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You are here: Home / LOLWUT?

LOLWUT?

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James Joyner discusses the acquisition of Hot Air by Salem media and unloads this gem:

And Morrissey’s word on this has additional weight, in that he made the transition from his own solo site (Captain’s Quarters) to the more red meat-oriented Hot Air with no discernible change in his style or editorial choices.

Yeah. There was no change at all.

Not only was there a change in his style, but it was glaring how dramatic and how fast the change was. And if you don’t believe me, go back and read what Ed was like prior to joining team Malkin.

Reader Interactions

63Comments

  1. 1.

    beltane

    What is Salem media? It sounds like it has a religious orientation, or maybe they are in the business of using spectral evidence to destroy peoples’ lives.

  2. 2.

    General Winfield Stuck

    Being one of the several resident libtard trolls on CQ”ers at the time, I can personally attest to the sudden change. And it was as sudden as it gets, in his first post on Hot Air and crossposted on Captains Quarters. Full metal Malkinite in his very first effort.

    It really surprised the shit out of me, and even a lot of his right wing regulars as well. And afterward Ed invited several of we trolls he considered making decent arguments to sign up with Malkin inc. So I will give him that, but politely declined.

    After I thought about it some, it made sense because he absolutely hated mendacious trolling, or what he considered as that. But the full metal wingnut was still strange to me.

  4. 4.

    James Joyner

    I dunno, Ed still comes across as civil and measured. He certainly hasn’t adopted the Couler-Malkin tone. Indeed, Hot Air itself is probably more moderate than ever, since Malkin’s hardly on there anymore and it’s been turned almost entirely over to Morrissey and AllahPundit.

  5. 5.

    geg6

    No frackin’ way you’re fooling me into clicking on that, Cole. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, can’t get fooled again!

    Or something like that. ;-)

  6. 6.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @James Joyner: Another wut? Allahpundit, who i read daily before Obama was elected has turned 90 degrees right and is just a notch or two from matching MM level of nutbaggery these days. And Ed, about one out of every ten posts or so will pull back a tad on the crazy and sound like he used to. And I used to read you every day too, Mr Joyner, and comment some at OTB, until your swerve to the right as well. Though it’s been a few months and maybe that has changed. And don’t even get me started on AJ Strata going double wingnut.

  7. 7.

    Napoleon

    @Michael:

    If I recall correctly they are also publicly traded. Didn’t something happen during the election season last year where they were going to run that slime ball movie about Hillary that was the subject of the recent Citizens United case and because it looked like they may be overstepping legal bounds their stock tanked, so they reversed course (or something like that, it was a case of the wing nut tendencies of management running up against the fact that people invest in the company to make money, not find themselves hammered with legal fines).

  8. 8.

    El Cid

    It’s not a really high standard to be considered consistently more civil, poised, and rational than Michelle Malkin.

  10. 10.

    Ash Can

    @James Joyner: Thanks for coming here to discuss this, but this doesn’t mean the same as “no discernible change in his style,” which is what John and Stuck are talking about. Do you want to clarify this?

  11. 11.

    matt

    Debating his “tone” would probably get tricky and frustrating, but he definitely dove head first into the wingnut noise machine when he left his blog. It was disappointing.

  12. 12.

    darryl

    It’s not a really high standard to be considered consistently more civil, poised, and rational than Michelle Malkin.

    LOL. Yeah. Being more civil and poised than Michele Malkin is like being more pro-nazi than the Bear Jew. Doesn’t really say much.

  13. 13.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    Not only was there a change in his style, but it was glaring how dramatic and how fast the change was. And if you don’t believe me, go back and read what Ed was like prior to joining team Malkin.

    Dude, yer harshin’ their buzz.

    The Reality Distortion Shields are at 110% and phasers are set to stunningly stupid. Damn the facts! Full speed ahead!!

    OT: Nailed down a new client this am! He owns five physical therapy offices and needs a competent computer geek since his old geek couldn’t figure out how to configure their office software to look at the outbound network port in each office. It took me all of two minutes to find his problem and resolve it.

