Sunday, January 16, 2005
Everything is a commercial
Armed Liberal connects Kos, Armstrong Williams, a campaign for a Sony camera phone, and The Hidden Persuaders, the classic book from the 1950s that taught the world about subliminal advertising.
There is an issue with the role of bloggers in tacitly promoting things which are part and parcel of their real lies [sic] - of spinning what they write and present as 'free commentary' to suit the financial or political winds that may advantage them. But if we lift our heads and look around, we'll see that these are part of a set of much bigger trends.
The amateur nature of blogging up to now has been a significant part of its delight; we may well look back on this as the Golden Age, before Duncan Black and Oliver Willis rode partisan commentary to advocacy jobs, before Lauck and Van Beek slammed Daschle in their blogs while taking cash from Thune's campaign, and before Kos got hired to make sure he didn't defect to Clark.
But the downfall - if it happens - isn't something that's unique to blogging, no not at all.
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