“It’s standard operating procedure” to pay bloggers for favorable coverage, says one Republican campaign operative. A GOP blogger-for-hire estimates that “at least half the bloggers that are out there” on the Republican side “are getting remuneration in some way beyond ad sales.”
In California, where former eBay executive Meg Whitman beat businessman Steve Poizner in a bitterly fought primary battle in the campaign for governor, it sometimes seemed as if there was a bidding war for bloggers.
This comes via Conor Friedersdorf, who says “there isn’t anything earth-shattering in the piece,” and he’s right. Basically, they have one example of a blogger taking money from the Steve Poizner campaign and getting fired from the site he wrote for. And it’s not even clear if he got fired for taking money, or merely fired for taking money from the wrong side.
More please! If there really was a “bidding war” for conservative bloggers in California this year, I want to hear about it. Sounds juicy.
UPDATE: Just to be clear: The piece does have some other examples of bloggers taking campaign cash (though not many). However, there’s only one related to California’s supposed bidding war. That’s what I want to hear more about.
