Lucky? Nope - think Murphy's Laws at work again... - Granite Grok

Lucky? Nope – think Murphy’s Laws at work again…

Yeah, I know ONE campaign that wouldn’t bother to ask….

Just putting my head up for a bit since I’ve been trying to play catch up on processing video to post (when you get 4 events behind….)…and came across two different posts (Hot Air, RingWingNews) referencing this at the Daily Caller:

Katie Couric once described  bloggers as journalists who gnaw at new information “like piranhas in a pool.” But increasingly, many bloggers are also secretly feeding on cash from political campaigns, in a form of partisan payola that erases the line between journalism and paid endorsement.

“It’s standard operating procedure” to pay bloggers for favorable coverage, says one Republican campaign operative. A GOP blogger-for-hire estimates that “at least half the bloggers that are out there” on the Republican side “are getting remuneration in some way beyond ad sales.”

Standard operating procedure? Huh?  Since when?  Or am I just the clueless one again?  Ed over at Hot Air:

For the record, I’ve never been approached for a scheme like this

Yeah, me neither. Look, in the last cycle or two, there were bloggers on the Left that complained bitterly that they were "carrying the water" for "their" candidates and no one was getting any money for it…..and were kinda ticked at being left out in the cold, given all the money that was flowing at the time on the Democrat side of things for campaign management, workers, consultants, vendors and lots of others that got a slice of the pie.  But not bloggers.

Yeah, same situation on the Right for the most part and we kvetched about it as well (albeit at a much lower volume) – the vast majority of political bloggers get bupkis.

So, for the record, NONE of the candidates we have endorsed, nor any one that we may have spoken nicely about, has given us a dime.  Not a single penny.  Heck, at this point, not even a single ad has been taken out by ANYONE.  We may be dead broke but we’re clear, we’re clean (but broke).  I’ve been told that for all the running around we do, we should be getting paid for the work/service we’re doing/providing.  Well, it’s a very nice complement, it put a smile on my face that somebody seemingly appreciates the ‘Grok, but we aren’t paid by anyone or for anyone.

There is ONE large exception to the above: Corey Lewandowski, State Director for Americans For Prosperity/NH hosted TMEW and I at the RightOnline conference AFTER we had already covered a couple of their events (and will do so again).  And when we were asked, we WERE told, at that time, it WAS to say "thank you" for the body of work the ‘Grok had been doing for Liberty and Freedom issues here in NH.  We were humbled…and still thankful. 

I host a couple of sites on my leased server to help pay the rent.  All the equipment I drag around – my $.  Wandering all over the state to cover events – my 10 cents.  The newest gear?  Let’s just say that (except for the nice donation towards the GrokTalk equipment!) I keep getting "the look" from TMEW every time a new box arrives from UPS,FedEx, or USPS.

Do I wish that some folks would advertise on the ‘Grok?  You BET! BlogAds spots already set up; we can do banner ads, we can do specialty ads – and I’d love to have folks that enjoy reading the ‘Grok to hit the DONATE button (top, left) once in a while to help defray costs – and I’d love to be able to send a little coin to Steve, Tom, and Tim every once in a while too!

Just thought you might want to know.

Heh!  Just saw this update at Hot Air (emphasis mine):

Update II: Stacy McCain has a pair of responses to this story.  His inclusion in this story made even less sense than Dan’s; all Stacy suggested was that Republican candidates might want to advertise on friendly blogs.  That’s hardly earth shattering advice.

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