Bill Whittle’s gone over to Breitbart’s Big Hollywood. Iowahawk’s already there, though what the deal is with Anorak, I don’t know, and he’s got Bolus and his own place. Some of the other writers there are quite good. I think that Jeff would fit in well, as the interest there is in representation and he’s a bit of a pop culture maven.
Richard Fernandez is the only regular voice that I find always compelling at PJM, now that Whittle’s defected, because he knows exactly what he thinks and says it and gets out. Insty still does what he does well. And I think it’s true that my own concerns go in and out of phase with those of other bloggers and other blogs. Sometimes I find a lot of things at Hot Air pertinent, and sometimes not. Sometimes, for example, I’m in phase with Malkin’s concerns, sometimes not. For the most part, Green stays fresh.
The New Ledger is a new conservative site that takes an environmentalist tack, just by the way, but the format doesn’t seem as interesting as it might be. The Power Line Forum idea works better, by and large, than the major group blogs, which is the closest that we get to the Kos diarist format that some of the readers referenced below. American Thinker I like, because they don’t really care too much about being first, so they put a lot of thought and craft into what they do. But I do think that it’s fair to say that the polyvocal nature of the nucleus of sites that were gathered into PJM has become monotonous as they’ve striven for more authority, at the expense of authenticity. Bob Owen, I like. Van der Galien, I like. Robert Stacy McCain, I like. Why do I not care for them so much there as at their own sites? There are a lot of good ideas in that thread that I’ve still to properly digest, and others that I’ve received via email to which I still need to respond, now that I’ve gotten my computer back from the shop.
Treacher’s retained his playfulness, it seems, though it was severely strained during the run-up to the elections. Christopher Taylor and David Thompson and many others still do good work in their little corners of the sphere. I still miss Wuzzy. But I have to say, all rejection issues aside, that I think that PJM has managed to become less than the sum of its parts.
As our host has been known to say, discuss.
I guess I still don’t see the business case for these conglomerations.
For print media and traditional broadcast media, that made sense. Those are capital-intensive operations. You aren’t going to put a web-fed press in your back yard, or a 100,000 watt broadcasting station, and that’s strictly local.
Yeah, I understand that they (in theory at least) dredge up some advertising dollars, but I don’t see that as being sustainable.
It has moderated comments. That tells me it’s basically about being an ad network. The rest is just pretension. That’s what I think anyway. Mr. Maguire is worth clicking over to sometimes.
Yeah, Maguire, Patterico. Less than the sum of the parts, see?
Ba. The only time I check those sites is if some smallish blogger links them. I’m just not as interested. I mean, talk radio is about the same – people talking at you w/o allowing for give and take of the little guy.
I like the little guy.
Portals are sort of Yahooish no?
Yeah, router. In theory, they ought to make issues synoptic, but everyone’s already got a reader that they do that with, and which they can adjust to fit their own specifications and interests.
That one guy at Big Hollywood looks like Robert Pinsky**.
Robert J. Avrech** is his name.
Honestly, to me, PJM is just where Reynolds and Malkin do their video bits. I’m not much interested in anything else going on there. I used to follow Vodkapundit but fell away during his long illness and erratic posting. I’m glad to hear he’s back in business but the PJM connection has no influence on my thoughts about him or his blogging whatsoever. I don’t have any idea what Charles Johnson does for PJM because I still bookmark LGF like I always did.
On the other hand, Big Hollywood interests me. I was on Breitbart’s email list to be notified of the launch and I’ve read it every day since. Honestly, after your linked post I considered Jeff’s talents re: Big Hollywood and wasn’t sure just how he might fit in there. Lord knows he’s all about the pop culture references and he definitely seems to like his movies. But would the Hollywood angle even interest him? I’m not sure. But it does seem that Breitbart is more inclined to shine the spotlight on new and different voices than Roger L. Simon seems to be.
To Dan I would say, keep doing what you’re doing. You’re obviously dedicated and Jeff should be grateful for you, Darleen and all of pub regulars holding down the fort for him when he wanders off on different projects. I’m sure he is grateful. It’s a nice situation to be able to step in and step out whenever necessary and still be greeted like a rock star every time. That in itself should demonstrate the devotion of his Outlaws.
Keep the faith, I hope you’re able to sort it all out.
