The Solution is So Obvious
When I posted my koan, it was because I saw the link to Palin's idiot op-ed at Memeorandum with at least four dozen posts under it already. I'm sure there were much more before the day was over. Now Greg Sargent informs us:
The only thing that linkfest to her op-ed did was encourage the WaPo and the other struggling MSM sites to keep publishing this crap to drive their traffic.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News]
I’m told by the paper’s insiders that her piece was one of the most-read WaPo opinion pieces of the year, coming in 21st in page views out of literally hundreds of opinion articles. An earlier Palin Op ed in the paper on the same topic was the third most read of the year.No Greg. It's not amazing at all. I've been griping about this for years. Sure mocking the stupidity is fun. Snark pulls in the hits to their own sites. But if bloggers, progressives, et. al, really want to marginalize the idiots, the only way to do it is treat them like any other troll on the internets. Freaking ignore them.
A lot of this is probably driven by heavy outside linkage. But still, the fact that Sarah Palin, of all people, is able to command such attention for her views on the science of climate change, of all things, is kind of amazing.
To be clear, I’m not defending the decision to run the piece. I wouldn’t have run it. I’m just pointing out the undeniable fact that the woman’s name gets people clicking. Until people stop clicking, Palin and her views will continue to get attention.
The only thing that linkfest to her op-ed did was encourage the WaPo and the other struggling MSM sites to keep publishing this crap to drive their traffic.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News]
Labels: bloggers, dangerous idiots, Media, Sarah Palin, Wingnuts
posted by Libby Spencer at 3:14 PM
4 Comments:
"Ignore them."
Excellent idea, but it take discipline. And I'm afraid we are a lazy lot, discipline is not something we do well in the US of A.
To be fair, I guess you can't ignore them entirely. But I keep thinking there must be a way to keep it from exploding. Like there could be designated debunkers and then everyone else could link to that person instead of the original piece. Or something.
I can't help but think that the wingnut bloggers lost a lot of influence when the lefties stopped linking to every stupid thing they said. You look at Memeo these days and the links are all from the same circle of wingnuts. It's a lot harder for them to drive the narrative since that started happening.
Maybe I'm just cranky because of this miserable cold.
One constant is the loyalty righties show to each other's blogs and websites Libby. Notice how many followers the small timers get just for leaving a few commants bashing the left.
Perhaps it would be wiser to ignore them. But it may also be dangerous to let them spout their nonsense without exposing them for the nuts they are.
I got killed hit count wise by right wing blogs for almost three years locally. I thought I was the only progressive blogger in western Illinois. Maybe the world. My view is a reflection of Illinois politics at it's worst and finest. Let no attack go unpunished.
Not saying no one should push back and expose the wingnuts, but when these idiot op-eds generate traffic, no matter whether it's because of mockery or praise, more will be published and not everyone who reads the WaPo is going to see the pushback on the blogs. So in a way, the mockery spreads the message.
Again, the wingnut blogs lost a lot of influence when the lefties stopped linking to every stupid thing they said.
Guess I don't know how to balance it either but I still see it as a problem.
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