Sunday, March 19, 2006

Roughing Up a Rich Blogger

Not many bloggers earn a living at it. Yet, if one makes $80,000 a year blogging, does he deserve to be dope slapped repeatedly?

Today's New York Times maggy has a one-pager of blogger abuse. Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas ZĂșniga gets the nipping worst of interviewer Deborah Solomon. She is known as biographer of artists and others with high-profile shames, as well as being a regular contributor to the Boomer pharmaceutical and realty catalog disguised as a slick journal. She apparently was raised by wolverines and uses the Barbara Walters technique of trying to create interest by blindsiding her subject with rude and dumb questions.

ZĂșniga though is apparently far to Left Coast to be rattled. He straightens out her liberal media gang claims. Then there is the exchange:
She: Is it odd to live so far from Washington and spend every nanosecond of your life writing about it?

He: No. I avoid Washington like the plague. And I generally avoid politicians. I find them quite dull.

She: Have you met John Kerry?

He: Only once. I was in a bathroom stall next to him at the Democratic National Convention. I didn't say hello. It was a private moment for him.

She: Do you read your fellow liberal bloggers, like those who write for Huffington Post?

He: To me, Huffington Post gives voice to the voice. They're celebrities who don't need a platform.

She: That's not fair. You can't discredit bloggers like Jane Smiley or Nora Ephron just because they have a reputation outside politics.

He: These people don't have trouble being heard if they want to be heard. Sometimes Huffington Post has noncelebrities — I am more interested in them, people who don't have the chance to get their message out.
She defends and adores the self-important. He snorts in their direction. Good on him.

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