Bill Whittle defected to BH? That really says something. More about PJM than Big Hollywood. I thought Whittle was too sharp for the PJM mindset.
Thanks, VAH. One thing I always teach my students about writing is that the only mortal sin is to bore.
I don’t much care for video bloggage; PJM to me is just Prof. Reynolds’ new address. I’ll follow links that go there, but rarely do I seek it out unprompted, other than a few of the headliners.
Recently I’ve been enjoying the potluck on offer at Discarded Lies more than usual.
I miss Wuzzadem too, he was great. I like Pajamas Media quite a bit, although their signal to noise ratio isn’t as good as Big Hollywood so far (its more like Hot Air, which has an absolutely horrible comment section). PJM is doing some different stuff and trying to be more like an alternative news site, which could be great if it works.
Treacher is a legitmately talented guy. He should have a gig on Conan in the writer’s room, maybe The Office. Outside of Iowahawk, and Jeff when he is really, really on, no one comes near on the right side of the tracks.
PJM….needs some explaining.
It was set up to be something it is now the opposite of.
What happened was that they–Roger, Charles and a few others–got together and hashed out a very good idea. What that idea was simplicity itself: Use the power of blogs to do what MSM could not and would not do on their own volition. Bloggers would be on the ground at campaign rallies with hand-helds and laptops at all the shithole stops where candidates say the things which cost them elections and launch kerfuffles; locals would be on the ground during disasters like the Tsunami and Katrina interviewing people, taking shots and downloading raw video.
The attraction was rooted in a very real dynamic: News room cutbacks. Time was when the NYT and other major organs had dozens of people in every time zone around the globe. Now, they have none. Bloggers, replete with free PJM laptops and hand-helds, would step into the void and give ground level reporting free from the institutional bias of New York based desk editors and the stooges they hire and send to these entrepots.
It was a helluva idea. On paper, they would have not only consistently scooped the MSM and reversed idiotic memes before they took their half-lives (think Charles Johnson and the CBS News “documents” in 04), they would have honestly given life to the maxim, “We report, you decide” which Fox (where I used to work) just uses to cover its conservative bias.
They fucked it up from the word go.
In the end, Charles and Roger are just California bloggers and simply were not up to the tasks of running a shadow news gathering organziation; its a lot easier, and maybe better short-term money, to run a right-wing blogger aggregator. There’s a smaller subplot that’s kind of sad: the blogger they brought in to come up with a new ad model, the guy who runs the Dennis The Peasant blog, was thrown under the bus by Roger.
I know all this because I wrote about it when I was at a newspaper and spent a few hours on the phone with Glenn Reynolds.
Bottom line: I reckon they hoovered through that $7mm in VC cash right quick. And Roger burned his rolodex to keep the fires lit.
But . . . JTP/JTR’s in Israel, right? So, at least there’s that.
Kos is doing something different because he wants to be political boss. He has built his community with that purpose. He directs to issues, gets people to focus on an issue and a candidate. All to have him get recognition for being an internet version of Boss Tweed with his followers the internet version of ward heelers.
DU is a greivance board. A place to whine and moan.
PJM has tried to become an Op-Ed farm team. It isn’t an origin for source material, it is a place for established people outside of the main pools of commenters and pundits to set themselves up and break into the main stream of punditocracy without going through NYT/WaPo and the other main syndicaters.
RealClear Politics brings together various established and farm team pundits.
Breitbart is trying to become another AP or UPI and taking on areas and audiences that those organizations ignored over the past thirty years.
Drudge is another clearing house for links to already published stories and the threat that he will reveal a story that is burbling under the surface; in that way he is the Extra! edition of an afternoon paper. Otherwise, he has become the town-crier with more than that old guy would aggregate.
PW – when Jeff was posting – was a quirky academic-type journal dedicated to the study of language and how it was used to destroy prior consensus and create a new consensus in academia, literature, and politics.
I could be wrong, but that is how I see these various internet endeavors.
Wow,
The cocoon defined.
All them sites look the same to me.
Dog whistle->Dog ears, what?
#1 SBP:
Time is money; when this is done as a hobby it eats up time, and if it doesn’t do anything for you than provide a voice and opinion that is time that could be spent on some other activity; an activity with less frustrations (frustrations = asshole humans).
