Where Is The Right In The Blogometer?
By Erick Posted in Blogosphere — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Ever hear of the Blogometer? It is a part of the Hotline and one of National Journal's blogs. RedState actually has cordial email relations with Conn Carroll, the guy who puts it together, and Blogometer. We're mentioned frequently. While I hope that does not change, I think there are some things my friends on the right have been ready to say and I figured, with some help in collecting the data, I'd take the opportunity to say these things.
First, the Blogometer serves the readers of National Journal, not bloggers. They try to paint a picture about what is going on in the blogosphere for readers of the Hotline and they focus on elections. Frankly, the left has spent more time focusing on elections than the right -- at least until the last few months when, arguably, everyone got to parity. But I've been crunching numbers and will take this opportunity to say that I think the Blogometer has gotten used to tracking those sites on the left more than they track sites on the right. It has, it appears, become a habit and it is one that does a disservice to readers of the Hotline and National Journal. It gives an impression of quantifiable liberal bias.
Let's look at some numbers -- and I'll focus just on September 1st through today -- a period of time when the right and left have both been equally covering the races. So, here we go. The number is the number of times cited since September 1 through October 25.
Read on . . .
| Entity | Cites |
|---|---|
| --------Blogs--------- | |
| MyDD | 160 |
| Kos | 114 |
| National Review | 94 |
| RedState | 74 |
| Talking Points Memo | 67 |
| Firedoglake | 59 |
| Huffington Post | 46 |
| Atrios | 41 |
| AmericaBlog | 38 |
| --------People-------- | |
| Chris Bowers | 134 |
| Markos Moulitsas | 95 |
| Josh Marshall | 81 |
| Matt Stoller | 80 |
| Kathryn Lopez | 42 |
| Jane Hamsher | 35 |
| -------Candidates------- | |
| Allen | 298 |
| Webb | 248 |
| Lieberman | 190 |
| Lamont | 136 |
| Ford | 61 |
| Corker | 31 |
| Santorum | 30 |
| Casey | 23 |
What is remarkable about, in particular, the candidates is that the majority of the information linked to about George Allen was about his "macaca" incident and the majority of stuff about Webb was links to Webb's reaction to the "macaca" moment.
Take, also, for example Harold Ford, Jr.'s "macaca" moment. The right side of the blogosphere has been all over it since Friday, when Ford showed up at Corker's press conference. How many times did the Blogometer mention it? Zero.
And what of Chet Edward's fired intern that had a number of sites on the right blogging? Even National Journal's Beltway Blogroll covered that. The Blogometer? Zero.
What about Tony Snow becoming the first person in the Bush Administration to actively engage the blogosphere on RedState? Zero.
What about Diana Irey's challenge to Jack Murtha and the much talked about ABSCAM issues that everyone from Mary Katherine Ham to the American Spectator Blog covered? Zero.
And let's talk about some other recent events, besides the Harold Ford stuff. A while back, the Blogometer wanted to know why the right was not so interested in Connecticut. We provided the answer. but you would not have known about it by reading the Blogometer.
Look, RedState gets treated very well by the Blogometer. And it is true that until September the left really was focused on elections more than the right. There has been grumbling for months on the right that there was a bias.
Conn Carroll does what he can with what he is given, but I think it is time to expand beyond MyDD and DailyKos. I don't think there is a bias, so much as it became habitual to look more at the left than the right, but I think both sides are at parity now and there are some on the right who get mentioned occasionally, but could get mentioned more often to provide a contrasting viewpoint to the left -- often I've noticed that a conservative blogger has up a post on the same topic as a lefty blogger and the conservative blogger gets ignored.
One more caveat -- if you are a conservative blogger, remember that Conn has to be finished by around 11 a.m. to make his deadline, so write early. Likewise, email Conn a link to your post. Don't just expect him to have you in his RSS reader.
All in all, though, I think a fair case can be made that it is time to expand the cites to the right in the Blogometer.
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Where Is The Right In The Blogometer? 8 Comments (0 topical, 8 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I hit about 12 blogs regularly, most of them right wing. I have noticed a decided drop in frequency of both posts and replies since August.
Don't know why I chalked it up to school, football, and the fact that most right wingers have lives.
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
And there are 50 links to lefty blogs (I'm not counting Sullivan or Kaus lefties) and 11 links to righty blogs (2 to RedState). The blogometer blasts one of the righty posts, and at least one of the others is a righty (Erick) criticizing Republicans. The fawning tone of his references to the lefty blogs, on the other hand...
"We could find a speck of dust and scribble down our life stories..." - The Refreshments
as someone who's been picked-up by Conn for the Blogometer maybe I shouldn't complain but it does seem to favor the left sites! Not out of malice but routine as you mentioned...
"The Road To Freedom Is Seldom Traveled By The Multitude" Madhouse Thought
You forgot to mention the conservative equivalent to Blogometer. Today HumanEvents.com launched Rightometer (log on at Rightometer.com) to offer conservatives another venue to get their news and information about what's happening on the right.
Nice collection of stuff, although a lot of it seems to be kerfluffery like Hillary's plastic surgery, Harold Ford's playboy parties, and Michael J. Fox's medication or lack thereof. . . but there was some coverage about GOP candidates hording cash, which seems to me to be a really important and interesting issue from the perspective of the GOP maintaining control of Congress.
I took Blogometer out of my feed reader several months ago after realizing they are nothing more than a nutroots mouthpiece.
Sara (Squiggler)
A liberal publication puts up a "blog-watch" and tends to favor liberal blogs.
What an outrage!
Seriously, if you are surprised in the least by this, you need to email me immediately. I have a bridge to Brooklyn, high traffic every day, you could put up a toll booth and make a killing.
Plus, I have $14,000,000 in an account in Nigeria, and if you would help me get it out, I would gladly pay a 20% fee. All I need is your bank account number.
If you expect parity from the left, you are an even bigger optimist than I am! Remember the old '60s song about the women who finds a frozen snake and takes him to thaw by her fire, then gets bitten and complains of his ingratitude.
"You knew darned well I was a snake before you took me in," the snake replies as she dies.
Even by Hotline reader standards, Carroll is providing a disservice. Caroll is ***OBSESSED*** with CT and VA. What are the chances of a true party change in CT-SEN? Or even VA-SEN? Are CT and VA really the elections upon which control of the Senate hinges? Do they matter more than TN, MO, or MT? Or are they simply the ones in which the profane, in-your-face Left has inserted itself most aggressively?
If you're betting your mortgage on the latter, let's just say you won't be without a roof over your head tonight. Which means Carroll is being led around on a leash by Bowers & Stoller and not covering the races Hotline readers (whose livelihoods depend on whether Rs or Ds are in control) want covered.
Can you imagine a right-leaning Blogometer forsaking battleground races to cover distractions like Diana Irey and Vernon Robinson (the Right's Ned Lamonts) incessantly? Dear Lord, Chuck Todd would never hear the end of it!
I've heard from several sources that Bill Beutler, who preceded Carroll at the Hotline, was a Republican. Even so, I always thought he leaned a bit towards the narrative of Kos/MyDD triumphiasm. But he was always fair and a story of major political import on either the left or the right was never ignored.
Since Carroll got on, it's just been ridiculous. When the right gets active electorally as with Rightroots (Carroll's gold standard for coverage), he gives it glancing treatment, usually right below CT SEN I, CT SEN II, CT SEN III, and CT SEN IV.
Given Halperin's admission today, we should not be the least bit surprised. For once, I agree with Kos. Put this thing out of its misery.