Say you are an administrator working for the UN Dispatch, a blog run by the United Nations Foundation to spead the gospel of the United Nations good deeds, and you have launched with little fanfare in February, and you are getting little to no attention because the rest of the blogosphere is looking up skirts at the Huffington report
What do you do?
If the answer is to attack a blogger who has been on the UN oil-for-food scandal like ugly on an ape, a blogger who runs pretty tight in the circles of the established hegemony in the libertarian and right wings of the blogosphere, and then email everyone (myself included) about your attack, then your name might be Peter Daou.
It is a stroke of genius. Now everyone is talking about a website they had never even heard of 10 hours ago. Conservatives are pissed, and will most likely add you to their bookmarks to keep track of you and document the atrocities. Liberals are probably thrilled someone else is attacking conservatives besides them and will come back to see more muscular defenses of the UN.
This is the blog equivalent of free exposure on the level of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt having hot monkey love in Africa before the release of their upcoming film (you just know no one on the planet is happier about Brad and Angelina getting it on more than 20th Century Fox).
As I write this, ten people have linked to the UN Dispatch piece on Roger Simon. I am number eleven.
Peter Daou- he’s no dummy.
*** Update ***
Not sure if the ‘Dispatcher” is Peter Daou, but this post is much whinier and more petulant than the first post (although my theory about why the original post was made remains):
3. Simon has the right to blog about anything he pleases, whether or not the UN likes it.
Again, this isn’t in contention. The point is not to deny Simon the right to post, but to examine his rationale for focusing on a single issue, however significant, to the exclusion of other issues of equal – if not greater – impact. The question seems reasonable considering that most issue-oriented bloggers such as Brad DeLong, Volokh, Juan Cole, etc. have an area of specialization that dovetails naturally with their blogging. In Simon’s case, it seemed like a fair question to ask why this particular topic is of signal importance to him.
Short answer:
Because it is a damned outrage and the bastards are still lying and covering up the mess.
Christie S.
Congratulations, John! You’re getting famous! Hehe…you’re now on the “must be notified” list.
Can I have your autograph?
Brad R.
Y’know, I take Daou’s point- not EVERYTHING the UN does is evil and corrupt. That’s not to say it isn’t in need of some serious reform, or that it doesn’t need to be held more accountable, or that it should be looked at as a be-all end-all moral authority.
But the UN does have its place in the world and it does some real good.
John Cole
Daou just administers the site.
Stormy70
The UN lets rapists and pedophiles run free in 3rd world countries. Until they fix that mess, they are dead to me. Some things are unpardonable. By all means, let Simon and the UN Dispatch duke it out online. When the do-gooders in the UN start hammering for reform from the inside, then I will listen to them. Maybe.
Defense Guy
You bestow the genius to soon. The follow-up post is pure unadulterated UN, it is obfuscation and logical fallacy and written by someone who thinks that people are idiots.
If the UN wishes us not to believe it is corrupt, it ought not act like it has something to hide. It might also help to stop actually being corrupt and make drastic anti-corruption changes to the system. Does the UN do any of that crap?
No. They argue language use. So in the interest of useless beurocracy and pointless statistics I offer the following:
“…and betrayed a shallow reading of the original post.”
The original post was 150 words of which:
Total words: 150
Non-link words: 76
Survey words (describes stats, 80/20): 33
Direct Quotes: 23
Original content: 20
The UN should be very proud.
Kimmitt
The UN lets rapists and pedophiles run free in 3rd world countries.
Oh, like our hands are clean on this issue. Disband the CIA!