Some of you probably read a recent article by Eclectablog titled Why I will never post another word at My.Firedoglake.com. He also posted it at Daily Kos.
Apparently Hamsher saw it because according to this post at Angry Black Lady, he got the following email from one of her employees.
The chances of you becoming a paid front pager somewhere have dropped significantly … Jane will never forget and she will bad mouth you to the major blog owners if your name comes up. She is a friend of Marcos [sic] and Josh Marshall and the guys who run the American Prospect and pretty much anyone on the liberal side of the blogs and you’ve made a major career fuck up.
I doubt he got that employee's permission to publish that email, but I'm very glad Eclectablog decided to go public with it. We've heard rumors of this kind of thing before, but this just confirms it.
Its past time for folks to wake up and smell the rancid brew this woman is creating. I doubt she has the power she thinks she has because - as just one example - Denise Oliver Velez now has a position on the front page of Daily Kos after writing one of the most damaging screeds on the internet about Hamsher.
What this email does expose is her motives and strategy. I think its high time that word got out and people started to ask proprietors at blogs like Daily Kos, Think Progress and the American Prospect to stand up and show their independence by denouncing Hamsher and any associations they might have had with her.
And as for her delusions of grandeur - lets show Ms. Hamsher just what we can do without her on the pragmatic progressive blogs. I'm with Eclectablog on this one!
If the cost of being a paid liberal blogger is kowtowing to someone who will try to destroy your career if you say something negative about her, I won’t pay that price. I probably make more money in my day job than Jane does keeping the internet safe from pragprog Obama supporters and I can blog circles around her doing it as a hobby.
UPDATE: I keep re-reading this line from the email:
Jane will never forget and she will bad mouth you to the major blog owners if your name comes up.
I hate to sound all CT and stuff, but WTF! Do the proprietors of the blogs she mentioned have to check in with Jane before they promote someone? I really think its time they answered that question. After all, its one of Jane's employees saying this. Either its scare tactics (which is bad enough) or that employee has just divulged the hand that Jane wields. Which one is it?
Kos is doing a triple axel over a hammerhead anyway. It used to be a place to organize and share information, strategy, and ideas for getting democrats elected. It was a stubbornly reality based culture. It DOMINATED that market on the left. In a feat of myopia and despite multiple warnings from those who saw it coming, the place has vacated that dominant market share in order to split shares of a much smaller, much less effective, and much less relevant frustrati/firebagger market with no care for the veracity of its statements or sense of any responsibility for its impact. That's why there is now a space being shared by much healthier pragmatic progressive blogs such as BWD's Only Adult in the Room, or The People's View, or this one or Eclectablog.
ReplyDeleteIt feels to me like the swing you're describing at DK happened about the same time Hamsher started paying people to post there.
ReplyDeleteIts hard to avoid wondering if the two are connected.
Very cool, Smartypants. The evidence is getting overwhelming that Hamsher is a hack, opportunist, vengeful, doesn't give a flying fuck about real people, and is more concerned with trying to exert some self perceived power over candidates, politicians and even fellow bloggers. Damn I'm glad I blog for the best of the new left blogs, www.angryblacklady.com, where I can say whatever the hell I want. It's paradise over there. #shamelessplug
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty plain to see imo.
ReplyDeleteShe lost me with her racist stunt when she was "supporting" the Lamont campaign.
ReplyDeleteHi extremeliberal. I should have mentioned www.angryblacklady.com with the blogs that I mentioned earlier. I have wound up there a few times lately. I will usually visit thepeoplesview on a break at work and start clicking on interesting titles in the blogroll. One site leads to another...
ReplyDeleteI like smartypants, thinkprogress, balloon juice... It's sort of fortunate that dkos made the strategic flub that it did in vacating the grown ups market. I think that, over time, all of these pragprog blogs can grow to something more than a single kos could have even if it hadn't strayed.
She owns 22 blog sites. Just about all of the major ones.
ReplyDelete"Jane will never forget and she will bad mouth you to the major blog owners if your name comes up."
ReplyDeleteI agree. That sentence is very concerning. I think it perfectly exemplifies babyJane's attitude and how she conducts herself.
I think it's high time we turn the tables on her. Anytime she appears on news shows painting herself as "Obama's base", we should make sure we contact the show and tell what we know about her.
Smartypants, Since Jane is such a tyrant and evil doer, I wanted to get your permission to send this to some of the network shows. Is that okay by you?
ReplyDeletedorothy,
ReplyDeleteIts fine by me. But I think its probably more important to get Eclectablog's permission. Perhaps you've already done that.
Gotcha.
ReplyDeleteWe all need to email Ed Schultz to let him know how we feel about Hamsher. That is the last place I saw her. We also need to send around copies of her PAC filings. What is she doing with the money she is collecting?
ReplyDelete"It feels to me like the swing you're describing at DK happened about the same time Hamsher started paying people to post there. "
ReplyDeleteAnd it was aided and abetted by Kos (through his minion Meteor Blades) allowing it to go on unchecked. It was when I realized that this was not just an attempt by Jane's minions to take over the site, but it was being encouraged that I left. MB did not like my response to his e-mail asking why. ;)