Bloggers Take Democrat Bribes

RichardPoe.com (Poe's Blog) ^ | October 10, 2003 | Richard Poe

[Richard Poe]

Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean has been -- and I quote -- "paying `bloggers' or professional Internet surfers to keep the enthusiasm up on his website," according to The Hill, a newspaper which reports on the U.S. Congress. The shocking revelation appeared in an October 8 article titled, "Dem Presidential Rivals Suffer `Growth Pains' Chasing Dean."

James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal's online Best of the Web page comments:

We're all for free enterprise, but this does point up an advantage of "old media" over bloggers. Professional journalists may have their biases, but those of us who work for big-media outfits are bound by codes of ethics under which taking money in exchange for favorable coverage would be a huge no-no. Many bloggers, of course, genuinely are independent commentators, but there's no easy way of knowing which ones are on the take.

Taranto displays a somewhat rosier view of Big Media ethics than the facts seem to warrant, but he is nonetheless to be congratulated for spotting this damning report of Dean's blog payoffs, which The Hill's editors cunningly buried deep in the 20th paragraph of a 25-graph article topped by a deadly dull headline.

_____________________________
Richard Poe is a New-York-Times bestselling author and cyberjournalist. His book The Seven Myths of Gun Control was just released in paperback. Poe’s forthcoming book, The New Underground: How Conservatives Conquered the Internet, will be available soon.

[dirtboy]

A DANG ping...

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[gov_bean_ counter]

'splains a lot. Makes you wonder about all those "internet donations", too. eh?

[ChadGore]

Dean pays shills?

What did Dean know, and when did he know it ?

[Always Right]

There have been people paid to post on FreeRepublic before. For instance, some of the people who promoted the Fair Tax have been paid.

[ChadGore]

Dean pays shills? I demand a full inquiry. What is Dean hiding ? These 'commrade' deals are not LEGAL! FULL DISCLOSURE NOW!

[mvpel]

If he didn't pay shills, how else would he keep up the enthusiasm for his campaign?

What a loser.

[Cicero]

You're right. I read all the way through the Hill article and couldn't find what you were talking about. I actually had to do a search for the word "paying," which turned up that little nugget you quote. They certainly did a good job burying the most interesting piece of information they had to report.

When is a blogger not a blogger? When he's a hired gun?

[longtermmemmory]

How novel, PAID volunteers.

Sad when the only way democrats can force their message is to pay the listener.

BTW would not see new clooney poodle movie if they paid me.

[ChadGore]

Re: There have been people . .

Not being payed by by a presidential candidate with the expressed purpose of getting the person to shill for the candidate.

By FEC rules, this is electioneering, and needs to be fully disclosed. We demand transparency ! What's Dean hiding ?

[ChadGore]

What did dead know, and when did he know it ?

[Snuffington]

There have been people paid to post on FreeRepublic before.

And there are certainly some suspicious characters on some of the tech threads.

[Always Right]

And there are certainly some suspicious characters on some of the tech threads.

Some of the doom and gloom gold bugs also come to mind.

[Southack]

It's not just Bloggers. In fact, it's **much** worse than that. Columnists and Editors are now DIRECTLY financing Democratic campaigns...

Contributor	Occupation	Date	Amount	Recipient
TALBOT, DAVID SAN FRANCISCO,CA 94110	SALON MEDIA GROUP/EDITOR	4/7/2003	$500	Dean, Howard

 

Contributor	Occupation	Date	Amount	Recipient
SCHEER, ROBERT SANTA MONICA,CA 90403	COLUMNIST	10/30/2000	$1,000	Kucinich, Dennis J

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=talbot%2C+d&txtState=CA&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=&txt2004=Y&txt2002=Y&txt2000=Y&Order=N

[Alberta's Child]

This is nothing new. Op-ed columnists in almost every major newspaper in this country have been getting paid for years to write their columns with a certain slant and write "opinion" columns that reflect nothing more than the opinion of the person or entity that was paying the fee.

[OXENinFLA]

AHHHHHH hahahahahha LOLOLOLOLOL

CAUGHT GREEN HANDED!

[Southack]

c#15

[StriperSniper]

How novel, PAID volunteers.

Not really.

"Volunteers" you pay for

[GraniteStateConservative]

Blogs are not news organizations. They are sources for finding stories by the real media. The exceptions are things like Dean Blogs-- reports on Dean for America activities. Anyone who thinks those reports are fair and balanced is retarded. It's totally partisan-- which is the opposite of "old media" journalism is supposed to be. Bush bloggers are just the same way-- partisan reports on Bush's re-election and the Dem challengers and commentary on news articles written by traditional journalists.

This is a dumb "story" by The Hill.