« Public Policy From The Blogs' Vantage Point | Main | Kos, Ben Domenech And The Quest For 'Balance' »

Hey Newsweek, Kos Is A Campaign Donor

The announcement that will set heads to "exploding in wingnutlandia": Kingpin Kos is going to be writing commentary for Newsweek during the 2008 election. Still to come: the announcement about which Republican blogger will get a gig to act as a balance to Kos.

And the MSM/blog convergence continues. Let's hope this experiment goes better than the one in Cleveland.

Just to make clear to the folks at Newsweek in case they haven't read his blog or this one closely enough: Kos has helped raise money for candidates and donated money to them himself. His most recent donation of $500 went to Barry Alan Welsh, a Democratic challenger to GOP Rep. Mike Pence in Indiana, on Sept. 30.

You can bet Kos will continue to contribute and encourage others to do the same. If you're not comfortable with that, you should have decided before you sent that press release. Now you need to dance with the one you brought.

One more thing: Kos is looking for new contributing editors at his own site, Daily Kos.

UPDATE: The bloggers in "wingnutlandia" so far have trotted out two familar storylines in the reaction to Newsweek hiring Kos -- that he is hateful in his writing and that he has a "pretty dismal" track record when it comes to politics.

Posted by Danny | 10:45 AM

Comments

In order to balance Kos they are cloning Ivan the Terrible

Glenn | 11.14.07 10:19 AM

The problem is that since the media lean left anyway, when they take someone from their left they're really far out there.

I guess Ann Coulter might come close to balancing things.

TallDave | 11.14.07 10:59 AM

Does anyone remember the episode of "Meet the Depressed", or "Deface the Nation" when Kos went up against Harold Ford? Talk about your "Godfather" moments.

Kos basically came out and made Ford an offer he couldn't refuse: to have the DLC throw in with the Kossacks, or be utterly marginalized by them.

It was a breathtaking piece of arrogance. I expect, therefore, that Kos will be a huge hit at Newsweek.

Patrick Carroll | 11.14.07 11:08 AM

McCarthy should do nicely.

willis | 11.14.07 11:11 AM

I don't know if he blogs but the only possible person to balance Kos would be Karl Rove.

Ken Hahn | 11.14.07 12:06 PM

What's Newsweek?

John | 11.14.07 01:23 PM

I welcome it. After every Kos posting in Newsweek, the Republican candidate will go up by a couple percentage points against the Democratic candidate.

Diggs | 11.14.07 03:27 PM

this is the equivalent of moving olbermann from msnbc to nbc, replacing brian williams.

Do these morons sit around and wonder how they can be more liberal, with the idea that they will make more money?

should have gone for rosie...she has more of a following than kos, and equivalent crediblity.

paul | 11.14.07 03:49 PM

Newsweek? Screw 'em.

McGehee | 11.14.07 04:07 PM

Magazine? Who reads those?

Irrelevant people in an irrelevant media.

Nothing to see here people, move along.

Dave G | 11.14.07 05:25 PM

It's weekly? The only ones I see at my doctor's office are 2-3 months old.

E9RET | 11.14.07 07:21 PM

Newsweek (and TIME) are desperate to regain the readers and advertisers they've lost to New Media. This is evidence of how clueless they really are - they actually think Kos is "cool" somehow.

Had they hired him in 2004 they might've been right for a few months, but in 2007? 2008? Kos's schtick is way past old and tired at this point, just like his overwhelmingly white-and-over-55 audience.

I'm starting to feel sorry for Newsweek. All they've got left for readers are baby boomer retirees now, imagine how stupid they'll feel when their new hipster blogger dude only brings them a handful more... retirees!

Media Pro | 11.14.07 07:39 PM

a "pretty dismal" track record when it comes to politics -

Umm pretty sure James Webb, Jon Tester, Joe Sestak, Jerry McNerney, and Patrick Murphy would disagree.

dwightkschrute | 11.15.07 02:51 AM

It's hard to gauge Kos on the success of his championed candidates.

Yes, I think all 19 people he supported in 2004 went down in flaming ruin, but then, so did most dems. It was a very succesful year for republicans.

Sure some of the ones he championed in 2006 won, but then, most democrats in 2006 won. It was a very succesful year for democrats.

I don't really see much evidence of Kos supported candidates bucking the trends in either direction.

Of course, perhaps the biggest darling of the Kos crowd, Lamont, lost embarassingly to Lieberman running as an independent.

Kristopher | 11.15.07 04:19 PM

Post a Comment