Well, it isn't just the old media that's having issues. A few days ago Culture11 folded. Now it looks like Pajamas Media network is shutting down (they're going to go into vlogging fulltime?). I got a few links from PM back in 2005-2006, very little traffic. It didn't seem like the aggregation was adding any value to the constituent weblogs. Additionally, a lot of their stuff is 2001-2004 vintage Right-of-Center media commentary, the sell-by date has long passed. Something like The Next Right is what circa 2010 conservative weblogs are going to look like, at least the good ones. Look at this DJ Drummond level of idiocy last fall at PM:
New York is also worth a look, as it's truly an odd animal. Hillary thumped Barack by more than 17 points in her adopted home state in February, and though Obama should still be able to claim a win here, he's slipping each day. New York will not be nearly as easy as it was in 2004, when Kerry also won by 17 points.New York City has more Jews than any city in the world and most polls also show that close to 40% of Jews, a pre-9/11 lock for Democrats, don't support Obama. That is compared to just 26% and 19% who supported Bush in 2004 and 2000, respectively, and the paltry 11% who voted for Bob Dole in 1996.
I have 12 close friends in the New York City area from ages 24 to 31, who work in various fields, from accounting to advertising. All are registered Democrats from similar backgrounds and all voted for Kerry last election. Eleven of them, in response to a recent email, told me they are voting for John McCain. The one who's not, an erstwhile supporter of John Edwards, is undecided.
As you can see for yourself, I was curious as to whether this "analysis" was a joke or not. Obama beat McCain by 25 points in New York....
Comments
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." - Feynman
Much as I didn't like it at the time as a conservative, I'm at least proud to say that I predicted the result pretty accurately. I almost got the electoral vote right too, I think I was off by 2 states. New York was not one of the wrong ones. Even Texas was more closely contested.
Posted by: Matt Springer | January 31, 2009 3:25 AM
alas, many people prefer the sentiment of fox mulder. but the moronic predictions were good for one thing: sifting the credulous from the credible.
Posted by: razib | January 31, 2009 4:13 AM
Correction
The ad network is being shut down, the aggregation and blog host continues. With equipment for streaming video to your tv coming up, Mr. Simon (head of PM) expects video to play a bigger role in blogging and the Internet.
Posted by: Alan Kellogg | January 31, 2009 9:12 PM
Let me add that this. . .
. . .does not contradict the actual results. For one thing, Mr. Kaufman was only speaking about his friends. A group that cannot be taken as typical of Jews in New York City. Nor did he say they were typical.
For another, 14 people of contrary thought are no where near enough to alter the outcome of a vote in a location with a sizable Jewish population. What it does illustrate is that Jews are hardly a monolithic block.
Not everybody, even among groups who mostly support him, support President Obama. Not everybody, even among groups who mostly oppose him, oppose President Obama. I see things in his planning that are good for the country, there I wish him success. I also see things in his planning that are bad for the country, there I hope he fails. Over all, for the good of the country I hope his presidency is considered a successful one. However, I will not support bad ideas just because their success will make him look good.
He's my president, but that doesn't mean I have to shut down my brain.
Posted by: Alan Kellogg | January 31, 2009 9:30 PM
alan, did you read the tard kaufman's whole post? and don't talk to me like a tard OK? it's tiresome. if jews are not a monolithic block, than can blacks be considered monolithic? on the order of 5% of blacks voted for mccain. kaufman's moron post was the classic tardish trope from last fall about how one can't trust the polls. b. hussein obama consistently outpolled mccain in colorado. i don't give a shit banal and trivial observations about within group variation in opinion when all that matters are final tote-ups (speaking as a brown right-leaning atheist from a muslim background i know whereof you speak). here's kaufman on colorado:
Colorado is not just “The People’s Republic of Boulder,” metro Denver, and assorted ski areas. Though the state could be closer than in 2004 when Bush won by nearly six points, Coloradoans are just not that radical outside of Boulder. Cult-like conventions and energetic crowds bring ephemeral momentum, but Colorado Springs, the state’s next largest city, is conservative (unlike most other second cities). The Springs sits about an hour south of the moderate Denver suburbs and is home to major military bases including the U.S. Air Force Academy and Focus on the Family’s headquarters. Some liberal groups call it “the most conservative place in America.”
Ranchers in the state’s eastern plains are predominantly Republican and have been that way for nearly 40 years. They drive GMC Yukons with their daughter’s softball number on the window, not Subarus with their bikes affixed to roof racks. It’s therefore shortsighted for anyone to speculate a major switch here. Not everyone in the Centennial State is a laggard or Ward Churchill. Don’t forget, McCain also hails from a bordering state and the politics, including social views, of folks in Colorado’s Western Slope run nearly as conservative as those in Utah and Arizona.
i might as well replace "austin" for "colorado springs." the fact that colorado has many conservatives is true and trivial. but the fact that there are *some* conservatives in colorado magically got transformed into "well, the polls might be wrong in colorado" in the minds of some tards.
for the record, i suspect kaufman knew he was bullshitting, but that's what his audience wanted to hear. most of them are morons who just want to believe and didn't know much in the first place, like most humans. even some smart people i know decided to go all tardish because of their biases, so perhaps i shouldn't be so harsh.
Posted by: razib | January 31, 2009 10:58 PM
In the 1980's all my liberal friends kept insisting to me that Mondale was going to win and that the polls were wrong. I believe that there were even occasional reports in the media that also said that. I think partisans of any type engage in mental gymnastics to avoid reading the writing on the wall.
Posted by: Larry, San Francisco | February 2, 2009 7:52 PM
Come on, everyone needs their fantasies to help them deal with a reality they want to deny and are powerless to change.
Posted by: MIchael | February 4, 2009 3:43 AM