The marketplace of ideas has a life of its own...It's mainly about managing one's online reputation, I think...

On Chris Lydon's show, between a stupid unfounded smear of Atrios, Sully claimed a) he does his site entirely alone, b) three people do his site -- sully, someone to answer all the letters, and someone to work out the financials, and c) his site pulls in $50,000 a year.

And you, Daniel Drezner, Ph.D., consider Sully a reliable source and pundit?

I don't know who's the bigger fool. What's your take?

FYI, Matt Haughey (one of the original old school bloggers) has written what most in the professional blog world consider the definitive word on how to make (or not make) money from their blogs.

We know Sullivan's usual tilts, and we also know he's been doing his PBS style 'begging for bloggers' routine on and off for quite a while.It's one of the things that's been turning me of on him of late.

I wonder, though what kind of lines can be drawn, here, as regards the quality of a given blog vs the ads run. Bloggers, after all can seldom be considered as objective... particualrly those who claim, ironiclly, the title 'objectivist'... But does blogging for ad dollars alter the editorial content of the blog?

Consider POLITICAL WIRE, who clearly is running political ads for hire, as an example.

[repeat: as an example]

It's hard to tell sometimes if the ads are altering his percepion, or if he really sees things that way, and the ads he's runnning are merely a happy (for him) reflection of his editorial policy.

[Fairness statement: Yes, I have some graphics and links on my own pages, supporting President Bush... but am not taking money for them.... I've never laid claim to political objectivity as some do.

And yes, my Blog's been vitim to google's rotating ads which promote Dean and Kerry relentlessly... apparently their ad system is picking up on the idea that I've been writing quite a bit about the two of them of late. It's apparently not smart enough that I don't think either of them qualified or trustworthy enough to clean my toilet...]

It's apparently not smart enough that I don't think either of them qualified or trustworthy enough to clean my toilet...]

Arrgh. damned editor.
Correction:

"It's apparently not smart enough to understand from my writing that I don't think either of them qualified or trustworthy enough to clean my toilet..."