My Comment on the new WaPo Plagiarnazi

I left this at Atrios/eschaton.blogspot.com but i thought it was enlightening enough to COPY AND PASTE here.
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[on Ben Domenech/Red State/WaPo/etc.]

I almost did not believe this. Then I thought, hey, Self, you used to make a living plagiarizing!

And so I did. I was a radio ad copywriter. Pretty damned soul-destroying whorish work, if you actually did it. Plus, who can write an ad saying something nice about plastic awnings or overpriced brand name sneakers? Not me, for sure.

So from week one, I wrote a few ads with a mind to what the inbred people running the place (mostly a sports and bad music station) probably wanted (basically I was acting, which I'm reasonable at). And I listened to radio ads all the time (while I read dime novels). By the end of the week I had accumulated dozens, almost a hundred, phrase bits, some medium long, many of them very cliche. I then simply mixed them together at semi random and turned in the ads.

I tried to avoid the top ten phrases being stolen by the other ads (unless it was something expected like "step into summer with our new shoes" or what have you).

They said I was a gifted copywriter but had a bad, anti-business attitude and was surly, so I didn't last.

Still, in the end analysis, they never noticed that the competing ads were being recycled by me (I was reading a lot of Wm. Burroughs at the time, so it felt like detournement). After my first week, I never once wrote an original sentence. it was 100% plagiarized.

Moral: Ben Domenech should write ad copy, and I should be the WaPo Moral Values and Heartland Dreams weblog editor!

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FOOTNOTE EXCLUSIVE TO FASCIST OAR READERS:

Here I am even plagiarizing myself. It feels gooooood.

Don't use the phony right-wing "blogosphere ecosystem"

I won't even link to it.

Check this out:

Top 4 Conservative Blogs - Via Blogads.com
Powerline - 590,127
RedState - 288,135
HughHewitt - 263.388
Wizbang - 188,841

Top 4 Liberal Blogs - Via Blogads.com
DailyKos - 4,053,290
Democratic Underground - 1,434,904
Crooks and Liars - 1,282,182
Talking Points Memo - 990,132

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/03/06/hinderaker-politely-responds/

And this:

1
Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things
Last updated 11 hours ago.
68,124 links from 20,298 sites
2
Engadget
Last updated 11 hours ago.
85,560 links from 15,323 sites
3
PostSecret
PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

By frank warren. Last updated 1 day ago.
21,271 links from 12,907 sites
4
Daily Kos: State of the Nation
Last updated 11 hours ago.
50,127 links from 10,760 sites
5
spaces.msn.com/after1s
Last updated 1 day ago.
27,380 links from 8,916 sites
6
spaces.msn.com/lin28379801400
Last updated 1 day ago.
30,841 links from 8,506 sites
7
The Huffington Post

By Arianna Huffington. Last updated 1 day ago.
41,065 links from 8,353 sites
8
Official Google Blog
Last updated 1 day ago.
17,119 links from 7,224 sites
9
Thought Mechanics

By Theron Parlin and Matthew Good. Last updated 16 hours ago.
8,351 links from 7,152 sites
10
Michelle Malkin

By Michelle Malkin. Last updated 13 hours ago.
42,345 links from 6,852 sites

http://technorati.com/pop/blogs/

And now compare that to the right-wing biased "blogosphere ecosystem." This mendacious, often tweaked (and usually in favor of con blogs) list lets our mass media pretend sites like instapundit or EVEN LITTLE GREEN FOOTBALLS are popular and influential:

1.Michelle Malkin (3249) details
2.Instapundit.com (3181) details
3.Power Line (2225) details
4.Daily Kos: State of the Nation (2165) details
5.Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things (1995) details
6.lgf: germans at the alamo (1985) details
7.Captain's Quarters (1878) details
8.Hugh Hewitt (1577) details
9.Mudville Gazette (1431) details
10.Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall (1409) details

The fraud running the list program claims "liberals" (always "liberals") "game" his system, and that justifies him tweaking it to make conservative sites look more popular. If you are, in fact, inclined to "game" this farce, I suggest, "ignore" would work better. Your more popular weblogs are enabling the promotion of less popular right-wing blogs to your disadvantage. Just say no to the blogosphere ecology.