Thar She Blows!

Matt Welch | November 18, 2005

With the dual caveats that it's yet another post about Pajamas Media Open Source Media OSM, and written by one of my best friends, this Jim Lowney account of the new website's launch party is a very entertaining and enlightening read, and not just because of the hooker.

In the interest of treating the new million-dollar group-blog venture the same way I treated the million-dollar Huffington Post, what are some of site's early high points? Well, there's the first sentence of OSM's first news item:

The historic Gaza border deal reached yesterday between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (Associated Press, Christian Science Monitor), brokered by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in marathon negotiations, has been received by the blogosphere with a far greater amount of skepticism than it has where the mainstream media are concerned.

Not exactly "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins," but it was only Opening Day. Then there was the late Bob Woodward post, comprising entirely of this:

The Washington Post has revealed that the dean of investigative reporting, Robert Woodward, knew the identity of Valerie Plame more than two years ago. Bloggers are going wild.

Throw 'em some beads! Meanwhile, NASDAQ's heating up again, Google shares are running wilder than Yahoo employees at an Arianna Huffington party, and all signs are pointing to the blog bubble I predicted in July.

Which is, of course, great news.

Comments

Viking (Captain Ahab) Moose|11.18.05 @ 12:11PM|#

DAMMIT.

here i thought it was yet another plug (ahem) for the reason gathering...

d'oh

|11.18.05 @ 12:24PM|#

"Throw 'em some beads!"

ROTFLMAO! Ha ha ha!

|11.18.05 @ 12:31PM|#

Blogs are examples of survival of the fittest. The blog bubble is an example of "punctuated equilibrium"?

|11.18.05 @ 12:59PM|#

Bloggers are going wild. Throw 'em some beads!

Mmmm, blogger boobies...

|11.18.05 @ 1:06PM|#

Given the Internet SausageFest Factor(tm) more like manboobies.

Timothy|11.18.05 @ 1:58PM|#

HEY INSTAWIFE! SHOW US YOUR TITS!

Sorry, had to put that out there.

Seems like The Media Formerly Known As Pajamas is going to be about as successful as an investment in beanie babies. I read the front page and thought, "Why do I need this, there's already blogs and Drudge?"

Ken Layne|11.18.05 @ 4:56PM|#

Great tale by Lowney.

I don't know what to make of this pajama oss thing, but I remember thinking Huff Post couldn't possibly survive -- as always, I underestimated an Arianna scheme. And here we are six or eight months later, and the Huff Post at least seems to have a big audience. So, what the hell do I know ...

Anyway: From a quick glance at the S.S. Pajamas site & the seemingly endless blog posts about all the farkups, it seems like way too many people are laughing at the whole debacle ... including many right-leaning bloggers. There is a dim-witted arrogance radiating off the osm.org pages. Where is the fun? When it comes to sharp & funny conservative writers, pajamas has two of the world's finest in Mark Steyn and Tim Blair, both said to be editorial board members.

Roger "Can you believe how fascinating my personal politics are" Simon and Charles "You're either with me or you're a fucking Arab" Johnson are not exactly stylists, which I guess is why the front page feels like a class project done by a web design class at a minor think tank or low security prison. Why would someone go there? If you like the founders' sites, why not just hang around there? If you like Instapundit, it's pretty easy to get there alone.

Somebody should give Blair & Steyn the keys to this thing, pay 'em each $200,000 of that alleged $3 million investment, and let them run a smart-ass web magazine that updates all day long. At least it would have a voice and tone and such.