cross-posted at skippy as well as a literal cornucopia of other community blogs.

the gang over at the buckeye state blog are musing aloud about the advisability of throwing their lot in with the “kingmakers” of blogtopia (and yes, we coined that phrase).

in blogpac and the kos crew want to sponsor the ohio ’sphere, jerid weighs the pros and kos about accepting $$$ from blogpac, and the ramifications that come along with such a move:

i don’t mean to disrespect a gift, but in the interest of transparency we need to talk about the implications this sponsorship could hold. i don’t agree with everything that’s been pushed nationally through the big box blogs; i saw first hand in 2005 as the national blog crew did things that set off high tensions throughout ohio (think the hackett incident). since then, the relationship between the ohio ’sphere and nationals has been rocky. still, even with its problems, the national blogosphere has a very important role to fill; they bind communities together and accelerate the dissemination of information. without sites like kos or mydd people in california, wyoming, hawaii wouldn’t find the information we put out throughout the ohio ’sphere as easily as they do now.

– more after the jump –

jerid goes on:

for about the past year and a half ohio’s been more or less cut off from the national scene. this blog gets enormous traffic and under russell’s administration it made significant contributions to the ‘06 election. despite that, there’s been the perception amongst many in the ohio sphere that national sites have purposefully avoided aiding or recognizing this site, and many of the sites throughout the ohio ’sphere, because of our independent nature. a while back salon wrote a great article that touched on some of those issues (click through the ads, the article specifically mentions bsb). the short version is that there have been allegations, some originating at this site, that the national ’sphere is motivated by the profit margin more than local communities like bsb. the fear is that pursuit of profit makes bloggers beholden to the purse; whoever’s controlling the cash might ultimately try to exert influence on the content. sirota, case in point.

so now the conundrum. i think the big box blogs are onto something huge here - this is exactly the sort of thing the ohio’ sphere discussed a few weekends back at rootscamp. organizing throughout the state level and providing a mechanism for low level funding has the potential to create a more agile, dependable network of progressive political sites throughout the states. blogpac’s already organizing sites like bsb throughout the country as part of the blogpac network to recieve blogpac grants. some of the hottest, most innovative, and connected sites like raising kaine (va), burnt orange report (tx), left in the west (mt), calitics (ca) are already part of it. with sites like these on board, the organization is bound to be ridiculously influential and could have the potential to help us aid candidates and officeholders in the buckeye state to an even greater degree. turning blogpac’s offer down because of a poor relationship we’ve held in the past with big boxes could be detrimental to the concept of this project, and could be a disservice to our democratic candidates. but then again, accepting could give the impression that we’re lumped in with all the shenanigans that happen outside of our ’sphere. what’s worse…it could give the impression that we’ve lost our independence.

we like that sentence in the middle paragraph: “there have been allegations, some originating at this site, that the national ’sphere is motivated by the profit margin more than local communities like bsb.” gee, d’ya think?

another piece, what edwards and the bloggers might teach us, discusses the opposing ideas of bloggers as kingmakers versus altruistic warriors for the truth. the post is also remarkable for the spirited discussion going on in the comments section, like this remark from bryan:

it’s really about what the blogger/blog wants more than what the candidate wants in the kingmaker meme. it’s the idea that the netroots is a movement unto itself, attempting to take back the party.

why don’t i think that’s possible? kingmakers like to get paid. they may not know it when they start, but learn soon enough. witness kos’ support of a dlc candidate after railing against the dlc for a year. the difference — money.

the problem, i think, is that bloggers begin to self-censor the closer they get to the party and to candidates — and their money. in fact, it’s the same ordeal that statehouse reporters face. if they write the real story, their sources dry up. if they don’t, their credibility dries up.

that’s why i think the kingmaker role is antithetical to the partisan audience of most blogs.

what does work, however, is the blog as executioner meme. taking out pols that stray too far from the party line.

there’s an old saying that i’m gonna mangle here, but it holds — 99% of the evil in the world is done for a paycheck…

and so the buckeye blog is not automatically bowing down to the wizard of kos…

(hat tip to renee in ohio for the heads up about these discussions!)