    I like ‘problems’ like that, a fast fix and when the client is right there he gets to see how quickly you can diagnose and solve his problem. There’s no better sales tool out there. He just about shit when I told him how little I was charging.

    Sold! :)

  14. 14.

    kay

    @Mike Kay:

    Thanks. It’s hysterical. I laughed and laughed.

    Evan Bayh is now a dangerous radical, when only yesterday he was A Moderate Statesman, and we were all busy mourning his non-existent contributions.

    Evan Bayh is going to be deeply uncomfortable in his new role.

  15. 15.

    Midnight Marauder

    @El Cid:

    It’s not a really high standard to be considered consistently more civil, poised, and rational than Michelle Malkin.

    And that goes double for Ann Coulter.

    James Joyner:

    I dunno, Ed still comes across as civil and measured. He certainly hasn’t adopted the Couler-Malkin tone.

  16. 16.

    scarshapedstar

    And afterward Ed invited several of we trolls he considered making decent arguments to sign up with Malkin inc.

    By “invited” you mean given the Golden Ticket to the Stalin-esque restricted comments section, right?

  18. 18.

    danimal

    John Cole:

    And if you don’t believe me, go back and read what Ed was like prior to joining team Malkin.

    I took up the challenge and picked a day at random. Here’s the first entry for March 5, 2005.

    The Northern Alliance will broadcast live from the White Bear Lake Superstore this afternoon from noon to 3 PM CT. If you’re in the Twin Cities area, come on down to the best car dealership in town and meet the NARN, as well as State Senator Michelle Bachmann, who will run for Congress in the 6th CD in 2006. If you can’t come down to the site, listen to us on The Patriot or over our Internet stream.

    Any way you can — be sure to join us!

    I’ll vouch that the tone of his blog was less vitriolic. But c’mon, promoting Bachmann shows a consistent lack of judgement.

  22. 22.

    Midnight Marauder

    OT, but who would enjoy another opportunity to revel in the Cheney family’s perpetual parade of failure?

    Exclusive: Another Taliban Leader Captured in Pakistan

    Newsweek’s Sami Yousafzai and Mark Hosenball are reporting that a second leader of the Taliban was recently captured in a joint effort between Pakistan and the U.S. The Taliban leader, identified as Mullah Abdul Salam, was apparently picked up by Pakistan security forces about a week ago in Faisalabad, around the same time that the Taliban’s second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baraader, was reportedly captured.

  25. 25.

    danimal

    Blockquote fail, the “join us” sentence should be in blockquotes and I can’t seem to make the Edit button work.

  27. 27.

    Kirk Spencer

    Um, no, John.

    Back then, as now, Ed had a BAD habit of mis-stating facts to reflect his beliefs and of believing opinions that supported his beliefs were obvious facts. He was also, even then, rabid in his conservatism.

    In other words, you linked but you appear to have not actually read those links since you had a change of heart. He really hasn’t changed all that much.

  28. 28.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @scarshapedstar: Yes, registration was temporarily opened up let Ed’s CQ’ers readers and commenters in, which I believe was the main reason Ed was so thrilled to get the gig. Controlled trollery, which in Malkin speak means “don’t say nuthin’ I don’t agree with, or I will inspect your countertops” It wasn’t a hard decision to say thanks but nada to that.

  29. 29.

    geg6

    @Midnight Marauder:

    How much you wanna bet that Biden knew full well about both these guys being captured before going on “Press the Meat” against Darth on “This Week with Not-George-Stephanopoulos’-Hair?”

  30. 30.

    Ash Can

    @kay: What are you talking about? Evan Bayh has always been at war with Eastasia a dangerous radical.

    Seriously, though, this has got me thinking that maybe Bayh really did have pipe dreams of GOP senators cooperating with him — especially considering the reports I’ve heard about him not being the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree — and just finally threw in the towel when reality beat him over the head a few times too often.

