Daily Kos Writers Leave En Masse Because Of Hillary Bashing

Buy an ad on DigitalJournal.com

Daily Kos, which was started out of protest against the war in Iraq, is now suffering the consequences of being this outspoken; various contributors called it quits due to what they see as the blog’s increasingly negative treatment of Hillary Clinton.

The exodus was triggered by Alegre, a blogger of four years who announced he took a break from writing blog posts in support of Hillary Clinton because “administrators allow the more disruptive members of our community to trash Hillary Clinton and distort her record without any fear of consequence or retribution”.

Alegre complained that the Hillary trashing was carried out by a handful of spiteful folks who managed to dominate the front page. Citing ‘unfair writing conditions’ at DailyKos, Alegre walked out and took various others with him. He said he’d be back if the shouting matches would end. But that’s unlikely to happen.

The Moderate Voice, the voter analysis publication, commented on the exodus saying that “This might seem to be a provincial conflict, but it is highly significant. In political terms, it underscores the raw, angry and bitter rivalry between supporters of Obama and Clinton.”

The Daily Kos’ bias towards Senator Obama and against Senator Clinton is, in other words, a microcosm of what’s happening in the real world. Daily Kos’s owner has not made any claims to being unbiased, something that people might have expected. Originally launched as a platform for people to speak out against the War on Terror, Daily Kos members tended to agree with each other. The things that happened on the site were quite spectacular, perhaps because the main issue was clear cut.

Moulitsas is in the business to be controversial and biased and members that don’t agree are simply are advised to go elsewhere, now that the main issue discussed is changing. Moulitsas told ABC’s Political Punch that the exodus was great. “First, these people should read up on the definition of ’strike.’ What they’re doing is a ‘boycott.’ But whatever they call it, I think it’s great. It’s a big Internet, so I hope they find what they’re looking for.” Word has it that Pro-Clinton bloggers are leaving to go to blogs like MyDD, Talk Left and other progressive blogs.

I wonder what happens if the tone changes the other way. Or what Moulitsas will do if members start picking on an issue that he himself really detests. The opposite of a boycott might be an appetite for real sick stuff. Who knows, perhaps in future Moulitsas might have no option but to close down his venture due to being overstaffed with the wrong people.

disclosure: Angelique van Engelen writes ReporTwitters.com, a blog about journalism and Twitter. This article appeared there first.