Blogosphere Blasts Blogoscabbing

The revolt against the Washington Post’s blogoscabbing program has spread from Twitter to blogs across the nation and beyond. As a result, we had our best day ever last Thursday and our second-best day ever last Friday. Six of our top ten best days have occurred since those posts went up. We can’t trace all of the links to our posts, but here’s a taste.

Fire Dog Lake, national liberal blog

The Washington Post’s new PostPolitics section will have an awesome new feature where they get local bloggers to write for them for free and own their content. It’s the new journalism!

Drift Glass, national liberal blog

Meanwhile in Totally Unrelated News, the Washington Pest/Post would totally love it if you would, uh, like, work for free!

The Big Lead, national sports blog

If the mainstream media is interested in a blog, this is how not to approach matters.

Unzipped, porn blog(!)

You gotta click on this one, you guys! Are you a blogger who's looking for a “real” job? Well then step right up because the Washington Post is hiring! Oh, one catch: There's no pay.

Sense of Events, blog about foreign policy, military affairs and religious matters

Why a blogger turned down an offer to write online for the Washington Post: it would have made him a blogoscabber, which sounds like a pretty good reason to me.

Citizen Journalism and Terrorism, blog about new media from the University of Kent, Canterbury, U.K.

Blogger turns down the “opportunity” to write for The Washington Post……….why??? Because they wanted him to work for free!!!

Muck Rack.com, blog for journalists on Twittter

Hats off to that blogger.

Wonkette, famous D.C. gossip and politics blog

This is why we need a bloggers union for Christ’s sake.

Swing State Project, national campaign and news blog

What a crock.

No Silence Here, blog on Knoxnews.com in Knoxville, Tennessee

Ouch! Blogger 1, WaPo 0

1115.org, national political blog

I guess the Post got bit by the hand they thought would feed them.

Letter From Here, local blog in Madison, Wisconsin

If the media are increasingly reluctant to pay for content, why on earth do they expect news “consumers” to pay for it? But then, nobody ever said the dinosaurs were very bright.

American Digest, conservative blog from Seattle

[Note: your author does not have permission from David Lublin, MPW’s founder, to quote mass profanity on this blog.]

Post Grad Apocalypse, writer’s blog from Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY

He has a really good point about why bloggers shouldn’t sell themselves short. It’s not just about us. It’s about the other writers who have climbed their way to a position that actually gets them paid. If you provide content for free just because other people do, you contribute to circumstances that lead to paid writers getting phased out. For the sake of more page views, you dismantle a whole system of writers getting wages.

First Draft, national liberal blog from New Orleans

Why would the Post even think bloggers would agree to something like this? Because. Because they think they're the Post, and you should aspire to be them, and if you're not aspiring to be them you should at least aspire for them to p*ss on you as they walk by.

Because MPW should just fall all over themselves to kiss the Post’s ring, right? They should be grateful, I mean, my God, that the Post would even NOTICE them? It's like an ant being smiled upon by a goddess! They shouldn’t ask for money from a multi-million-dollar news corporation! They should just be honored to be allowed to share the same pixels as the Post's actual staff writers.

After all, we’re just untutored filthy Internet people out here. None of us are trained journalists (except those who are) and none of us know enough about our livelihoods to value work properly (except those who do) and none of us have any idea how to build our own godd*mn incomes (except those making more money than Washington Post writers) without being adopted by Benevolent Media Daddy and shown the ropes as, you know, a favor. I mean, we really ought to pay THEM for the right to breathe their air!