Co-opting rightwing bloggers

The pseudonymous blogger Billmon hasn't been posting very frequently for the last year or more. But he did put up a long post on Friday with some good thoughts on the process by which some portion of Right Blogostan is being absorbed by the mainstream press. He even makes use of the "New Left" Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse's notion of "repressive tolerance", not something you see a lot. And makes a pretty creative use of it as he reminds us of a critical factor about today's "movement conservatives":

The corporate suits now opening the journalistic doors to the propagandists of the authoritarian right are powerful and privileged people who hope that appeasing the blogswarm will help them remain powerful and privileged -- or at least avoid the fate of Eason Jordan and Dan Rather. This, as I (and many others) have already noted, bears a striking resemblance to a successful protection racket.

A protection racket, however, that so far hasn't bought much protection. Nor will it, not as long as the spectre of the all-powerful liberal MSM remains such a user-friendly excuse for the various failures and crimes of the conservative movement, its White House politburo in particular. But what's interesting is that the paper training (so to speak) of the common wing nut has shown at least a few early signs of curbing some of the critter's more obnoxious bathroom habits -- as Baby Ben himself demonstrated when he confessed to, and publicly apologized for, calling the late Coretta Scott King a communist.

Anyone who's spent any time among the Freepers (and you can't live in Baby Ben's corner of the suburban Virginia without spending at least a little bit) knows it really is received wisdom in such circles that the civil rights movement was part of a Soviet plot to subvert and destroy America, just like J. Edgar Hoover said. In fact it virtually goes without saying - although savvy wing nuts understand that it also must go without saying, given the diabolical grip of the PC police and their MSM stooges on public discourse in this country. Just ask Trent Lott. (my emphasis)

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