More antagonism toward guestblogging candidates.

Beltway Blogroll has a comprehensive post about Hillary Clinton's "guestblogging" at Firedoglake. It notes the Sleuth piece that frets about the connection between Firedoglake and blackface humor and goes on to talk about what I said was more important, the dual problem of a blog's sacrificing its independence by publishing campaign PR for the candidate and the candidate's presenting herself in an inappropriate context.

Beltway Blogroll quotes one of Firedoglake's own commenters taking issue with the decision to present Hillary as a guestblogger:

"Forgive me, but maybe someone can tell me exactly what was accomplished by having Hilary [sic] as a 'guest?' ... [S]he didn't say one thing that wasn't part of her campaign talking points and managed to duck answering any of the more pointed questions."

One of the commenters at Firedoglake was Jeralyn Merritt, who fell below her usual astute standard to smarm:

Senator Clinton, Jane and Christy,

This was such a welcome surprise. I hope you do it again on other issues. It’s a great way for the candidates to make our acquaintance and strengthen our working relationship with them.

Jeralyn

Ugh! Beltway Blogroll is on my wavelength:

The problem is that the pursuit of a "working relationship" with campaigns can undermine the very spirit of the blogosphere. As one Firedoglake reader noted: "Senator Clinton is very on message. I don't think of a blog as a place to focus on just one subject. I can understand a candidate insisting on this as a requirement for appearing, but, on the other hand, it just doesn't seem bloggish."...

[Other commenters wrote:]

"[T]hese kinds of cameo appearances are of very little use, other than enabling the candidate to hype her talking points."

"I think you guys made a mistake, believing that you could INCREASE your blog power, or readership, or whatever, by bringing Hillary in here, having her field a few sweetheart questions, and then having her waltz out with credit for making a 'tough blogsite' appearance."

Firedoglake resisted taking this criticism seriously. TRex chose instead to write a vicious rant against me, calling me a "token," a "pet," a "talking dog," and a "vile, despicable" person. That is, ironically, he ended up underlining my point that Firedoglake is such an ugly, nasty place that a mainstream candidate should want to avoid it. Yeah, the traffic is tempting, but the traffic is there because of these very qualities. Porn sites get a lot of traffic too, you know.