  31. 31.

    shaun

    The change was indeed immediate, not so much in style or tone of voice but in subject matter. Ed clearly understood that as a Malkinite he was to put on his blinders and be a good boy.

    He denied all of this back when we used to have fairly regular conversations, and I did his radio show once, but it’s pretty obvious. And sad considering the conservative but not afraid to be a contrarian voice that he once was.

  32. 32.

    Mike Kay

    @mr. whipple:

    I can hear her know, talking to Greenspan, “ya know, evan can’t be trusted now – he’s one of them; he was practically banging a tambourine!”

  33. 33.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Alan: Yep, somebody yells “Soshulist” and the natives go native and dance around the wingnut campfire chanting begone libtard traitors

  34. 34.

    Martin

    @Midnight Marauder:

    Newsweek’s Sami Yousafzai and Mark Hosenball are reporting that a second leader of the Taliban was recently captured in a joint effort between Pakistan and the U.S. The Taliban leader, identified as Mullah Abdul Salam, was apparently picked up by Pakistan security forces about a week ago in Faisalabad

    Wow, that must suck. Didn’t that Taliban guy just buy Hot Air from Malkin?

  35. 35.

    Max

    Hmmm.. interesting info on Twitter.

    Meeting at the White House today includes:

    Oliver Willis (blogger we love)
    Aravois (AmericaBlog.hack)
    Chris Bowers (Open Sirota.com)
    Thom Hartman
    Matt Yglesias

    and others.

  36. 36.

    Midnight Marauder

    @geg6:

    How much you wanna bet that Biden knew full well about both these guys being captured before going on “Press the Meat” against Darth on “This Week with Not-George-Stephanopoulos’-Hair?”

    Oh, he most definitely knew about both of these. And who’s to say that they aren’t sitting on another couple of these to roll out over the course of the rest of the week? It just makes me wish even more that Biden would have said something smug to depants Cheney on national television.

    DAMN YOU, NO DRAMA SELF-PROMOTION OBAMA!

  37. 37.

    Mike Kay

    @Ash Can:

    Evan just found out there’s no Santa.

    He seemed to really think they would sign on to his debt commission. He really is a moron. Republicans don’t care about the debt, or they would have fired Reagan.

  39. 39.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Via mediaite:

    leading center-right web site Hot Air has

    center-right? WTF?

    And hearty congrats to Michelle Malkin on what one presumes was a lucrative buy-out

    James, for shame. Fascists deserve no hearty congrats.

  40. 40.

    Ash Can

    @Midnight Marauder: If Osama bin Laden is hauled in next I’ll go out and buy myself a bottle of Veuve Cliquot Grande Dame and drink the whole thing myself. Out of the bottle. Then I’ll mail the empty to Dick Cheney, with a return address of “sucks to be you.”

  41. 41.

    beltane

    @Mike Kay: Think of how stupid the average senator is, and then imagine how stupid the offspring of the average senator must be. With Bayh you get the worst of both worlds with regards to stupidity (no insult intended to Birch Bayh, who was by all accounts an honorable public servant)

  43. 43.

    kay

    @Ash Can:

    He’s a full-time scold.

    It’s his personality.

    That’s really why I never liked him. I can’t stand lectures.

    They’re not going to invite him baaaaaack. No one likes a scoooold, Evan!

  44. 44.

    geg6

    @Max:

    What? No love for Big Media Matt?

    Well, I am here to declare my undying love for him if you won’t, Max. Damn you.

  47. 47.

    Ash Can

    @Mike Kay: Wowza. Looks like I was giving Bayh way too much credit in the smarts department when I was trying to analyze his resignation. Maybe he was telling the truth about the lack of bipartisanship getting to him, and that it didn’t have anything to do with dirt at all. Maybe he really is just too dumb to be crooked.

  48. 48.

    jacy

    @Alan:

    Skimming, and I thought you said:

    I find it surprising Hot Air wasn’t already owned by Satan.

    Same diff, I guess.

  49. 49.

