Twitter to Post: Bloggers Aren't Your Slaves

Egged on by Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas and film critic Roger Ebert, thousands of Twitterers are pouring in to MPW to read our rejection of the Washington Post's "offer" to work for them for free. As a result, MPW has earned more site traffic by turning down the Post than we would have ever gained through blogoscabbing.

Twitter had simmered a bit over our decision to stay out, but it was relatively low grade until yesterday.



Then Markos Moulitsas, who has nearly 18,000 Twitter followers, got involved. Last night, he wrote, "Dear Washington Post, you want content, pay for it. Bloggers aren't your slaves. http://is.gd/bMy48" The link steered followers to our blog post.


Roger Ebert, who has more than 137,000 Twitter followers, picked up on it.


Together, Moulitsas and Ebert spawned huge numbers of copycat Twitterers, all of whom linked to MPW. There are too many to count, but here is a sample.













Even Ezra Klein, a paid Post commentator, said MPW was right to turn them down!


Twitter's outrage against the Post will make this by far the most-visited day in the history of Maryland Politics Watch. Let that serve as a lesson for independent bloggers everywhere: a little self-respect can go a long, LONG way.