Here's an interesting little experiment from Vanity Fair: A guide to the blogosphere that isn't broken down by left and right but by news/opinion and high/low-brow.
Click image above to view it. You'll find NewsBusters around the middle of the right side. The descriptions skew leftward as you might expect from VF, but the chart itself is pretty accurate. Your thoughts?
Hat tip: Matt Lewis.
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Ya know, it's mazin what U can Do with these here computers..
June 14, 2008 - 11:34 ET by JayTeeXML unchained, can send Spiders down your Screen, etc...etc.. You didn't Mention that after you click on the screen, pop up boxes Describe Each Site...somewhat critically in some instances....they could not help themselves.
That's a Busy Page, sorta Fair and Balanced...interesting that LIttle Green Footballs is towards the Middle. but ....
Is this ONE Editors Opinion ? Group think ? Darts thrown at a Board ?
The Sun is Shining outside, I'm gonna go Click on Sunshine....a non internet option that is still available, but I hope everyone stays on the Right side of the Line.
The Republican Revolution will not be Televised
What?! No Newsbusters?
June 14, 2008 - 11:36 ET by Free StinkerWhat?! No Newsbusters?
That would be like a map of the World leaving out North America.
We're on there Free
June 14, 2008 - 11:39 ET by Matthew SheffieldIn the middle right of the chart. They changed our logo to be breaking CNN instead of our actual (soon-to-be former) logo.
Matt
June 14, 2008 - 14:19 ET by Free StinkerMatt, Thanks. I see it now.
/Sarcasm On Nice of them to invent a new logo for NB. /Sarcasm Off
< UPDATE> And then there is the implication that this site targets *only* CNN . . .
"Don't forget to vote this fall. Not for McCain, not ever, but there might be a Conservative Rep or Senator that Needs Your Vote" --Free Stinker
What IS missing...
June 15, 2008 - 09:31 ET by sarcasmoIs Reason's Hit & Run blog, or just about any other libertarian-leaning blog. It's almost like there's blatant antilibertarian bias at Vanity Fair & in the rest of the media, like I keep saying over & over...
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
Sarc
June 15, 2008 - 10:59 ET by Free StinkerSarc,
How do you keep getting past the anti-Libertarian firewalls on the Internet? ;-)
The real question is
June 15, 2008 - 11:19 ET by sarcasmoHow can I effectively fight against what I see as obvious antilibertarian bias in the news media, with no well funded & dedicated group like the MRC or MediaMatters to back me? Reason's blog is one tiny way, and we get in a few digs there, but it's not nearly enough, and Reason's far from perfect itself (think cosmotarian!).
I'm sure the antilibertarian media bias is there, as you've seen me say over the years. I'm sure my hypothetical "no more bias against libertarians, either!" news media monitoring group could easily exist tomorrow, if someone rich enough wanted to fund it. I humbly suggest that I'd make an ideal leader if the group ever exists. ;) But so far the battle against this particular strain of bias consists of just me and a very few others fighing against a vast, borglike media in the usual libertarian "herd of cats" style.
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
Sarc, I can only assume
June 16, 2008 - 12:56 ET by mulerider24Sarc, I can only assume there was one at a distant time but it never captured the readership numbers required to stay afloat. I mean really... how many articles can you do on reinstating the gold standard and getting rid of the Federal Reserve. I kid, I kid... don't hurt me Sarc.
Uh huh
June 14, 2008 - 11:42 ET by JoelCT"The descriptions skew leftward" is the kindest, most generous definition I've ever seen in all my time on NewsBusters.
Uh huh, "Drudge" is more "scurrilous" than "Slashfilm" or "Ain't it Cool News".
"scurrilous Adjective untrue or unfair, insulting, and designed to damage a person's reputation"
And "Media Matters" is more "Earnest" than NewsBusters? Oh yeah right on dude. As long as you've been on the bong for a few hours, it might be.
AICN is a fan boy site. I
June 14, 2008 - 11:47 ET by balboaAICN is a fan boy site. I don't see it as all that unfair.
I don't think they
June 14, 2008 - 12:07 ET by Matthew Sheffieldused that definition. My guess is that they were thinking more of the writing style and the topic choices. We write more informally over here than MM does.
On the chart, MRC.org should have the same position as MM but that would have meant giving us two spots on the list.
What makes people think they are ranking? Am I missing
June 14, 2008 - 13:48 ET by Dee Bunksomething? I don't see it that way. I consider all people in each grid to be similar and without rank. Not that I'm agreeing with all their classifications because I haven't heard of many of them. I just don't see it as a ranking, maybe they explained it that way and I'm just missing the explanation.
Those Ranking Grids Are Common
June 14, 2008 - 20:13 ET by JoelCTYou have probably never worked in Cubeville. In business, those charts are very common, and are studied carefully. If I read this chart the way the charts are written in business:
The more "up" you go, the closer you are to hard news and not opinion.
The more "down" you go you move more and more away from hard news and more toward being opinionated.
The more "right" you go, the more serious, or "earnest", you are.
The more "left" you go, the more likely you are to be a trash-talking or just generally putting people down.