Which is more rewarding – fly-fishing or dealing with trolls? I don’t like fishing, but given the choice I would rather be on the Au Sable trying to tempt a trout to bite a dry fly than deal with the trolls here.
It’s catch and release.
When I do fish, Dan, it is catch-and-release. No where near the patience for the rest.
But the walleye that Clyde catches in Lake Erie? The walleye he brings to the flotilla picnic and deep-fries?
That is some good fish.
No, I meant reeling in the trolls, Mikey.
Time to shut down; time to get ready for bed. Work tomorrow.
It sounds 60’s but some Rethuglican protest against AUTHORITY might be fun.
McGruder,
Excellent synopsis of PJM. Roger went for the easy VC cash and made out as nicely as do most Hollywood types with first dibs on the cash flow. DtP pegged it right from the get go.
AFAICT – you can shovel manure all day long on any type of blog you can dream up but the money pony is still over in the porn stall. Ender is a product of Orson Scott Card’s imagination, he’s not really available to advise people on how to change the human condition through good writing on these here intarweb thingies.
I think Jeff would be a great fit at Big Hollywood. But I’d read Jeff wherever he was writing.
The problem lies in the fact that Jeff doesn’t seem to be able to motivate himself to write for some intermittent extended periods, every now and then.
You can produce a column for some place like that a couple of times a week, and be viable. But you can’t take random intervals of from 3 to 6 months off whenever the urge strikes and keep a seat at that kind of venue.
Bummer, but there it is.
There’s some really talented writing online, guys like Treacher IAMO, Iowahawk, etc. Nobody from media would hire them today but someday maybe…
Sample post from Big Hollywood:
John Updike’s Dead: Do We Still Have To Pretend To Like His Books?
by Ben Shapiro
Some cracker who obviously writes with his feet knocking Updike is going to make any of them more than the usual $20/week?
I don’t think so.
Pajama Media are bastards. Why does it disrespect PW? Discuss.
Michelle is fine, but she is on a cycle. And I am not taking spinning. Discuss.
Comment by parsnip on 1/28 @ 8:53 pm #
You’re a fucking moron, alpo.
Do we know that Whittle has abandoned PJM?
He left PJM quite some time ago, at least in terms of his co-founder position. Though I think he’s done a video piece or two, he’s mostly just an affiliated blogger.
Oh, and Jeff would fit right in at Big Hollywood.
I remember, back in the day, when we’d go fishing at Waterman’s Lake. We’d catch bluegill, lots of them. There were a million of ’em, and not only would they waste your bait, they’d bite an empty hook. And then we’d toss ’em over our shoulder onto Route 44.
Something to think about.
I’m sorry, but PJM stinks; I only go there if linked by another blog I read…
I like, not in any particular order, American thinker, Right wing nut house, Drudge, Big Hollywood, David Thompson, Jim Treacher, Dr. Sanity, Hot Air, Ace, Gateway Pundit, Moonbattery, Wattsupwiththat, ClassicalValues, and
Doc Weaselof course PW, my first stop in the ‘sphere…I know some of these are gonna be laughed at; but I’m a simple guy…
I prefer the more thoughtful, analytic, sites with an academic feel. But, I also like the high volume sites that have a lot of headlines, and amusing as well as informative takes on the subjects…
I don’t comment on many of these sites, and don’t necessarily need the interactivity to enjoy the site. I do comment at AT, Ace, and Hot air, but not regularly; to many exciteable types there, it feels like you can’t get a word in edgewise..!
PW is different. The eclectic subjects, outlooks, and commenters makes it almost impossible to resist putting my own two cents in…
Ii is my hope that I add something to the synergy of this site…
Best Wishes to all
I’ve often thought that Jeff would do well at BH, or at AT where he has the academic heft to hang-so to speak…
But truthfully, he has a good thing going here. Perhaps with a few tweaks, and some more links, it’ll be where he’d like it to be…
And he should make and post his own video stuff, HERE!
He don’t need no stinkin’ middle-man…
Not when you’re an OUTLAW!
Bill Dupray’s Patriot Room is an up-and-coming blog I started RSSing a few months ago. They just did a site upgrade, and I noticed they were in that awards thingy a while back. Good for them.
Occasionally there’s pie..
