MartiniPundit

Open Source Media - Thumbs Down

When the idea for Open Source Media - then known as Pajama Media - was first bandied about, I was intrigued and asked for their prospectus. There were some serious bloggers involved, and they were people entitled to a hearing. However, after reading the prospectus, I had the feeling of being conned. It was pretty clear that in signing up I would be giving up the editorial control of my own blog and that the lion’s share of whatever money there was would be going to the big bloggers setting the thing up. While I don’t wish to impute bad motives to the OSM founders, it looked remarkably like a Ponzi scheme. I passed.

So now, with a splashy launch in New York City, flying in the top bloggers and putting them up at the W, the scheme looks just like what I feared - a lot of gravy for the big bloggers and not much left for the rest. Isn’t this already the situation with ads and links? Why should I, a small blogger, contribute to this and give up control of my writing at the same time? What, exactly, am I supposed to get out of this?

Dean Barnett at Soxblog gives one plausible reason:

As a blogger, I’m a second class pundit. But when I’m doing a story for the Weekly Standard, my phones calls to Senators, Governors, Nobel Laureates and even James Carville get returned.

The reason the calls get returned is because when I’m representing the Standard, I’m providing access to an audience that the targets of my calls want to reach. The Standard offers a level of prestige and gravitas that serves me and my sources well.

OSM should be able to do the same thing for its citizen-journalists.

Dean is a fan of OSM, and I have great respect for his writing, but I’m not as optimistic as he is. I suspect that bloggers who get that sort of access will quickly become addicted to it and lose their independence and objectivity. I could be wrong, but the journalistic community and the political community have a way of absorbing those who stumble into their parlor.

There are other disturbing signs. Ann Althouse, by no means a Lefty, has been given the DU and Kossack treatment for daring to criticize the venture:

Also, Charles Johnson linked to this post to note my bad taste—the “fluids” wisecrack—and this set off his commenters who just started wildly insulting me—hilariously assuming I’m a big lefty and using lots of bad taste insults against me. How does that make sense? If they are outraged at my bad taste, as Charles suggests they be, then why aren’t the comments primly proper?

Sexist, ad hominem, and sometimes racist slurs are hurled at right-of-center female bloggers all the time, but not typically from the Right. Frankly, we should be above that sort of thing. OSM is no more above criticism than anything else, and it’s not being helped by the herd mentality.

Meanwhile, the invaluable Moxie calls a spade a spade:

What exactly is OSM? Don’t ask me, I’m not that smart! And it seems the more I read about PJ Media/OSM, the less I know:

“ Many details of OSM remain unsettled. For example, OSM wants to create a mechanism for citizen journalists, including bloggers, to submit original news during natural disasters, civil unrest and other newsworthy events. Simon said organizers still have to come up with ways to check submissions for accuracy.”

Silly, trite details. fact checking, and all. Critics have noted that there is already a vehicle for this purpose, known as THE F*CKING INTERNET.

OSM may yet take off and succeed at whatever it plans to do. But it’s hardly a revolution and it’s not going to impact the vast majority of bloggers. If anything, it will dampen the great leveller of the blogosphere - merit, replacing it with a self-appointed group of guardians, many of whom are there because they happened to get in early. I’ll still pass.

Update

Perhaps I should have waited. Iowahawk explains all you need to know about OSM.

1. I still love you, Matt, though I’ve taken the plunge. I don’t have any idea where this will go, but you know the old saw about taking risks . . . What do I have to lose, after all? 

   Posted by Sissy Willis  on  11/17  at  09:58 PM

2. This is one where we all need to evaluate the cost/benefit for ourselves. I saw no upside for myself, but your mileage may vary ... 

   Posted by  on  11/18  at  01:20 AM

3. I simply don’t get this reaction. Essentially, I am doing the same thing I’ve always done, only instead of getting money from blogads, I get it from OSM.

   In return, they can post some of my stuff, at their discretion, on their portal site.

   And yet I keep reading self-righteous bloggers go on about how they didn’t take an offer from OSM because the cared about their “independence.” Huh?

   Really, I’m quite confused by that.  OSM has no editorial control over my site.  If I do something they don’t approve of, they can boot me.  But when I joined, I talked to Roger on the phone and asked if he’d have a problem with anything I’d written.  He said he did not.  So from what I gather, all they are really concerned about is libel and porn.

   Posted by Jeff G  on  11/18  at  01:49 AM

4. Perhaps, but some of us don’t make money on our sites. My traffic is a fraction of yours, but even then, TTLB doesn’t get it right. They’ve had me stuck at 78 hits per day, day in and day out every day, for more than a year now (I’ve e-mailed, no results). Most days I do better than that, but not by that much. So for me, this would be contributing to a venture that makes money for other bloggers but not really for me. And I’ll have to permit others to edit my material. And the details have yet to be worked out. If I wanted all that, I would be a journalist.

   Frankly, given my low traffic, I’m amazed I get as much attention as I do. I declined to get involved, but for some inexplicable reason, OSM launched anyway. Hey, I don’t wish any of the participants ill, and if it works better than I expect, I’ll say so.

   Posted by  on  11/18  at  01:32 PM

5. Hey Matt… a Ponzi scheme means you contribute something (dollars).  Aside from my Blogads space that I’ve given up, I have had to contribute NOTHING to be a OSM blogger.  In fact, I received my first royalty check BEFORE the launch… and I’m certainly not one of the big fish!!!

   Posted by Bruce (GayPatriot)  on  11/18  at  04:31 PM

6. I said “like,” in this case my contribution would be writing.

   I’m still amazed at the attention I’m getting over this post. Crikey, Slate linked to me! Of course, that may go a long way to proving me wrong on this one ... 

   Posted by  on  11/18  at  04:50 PM

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