Self-Knowledge

Last week I examined an article from the progressive web site In These Times. Now I', going to take apart another one, this one on the nature of the Blogosphere. "Digby", the author, says that the Blogosphere is organized like this:

The right blogosphere operates largely as part of the greater Republican message machine. Many of its bloggers are already part of that infrastructure, working as journalists for conservative publications, writing books and lecturing. Independent bloggers on the right hail from all walks of life, but the leading voices are either part of the political machine itself, like Mike Krempasky of RedState, or closely connected to the conservative media and think tank infrastructure, like Hugh Hewitt, Michelle Malkin and the PowerLine bloggers.

[...] By contrast, the left blogosphere is populated by “citizen bloggers,” who work in non-political occupations for a living and blog for reasons of personal interest. This sphere actually operates as a unique and potentially powerful political constituency rather than a part of the Democratic Party apparatus. Unlike their counterparts on the right, the lefty blogs have had to crash the party, but because they did it with energy, votes and money, they are making themselves a power in their own right.

Huh?

Ok, the most popular blog by far is the Daily Kos. It is run by a professional Democratic fundraiser. The same is true for the popular atrios/Eschaton blog. Add in that sites like Talking Points Memo which takes its name seriously.

Now look at the right. The most popular site is Instapundit, a libertarian-leaning law professor. He gets maybe 20% as many hits as Kos. RedState was set up as a Republican-oriented blog and, unlike atrios, never hid it. Michelle Malkin is certainly conservative but she spends as much time arguing with the Bush administration as agreeing with it. The same is true of the Instapundit, Glen Reynolds and of Hugh Hewitt. Plus, only one of the PowerLine guys has done political work. The other is a banker.

From my viewpoint both sides are organized pretty much the same way - some political hacks, some journalists, and lots of concerned citizens.

So why does Digby see it differently? I can see three possible outlooks that would lead to this conclusion:

We're losing so they must be better organized. This is consistent with the left's mindset. They see everyone on the right as being part of a corporate conspiracy. They are the only ones who are pure of heart but, being private individuals, they are out-spent.

Most of these guys are centrist so they don't count. In These Times is a progressive site. "Progressive" is a code word that the far left uses to avoid labels like "socialist" that have negative connotations. Anyone who is not in favor of a massive expansion of government is to the right of progressives.

Facts, we don't need no stinking facts. This ties in with the other two points. Digby may have figured that he isn't part of the establishment and the blogs he reads are not and left it at that. Why bother looking things up when the facts can spoil a perfectly good column?

RedState has its own response to Digby.

Side note - Digby still believes in the RatherGate memos. No word on the Tooth Fairy.