They cranked through seven large for that? How the hell did that happen? They’re not even paying for content, right? Just a cut of the advertising revenues.
You could deploy that kind of thing on AWS for a few thousand bucks a month. Maybe $100K or so to get a really kick-ass visual design to put on top of everything.
I always have the bookmarks open, on the side, to the blog folder. The ones I check frequently get moved to the top. PW is on top and the Pub next. Belmont Club, Maggie’s Farm, Ace, Gateway Pundit, Suitably ,Flip, One Cosmos, Big Lizards, LGF, Insty.
I probably have over a hundred bookmarked but the top 15 get most of my time. Big Hollywood is moving in now that they have Iowahawk and Bill Whittle. Both are long time favorites. PJM seems to have done a Ling-Temco-Vought, for me anyways.
Sorry, Dan. I come here to read what Jeff has to say.
He makes even the dumbest shit interesting.
…oh, wait…That’s Reynolds, isn’t it.
Well, Reynolds is like having milk with yer cookies.
Jeff is like having shots of espresso with your quart jars of 200-proof pure, grain alcohol…while discussing the semiotics that are involved. If he ever does that while talking about monomyths, I’ll be absolutely hooked.
#13
Interesting back story… thanks. Somehow that smells right to me. There’s something very unsatisfying about PJM and you have explained a lot of it. If Roger mostly used it as a VC cash cow, that is very sad.
Why bother reeling the trolls in? Less frustrating to cut the line rather than have them slime up the boat while you try to get the hook out of their mouths. and the really dumb ones just swallow the hook anyway.
I have five blogs I go to regularly. PW and Vodkapundit are two of them. VP’s going to PJM didn’t affect that either way.
I don’t read for the “brand,” I read for the writer.
Daily visits:
HotAir, for the news and Ed’s analysis (I find Allah’s posts to be lazy/sloppy and they generate a lot of trolls). Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of banned lizards commenting at HotAir now so religion and science threads are tiresome… I’m posting there much less frequently since the election. I wish they would moderate that site or at least participate in the threads to tone down the vitriol (but I guess Allah wants the vitriol).
Ace of Spades, for military news and comedy. I do find that some of the threads drift from sophomoric guy jokes to the edge of misogyny… not a big appeal there, but at least they smash up their trolls effectively.
Little Green Footballs, for investigative political posts and science and culture war news.
Jawa Report, for military news
Frequently:
Iowahawk, for comedic sanity relief
neoneocon, for soothing sanity relief. I identify with her philosophical journey — although I’ve always been conservative, I’ve always been surrounded by liberals. Her posts are thoughtful and some are whimsical.
Protein Wisdom, for “pot luck” political and cultural posts. I like the academic tone of some of the posts, although they are more oriented towards the humanities crowd (I can’t relate as well as I’m a scientist).
Beldar’s Blog and Volokh for legal-oriented posts
Powerline — news and analysis
Less frequently:
I’ve become disappointed in Althouse since she drank the kool-aid, but I do check her site out from time to time (I used to be a professor, so I find the academic orientation nostalgic).
I’ve also become disappointed with Michelle Malkin so I only check her out for news. She’s too shrill, imho, and too much of an idealogue. I think the shots she took at Bush in his last months were cheap, unnecessary, and unhelpful.
Rarely:
I don’t see the point in Drudge (it’s just a news linkage site), but I do find it hysterically funny that libs think it represents some sort of big conservative threat vector.
Treacher’s a scream.
I like Lileks’ stuff, but now that he allows comments, I’m scared.
I also read Project Runway, because those guys are funny as hell about fashion and movies.
I think Jeff would be funny at Breitbart’s Hollywood, because he could go all semiotic on movies starring Lindsay Lohan (what? I can’t spell that little whore;s name?) and crap, ripping the pretensions to bitsonpieces.
I’m not a fan of vlogging. If I want to watch tv, I watch tv. I come to the Intertube to read stuff and look at picktshures.
Hey. Thanks, you guys!
Michelle Malkin disappoints me. Her first year of blogging was terrific, she was gentle and thoughtful and pointed out different things with a powerful voice and great contacts. Then she got more upset, and more bitter, and more shrill. Maybe it was inevitable, given the volume of hate that is piled on her daily, but I miss the sweeter Michelle Malkin of the past.