Does the GOP Pay Friendly Bloggers?

jamie writes "According to the conservative political journalism site Daily Caller: '"It's standard operating procedure" to pay bloggers for favorable coverage, says one Republican campaign operative. A GOP blogger-for-hire estimates that "at least half the bloggers that are out there" on the Republican side "are getting remuneration in some way beyond ad sales." Or in some cases, it's the ads themselves: ads at ten times the going rate are one of the ways conservative bloggers apparently get paid by the politicians they write about. In usual he-said she-said fashion, Daily Caller finds a couple of obscure liberal bloggers to mention too, but they fully disclosed payment and one of them even shut down his blog while doing consulting work, unlike Robert Stacy McCain and Dan Riehl."

Comments

Probably but...

[phantomcircuit]

That's small potatoes compared to outright fraud.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Michigan-Tea-Party-party-looks-like-real-astroturfing-Freep-calls-for-criminal-probe-101383014.html

Wow, this election should be interesting

[Anon-Admin]

I would not have expected Slashdot to have a story like this but oh well!

MSNBC is telling us how the Tea Party is raciest and the designated tours of Washington DC are designed to avoid black areas.

Fox has had show after show about two new books on how Obama has circumvented the Constitution and sold us down the river.

All I have seen on CNN is how the markets are collapsing and everything is circling the drain

Personally I think we should send Washington, as well as both the parties a simple message

YOUR FIRED! Clean out your desk and get in the unemployment line like the rest of US!

It really is time for some new blood in Washington.

Re:Wow, this election should be interesting

[strangelovian]

The simplest method of cleaning house in DC would be for millions of enraged citizens to simply surround the capital with pitchforks, firearms and signs reading "GTFO Now!" and give every politician 24 hours to evacuate. This is direct popular action that routes around media spin machines, the punditocracy, political engineering, voter fraud, etc. The old, tried and true methods of political action are still the best, imo.

Summary misleading

[Anonymous Coward]

The summary suggests that pay for bloggers is more a conservative phenomena than a liberal one -- ie "at least half" conservative bloggers are paid as opposed to "a couple of obscure liberal bloggers". While this may or may not be true, this is not what a fair representation of what the article says. From the article:

"
On the left, many of the once independent bloggers are now employed by, or receive money from, liberal organizations like Media Matters, the Center for American Progress and Campaign for America’s Future.

Some critics allege that the funding sources have distorted the once vibrant voice of the liberal blogosphere, discouraging dissent in favor of staying “on message” to help President Obama and Democrats in Congress pass their legislative agenda.

Indeed, many of the groups now employing liberal bloggers meet with White House aides for a weekly strategy session on Tuesday afternoons organized by the group Common Purpose. It was here that Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel famously told independent-minded liberals that they were being “fucking retarded” for straying from the party line.
"

More balance in the story summary would help everyone appreciate how the influence of money on independent media sources is a general problem, not a partisan one.

Re:Not just the GOP

[Mongoose Disciple]

All political parties utilize bloggers and forum posters to spread positive messages about their agenda (or negative messages about their "opponents" agenda.)

Yes, but...

Basically, the article explains it as, on the liberal side, there are all kinds of foundations and think tanks and what not that hire/support liberal bloggers who of course write mostly liberal things, whereas on the conservative side, because there is not that same support network to pay for conservative bloggers in general, conservative bloggers are essentially paid by specific candidates. So, in other words, they're not as much being paid to blog about conservative things in general but in favor of a specific primary candidate who pays them.

If that's correct, it doesn't necessarily say that one model is more honest or better than the other, but they are a little different.

Ah Yes

[NetNed]

And democrats would never resort to such questionable tactics would they?

Here's a news flash, both sides suck and neither represents the general voting public. If the fanboy idiots of the political world would just realize that, we'd all be better off.

Re:conservatives

[operagost]

Democrats want to "fundamentally transform" the USA. That's not right wing, any way you slice it. That being said, Republicans spent about seven years doing the same thing REALLY SLOWLY.