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More Disclosures From Patrick Hynes

Blogger Patrick Hynes just called from the road after seeing my entry about the controversy surrounding his political consulting work. I asked about the apparent inconsistency of him criticizing other bloggers for not engaging in full disclosure about suspected business relationships when he himself had not disclosed an actual business relationship.

"For the record, you're right," Hynes said contritely.

He also agreed to disclose some other business relationships.

Straight Talk America, the political action committee of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is one of three clients Hynes has through his consulting company, New Media Strategics. The other two are the seniors' group AARP and a candidate for the New Hampshire Executive Council, an entity that works in conjunction with the governor to approve boards and commissions.

Hynes said he is auditing the Web communications of AARP. His work also entails advising the group about its blog and how to foster relations with bloggers.

He further noted that he is an employee of Calypso Communications, a New Hampshire-based public relations firm whose clients include the University System of New Hampshire and U.S. Cellular. Hynes said he is in business with one of Calypso's partners at New Media Strategics.

One thing is clear to me after talking with Hynes: He is on the mark when he boasts that he "understands how bloggers receive and process information. What energizes them and, just as [important], what turns them off."

He was as forthright and honest with me as any source I've ever interviewed, and he was not at all defensive even though I was asking pointed questions. That was definitely a new media approach to talking with a journalist/blogger.

UPDATE: Wonkette noted another irony in this whole story -- that Hynes criticized Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos for being a "paid shill" of 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, even though Moulitsas disclosed that relationship. Moulitsas and his blog buddy, Duncan Black of Eschaton, shared a laugh over that revelation of hypocrisy.

Over at RedState, meanwhile, the blogger who posts under the pseudonym Machiavel inexplicably chastised National Journal's own Blogometer for allegedly ignoring the story -- twice -- and then leapt to the illogical conclusion that the entire mainstream media is biased against bloggers on the right.

I'm thinking Machiavel needs to expand his MSM diet beyond The Blogometer to include Beltway Blogroll, Hotline On Call, The Fix at washingtonpost.com and the rest of us mainstream losers.

UPDATE II: As the story spread yesterday, Hynes started taking a verbal beating in the comments section at Ankle Biting Pundits. I liked this sarcastic comment best: "I have the sincerest sympathy for a man who accuses another of doing something that he himself has been engaging in and who offers up a heartfelt apology after he gets caught."

There is also this post, purportedly from Jerome Armstrong of MyDD, speaking of himself and Moulitsas: "First of all, you blogethicists that demand disclosure are full of s---. Secondly, I’ve always disclosed who I’ve worked with and to my knowledge, so has Markos."

And over at Real Clear Politics, Ryan Sager offered this observation about a perceived hypocrisy of McCain's: "[I]sn't McCain the one always hyperventilating about 'circumvention' of campaign-finance laws. He and his pals even wanted to clamp down on the Internet recently to prevent bloggers from coordinating with campaigns. And now this is what his PAC is up to? Very odd. Or, really, entirely predictable."

UPDATE III: More thoughts from Lorie Byrd at Wizbang.

Posted by Danny | 11:07 PM

Comments

Danny, you've always been in the "mainstream loser" circle of blogs I read everyday.

And yes, you jumped on this story right after Geraghty. I only singled out the Blogometer because it's normally the most comprehensive in terms of at least touching all the bases. The fact that it didn't mention the hire -- and that no "mainstream loser" blog picked it up prior to the ensuing controversy -- while they immediately touted the hire of Peter Daou by Hillary Clinton -- tells me that (for whatever reason) the Beltway Media is simply more attuned to what's going on in the left side of the blogosphere.

That's too bad, because conservative bloggers have actually been more effective at changing the tenor some of these key debates, and have done so within the larger ambit of the governing party. A perfect example is the obsessive wall-to-wall coverage given of the progressive blogosphere's role in the Lieberman-vs-Lamont primary, while the equally important (and eerily similar) Laffey-vs-Chafee primary is ignored.

None of this is meant to distract or deflect from the disclosure issues at hand. Hynes must take his lumps, and it's seems like he's doing just that. It's entirely appropriate to focus on what you're focusing on. But, had disclosure not been an issue, I do question if the "mainstream losers" would have been quick enough to grasp the significance of this hire.

Machiavel | 07.27.06 01:03 AM

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