They increase online rankings and steer traffic, true.
But they also say a great deal about what you believe in.
The Nation thought they could get away with keeping their supposed rival The New Republic(an) on "Sites We Like" until enough visitors to their website began complaining loudly and noting that the two opinion journals were supposed to be in opposition. (Not really though. Pig Bergen published in The Nation in January 2007 and now he's spreading his bad seed this month in The New Republic.]
Our general policy is "We don't link to trash." When Ava and C.I. did "TV: 24 -- like 60 Minutes with less action" they went back and forth over whether to link to trash (Rush Limbaugh). They didn't want to link to him but were aware Ty gets stuck with reading the bulk of the e-mails and there would surely be some of the usual crackpots disputing what they were saying so if they didn't provide a link to trash's comments, Ty would be stuck the loonies. They made an exception and noted how trashy Rush was and how trashy the show was. (Rush was endorsing the show, raving over it, in fact.) That was one of the few times trash has been linked to. And Ava and C.I. went back and forth over that (and even sought input from the rest of us which was no help).
But week in and week out, we avoid linking to trash. There are ways around it, you can simply site an issue or date. You can do a Google cache (which wasn't possible with Rush). But if you link to trash, you need to call it out.
If you're the left, you really need to call it out if you feel you have to link to trash.
Hillary Hatred is so intense in our 'independent' media that we saw a lot of smut last week. We saw an idiot woman argue (at CounterPunch -- note how we don't provide a link) that Hillary Clinton owed Paula Jones. We saw William Greider demonstrate that his talent and common sense got left behind at Rolling Stone when he went deep in the gutter of the tabloid nineties to trash Hillary. We saw hatred, we saw slime, we saw 'independent' media waste everyone's time.
But the hands down (or maybe just hands down the front of his pants) winner was Matthew Rothschild who sometimes likes to be billed as "Matt" and who is the chair of the board of directors of The Progressive.
He'd already embarrassed himself last week in one of his "I'm Matt Rothschild and that's how I see it" radio spots. In that, he'd claimed, "Finally, Obama took the gloves off after lackluster performances in almost all the previous debates which sewed doubts about his ability to not only take on Hillary Clinton but also to duke it out with whoever is his Republican challenger, Obama came to Myrtle Beach to fight and fight he did."
Insert eye roll here. Last week, he was on the airwaves maintaining Bambi gave "lackluster performances in almost all the previous debates" and of course mere weeks ago he was praising Bambi's debate performance through the roof. (Only to turn around and act like he hadn't days after.) He's become the Jimmy & Paul CrossFire act rolled up into one person. You never know what he will say but you can't bet it won't be honest and it will support his candidate of choice.
He's far from alone in that since he got bitten by the Bambi bug but no one reached lower, no one rolled in the gutter as gleefully as Matthew Rothschild last week. And remember, Alexander Cockburn hates Hillary Clinton, he loathes her. He's openly loathed her (and Bill) for years. And Cockburn filed multiple columns last week. But he couldn't hold a candle to Matt.
What does The Progressive stand for?
Rothschild informed readers last week: Nothing.
There is no sewer too dirty for the magazine to roll around in.
Which is how Thursday, this came to be up at The Progressive:
RECOMMENDED BY THE EDITORS
Stories and links of interest chosen by the editors of The Progressive magazine.
Weekly Standard: "If you thought the late '90s were ugly, just wait."
The Clinton-Obama battle reveals two very different ideas of the Presidency.
Bush Officials Lied 935 times
Retired Pakistani generals tell Musharraf to leave
West's military leaders cling to nuclear first strike
We've removed the links. Check out the top one: The Weekly Standard.
Apparently Judicial Watch was down that day?
The Weekly Standard. The Progressive was linking to The Weekly Standard. That should bother readers. Not only were they linking to it, they were doing so in a feature entitled "Recommended by the Editors. Stories and links of interest chosen by the editors of The Progressive magazine."
As Rickie Lee Jones once wondered, "What can make a boy behave that way?"
Well Matty's not in love, he's in hate, he's in hate . . . with Hillary.
So great is his hate that he'll link to one of the most discredited outlets of the right, the neocon bible, the magazine that sold the illegal war and is trying to sell the war on Iran. Didn't we all just see a mini-tsunami online about William Kristol being added as a columnist to The New York Times? Kristol runs what?
Yes, The Weekly Standard.
There is no reason any left magazine should be linking to The Weekly Standard with a "recommended" Crazy Ass Seal of Approval. But Matty did that.
If you clicked on the link, you were taken to a page of The Progressive that contained nothing but a link to The Weekly Standard. Clicking there took you to an article at The Weekly Standard.
"Wait," you say, "it had to be important. Maybe they were doing a mea culpa."
They were writing about a group of Hillary Haters whose name rhymes with "runt" but starts with a "c". Are you getting it?
Are you getting the picture of just how vile and disgusting Matthew Rothschild was last week.
It wasn't appalling enough that an outlet called "The Progressive" was linking to The Weekly Standard, they were linking to an article about a group that calls Hillary Clinton the "c" word. And, therefore, calls all women the "c" word.
That is beyond disgusting. That is sick and perverted.
In a recent note to readers of the magazine, "Matt" told the story of how his mother recently passed away. We'll assume if The Weekly Standard article had been about a group calling his mother the "c" word, he wouldn't have linked. (We could be wrong.) But, reality, when one woman's called that, all women are called it.
A "c" word's just a woman who didn't do what some man wanted her to do. It's meant as a vile insult. It can't be used on network television (thus far). It's not "bitch" or "whore" or any of the other words that have become common on network television. It's considered a vile and disgusting word and even with the destruction of Standards & Practices at the big three networks, it still can't make it onto air.
But Matty was happy to link to it. In fact, it was linked to and "recommended." By the editors, remember.
When your Hillary Hatred is so great that you, an allegedly left magazine, are linking to and recommending The Weekly Standard, you have serious problems. When the article you link to is about a group calling a woman the "c" word, you need to get help. Not tomorrow, not the day after, right away.
You have no standards and you have no taste.
You're nothing but a cheap little hustler on the make for your candidate (Bambi in Matt's case).
That was disgraceful and appalling. He can't weasel out of it with "well the writer was kind of on Hillary's side." Bull s**t. The writer was as delighted to churn that piece out as Matty was to link to it. There were already sites calling out the group (such as The Carpet Bagger or The Carpetbagger*, we're not familiar with the site but complaints on The Progressive noted that the blog had called it out and could have been linked to) that are left or left leaning. He could have linked to those. But it really wasn't about calling the group out, it was about smearing Hillary and, due to the insult, smearing all women.
In terms of demographics, the majority of the subscribers to The Progressive are women. Rothschild owes all subscribers an apology, but he especially owes it to women.
We had to wonder what he wouldn't link to if the shoe was on the other foot? If he had Bambi hatred, would he have linked to a right wing publication using the "n" word?
He is the smut merchant of the week.
And he more than earned the title.
We really don't come down hard on The Progressive here. Look at the coverage (or the read whiny e-mails from The Nation) and you'll quickly grasp that The Progressive gets a pass compared to other print magazines for the left. But Matthew Rothschild managed to do something so disgusting that even Katrina vanden Heuvel would never do it. That's right, he did more damage than vanden Heuvel could. That is disgusting, disappointing and it is not now or ever acceptable.
[Illustrations by Betty's oldest son. *Note, it's The Carpetbagger Report. Also, since this went up, Mia's e-mailed to note that PR Watch has a story on that group and manages not to link to The Weekly Standard or use the vile term.]