    Ash Can

    Wait a minute. Joyner says that Malkin’s “hardly on” Hot Air anymore, and now she’s sold the joint?

    Oh, gawd, she’s going to run for public office.

  50. 50.

    norbizness

    The no discernible thing, I think, pertained to my continuing not to give a fuck what these mouthbreathing hucksters do with their bandwidth.

  51. 51.

    Mike Kay

    @Max:

    Aravois is such a fucking phoney.

    he rails against Obama day and night, yet he always shows up when bloggers are invited.

  53. 53.

    Chat Noir

    @Ash Can:

    If Osama bin Laden is hauled in next I’ll go out and buy myself a bottle of Veuve Cliquot Grande Dame and drink the whole thing myself. Out of the bottle. Then I’ll mail the empty to Dick Cheney, with a return address of “sucks to be you.”

    Win! Only I’d drink a bottle of Bollinger in honor of Patsy and Edina.

  54. 54.

    Blue Raven

    @Chat Noir:

    Win! Only I’d drink a bottle of Bollinger in honor of Patsy and Edina.

    Love that idea. I think I’d also dig up my –rm –rf /bin/laden T, add “Yes We Did” to it, and send a picture of me wearing it along with the empty. (For non-Unix speakers, it translates to “remove directory /bin/laden with force.” Unix equivalent of salting the earth after you’re done razing the city.)

    ETA: And dear gods, the convolutions I had to go through to put hyphen-like devices into this post…

  55. 55.

    carlos the dwarf

    @Ash Can:

    I’ll make it the bottle of Macallan 12-year I’ve got and be right with you.

    /more grassroots than mailing rock salt to Olympia Snowe

  56. 56.

    Nellcote

    @Napoleon:

    If I recall correctly they are also publicly traded. Didn’t something happen during the election season last year

    They ran the Swiftboating Kerry movie before the 04 election. There was a big netroots push to get the stockholders aware/involved.

  59. 59.

    HyperIon

    @danimal:

    Blockquote fail, the “join us” sentence should be in blockquotes and I can’t seem to make the Edit button work.

    stay tuned for the next site fund-raiser.
    pretty soon B-J will work as good as it did 5 years ago!

  60. 60.

    HyperIon

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    Controlled trollery, which in Malkin speak means “don’t say nuthin’ I don’t agree with, or I will inspect your countertops”…

    Rick Moron used be in charge of the commenters at Malkin’s place IIRC. I don’t know if he still is.

  61. 61.

    Tom

    There’s been a huge change in Ed — he still remains civil, that’s not it. It’s that he’s abandoned critical, independent thought and now simply pushes the conservative memes of the moment.

  62. 62.

    Cain

    @Ash Can:

    @Midnight Marauder: If Osama bin Laden is hauled in next I’ll go out and buy myself a bottle of Veuve Cliquot Grande Dame and drink the whole thing myself. Out of the bottle. Then I’ll mail the empty to Dick Cheney, with a return address of “sucks to be you.”

    if that happens, I’m taking liquor and hiking to a high point and scream “YES!” and possibly say “FUCK YOU CHENEY!”. That would probably change some serious shit in the country. Obama would be untouchable.

    Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening… but fun to dream. But the quiet way he’s removing ringleaders *is* admirable. Shit is getting done on the stuff he controls. The shit he can’t control is a clusterfuck.

    cain

  63. 63.

    Donald G

    @Cain:

    if that [capturing Osama] happens, I’m taking liquor and hiking to a high point and scream “YES!” and possibly say “FUCK YOU CHENEY!”. That would probably change some serious shit in the country. Obama would be untouchable. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening… but fun to dream. But the quiet way he’s removing ringleaders is admirable. Shit is getting done on the stuff he controls. The shit he can’t control is a clusterfuck.

    I’m in the Osama is probably dead (and has probably been dead for years) camp, myself, but I’d do the Snoopy dance if we captured or definitively killed al-Qaeda’s second in command, Zawahiri.

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