So, top right is a hard news site with almost no opinions given.
Top left is, I guess, using the news to hurt people.
Bottom right is very serious opinions with no hard news facts.
Bottom left is opinionated, hateful jerks trash-talking 24x7.
That's what this chart is if it was meant to emulate similar business grids. They have a name for these, but only Pareto chart and "scatterplot" popped into my head, neither of which is correct, and now I can't think of the actual phrase for it.
If that is the case and they were ranking
June 14, 2008 - 20:36 ET by Dee Bunkthen I say it's definitely biased.
Point Taken
June 14, 2008 - 20:17 ET by JoelCTGood Point, Matt. I have a bit of a bias towards NewsBusters since it is my favorite blog, and I forget it's just a bunch of people talking... Even if every word is true!
You are correct, MRC should be just to the right of MM. My bias says it should be a little higher up, too.
This blog map actually seems to be surprisingly balanced
June 14, 2008 - 11:52 ET by Dee BunkI'm not sure because I'm not familiar with a lot of them, but at least they have Media Matters and Newsbusters in the same category (Earnest News) and Michelle Malkin and Huff Pol in the Earnest Opinion column.
I think of many of their examples of liberals as earnest to really be scurrilous, but most of their scurrilous side, I've never heard of, so they are at least hopefully giving similar standards. I'm sure liberals think of Little Green Footballs and Michelle Malkin as scurrilous.
Deadspin should be on here
June 14, 2008 - 11:57 ET by balboaDeadspin should be on here somewhere.
Deadspin is a Gawker site so
June 14, 2008 - 15:53 ET by Insane ChipmunkDeadspin is a Gawker site so they probably just included it with that one.
That or they just avoided sports-only.
I don't know...
June 14, 2008 - 12:16 ET by Indiana JoeAssuming that position is relevant, it's hard to accept DKos as more "earnest" than this site. DKos seems pretty "scurrilous" to me, more so than Drudge. At least they have it more towards "opinion," though.
And while Drudge links to opinion pieces, the site itself is pretty much straight news. Spun, of course, but what "news" isn't anymore?
I guess it's overall a fair effort, if you just consider which quadrant a blog falls in. If position indicates relativity, however (which I think it does), then this could use some tweaking.
>>>Your thoughts? Well, I
June 14, 2008 - 12:19 ET by seanrobins>>>Your thoughts?
Well, I have to study it more closely...but right off the bat...
Putting dailyKos way into Earnest territory? Don't make me laugh. If the opposite of Earnest is Scurrilous, how can DK make it anywhere out of the far side of Scurrilous? It's nothing but leftist attack, attack, attack...without any substantive basis needed for the attack. Any lie will do.
How can that be Earnest?
sean robins
blog.seanrobins.com
How can that be Earnest?
June 14, 2008 - 12:25 ET by BlondeMaybe it's an Oscar Wilde kind of thing.
Sorry...that just popped into my head.
David Gregory, do you know which damn network you lie for? ~ Uncle Jimbo, @Blackfive
Interesting that HuffPo is
June 14, 2008 - 12:28 ET by balboaInteresting that HuffPo is seen as less earnest than DKos. I'd be interested in hearing what "Earnest" means in this graph.
I don't think the placement within the grid makes a difference
June 14, 2008 - 13:42 ET by Dee BunkIt's only what grid they are in. There are basically 4 categories and people are not ranked within the category
They have NewBusters
June 14, 2008 - 13:33 ET by pocomocoThey have NewBusters wrong.
They have it as NewsBusters.com
It should be NewsBusters.org
So much for VF's fact checking.
They screwed up - as usual
June 14, 2008 - 14:06 ET by RonCPocomoco - seems everyone missed the fact - even Mat.
I came here to note the fact, and was amazed at so many others that didn't catch it... or comment on it... until you did.
But - just the fact that they posted what they did, and ranked what they posted as they did, tells me a lot about the Vanity Fair folk... they are predominately clueless socialists - but trying to look as if they are somehow not.
The first thing I noticed is
June 14, 2008 - 20:04 ET by FairlightThe first thing I noticed is the lack of brand identity for many of these companies. It's not good when another company gets to speak for you. (They did get PH rather spot on, though)
In the Words of Arte Johnson...
June 14, 2008 - 14:49 ET by Del DolemonteVerrry interesting!
I notice they left out two paragons of blogdom, namely Democrat Underground and truthout.org. I'm sure VF will be hearing from Skinner, William Rivers Pitt and Marc Ash shortly.
Speaking of truthout, anyone seen the new blog that their former ace reporter Jason Leopold now has? It's pretty funny stuff.
http://www.pubrecord...
LGF
June 14, 2008 - 19:53 ET by GothampcHow can Little Green Footballs be less earnest than DKos and on the same frequency as HuffPo? LGF was one of the leaders in breaking the Dan Rather - GWB military papers scam. I think DKos and LGF should change places.
No MSNBC?
June 16, 2008 - 06:25 ET by ThisnThatSo, where's MSNBC? Maybe it's too far left to show up here?
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