Jonah Goldberg Should School Himself, Not CNN, on Blogosphere

March 10, 2009 in General by Christopher Howell

Mark Preston over at CNN wrote an interesting piece, earlier today, about the pitfalls facing liberal bloggers in the Age of Obama. Some highlights:

* Mark Preston: Liberal bloggers who cheered on Obama now become watchdogs

* Challenge is line from “destructive criticism to constructive criticism,” a blogger says

* Blogging is to liberals what talk radio has been for conservatives, Preston says

* Blogging lets Democrats of all stripes express themselves, says founder of one blog

What’s interesting is how Ifound out about the story. I was on an email list for TheCollegePolitico.com, run by Steve Gutowski, a guy that I met at CPAC. I got his tip at 1:55pm. Also on that email were NRO’s Jonah Goldberg, and Captain Ed Morrissey, who used the tip at Hot Air:

CNN asks the question: Whither the liberal blogosphere in the Age of Obama? Mark Preston asks Markos Moulitsas and Jane Hamsher how having a Democratic shutout in Washington DC will affect their blogging (via The College Politico)

See what Ed did there? He credited the source of the tip.

Jonah Goldberg at NRO used Preston’s article as a springboard to school the CNN political editor on the intricacies of the blogosphere:

For example, while it’s true that the netroot bloggers took off under Bush, most of those bloggers were the least independent from the Democratic Party. Meanwhile conservative blogs actually had an earlier foothold on the web, because the internet really began under Clinton. What Preston understands as “Republican blogs” – i.e. right-wing equivalents of Daily Kos and Firedoglake – were slow to take off for various reasons, including the fact that such blogs thrive when they represent the party out of power. This is a dynamic Kos seems to understand a lot better than Preston.

While doling out this expertise on all things bloggy, Goldberg neglects to credit Gutowski for the tip. I asked Steve about it, and he’s “pissed” about the slight. I conjectured that maybe Goldberg didn’t know about hat-tipping, but apparently, they’ve exchanged emails on the subject before.

I started to wonder, too, if Goldberg had even read Steve’s email. You tell me. From Steve’s email:

I can’t tell if this is supposed to be an opinion piece or a news report but either way it completely ignores and even marginalizes conservative and republican bloggers.

And now, from Goldberg’s piece:

This CNN op-ed (news piece? news analysis?) is odd.

Goldberg’s understanding of the left-O-sphere is pretty backwards, too. The blogs weren’t under the party’s thumb, but rather the other way around. Just ask Michelle Malkin.