earth his and her writing held any allegience to liberalism in the true sense. And poor Laura’s journalism! Reading her endless diatribes and sniveling, priviledged little white girl editorials and ‘stories’ (and with the facts so often absent, that to call them anything else smacks at fraud) was an excruciating exercise. I have never since read a mag that was able to engender so much mail from subjects of features, articles and editorials demanding corrections of the facts of its writing.
At one point I remember feeling sorry for that simpering little prep school greenie. No surprise to me either that said woman had through her fine service with TNR had found a higher niche within neo-con punditry and thus she was able to bring suffering to a wider berth of the masses.
I finally admitted the horrible truth sometime around ’95 and did not renew my subscription because I could bear the pain no more.
And Kos has just gotten the idea that TNR is a neo-con rag? You know, these computers can get all encompassing, like I said, take a walk once a day. Go to the library and make yourself say ‘hello’ to a homeless person at least once a week, boy you need a reality check.