What Bob didn't seem to realize is that the right-wing blogosphere was going to try to get Edwards' bloggers fired no matter what. Unlike the liberal netroots, the right-wing blogosphere is capable of exactly one kind of collective political action. They call it "scalping" — they pick a target and harass that person and his or her employer until the person either jumps or is pushed out of the public eye.
To which Ann... a self-described moderate in her own eyes, but conservative in everyone elses', replied:
Ha, ha. Only the right. Sure. I have the personal experience of lefties trying to do exactly that to me -- including on Beyerstein's blog, though I think Beyerstein actually stepped in at one point and told her commenters that their idea of trying to get UW to fire me was not a good one.Ms. Althouse is correct regarding the attempt, but not regarding the method or the result.
The successful action that conservative bloggers accomplished in scaring the Edwards' bloggers (Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan) out of their jobs was something that liberal bloggers simply don't seem capable of. You see, what the conservative bloggers did, as a group was write blog post after blog post lambasting the Edwards' bloggers so that no matter where you turned in the conservative blogosphere, you would be confronted with "The Headline".
And of course, eventually, the major news networks caught on, and... well... when you go from being simply the subject of negative blog posts to being the subject of negative CNN news stories, you probably become hard-pressed not to freak out.
Now liberal blogs simply don't do this. For most newsworthy subjects dear to the left-wing's hearts (the Jeff Gannon story being a good example), one blog is usually considered to be the "go-to site" for coverage of that. The other bloggers often link, but they won't chime in nearly as loudly or as clearly as their competitors on the right.
Therefore, when it comes time to turn up the pressure... get that scalp, if you will... it really is a tool/tactic that only the right wing blogs can achieve.
Let's be honest, Ms. Althouse... it was only Lindsay Beyerstein's blog and blog readers that tried to get your scalp. I personally don't even know who that is. Imagine if it had been all the readers from Daily Kos, everyone from Atrios, everyone from AmericaBlog, et cetera, et cetera, and then UW started getting calls from as near as ABC and NBC to as far as BBC and AFP about you, and you and your employers started seeing your face appear 20 or 30 times a day on national television. Even with the Jeff Gannon story — which is the biggest left-wing blogger scoop I can remember — that never happened.
When that does happen, then you can talk about what kind of scalps the left wing bloggers are capable of taking, in comparison to the right. Until then... hardly the same thing, never the same effect, and far from the same results.
No comments:
Post a Comment