Robert Wright, Mickey Kaus’s co-vlogger at Bloggingheads.tv, criticizes my criticism of the Kos Kidz. He says I committed a logical fallacy when I tried to prove that the Kos Kidz are ideologically insular by comparing my traffic from a Kos link with my traffic from InstaPundit and Michelle Malkin links. After all, Wright says, InstaPundit/Malkin readers aren’t exactly stepping outside of their ideological comfort zones when they follow links to my right-leaning posts (which not all of my posts are, contra Kaus and Wright’s description of me as a “right-wing blogger,” but my Instalanched/Malkin-linked posts generally are).
It’s a fair point. Frankly, that particular passage in my post — which happens to be the passage that got quoted by InstaPundit — was intended basically as a snarky aside, not as some sort of powerful substantive argument. It was probably the least well-thought-through portion of that whole post, and I certainly didn’t expect it to get Instalanched. (I did send Glenn an e-mail link-whoring the post, but I highlighted the portions concerning the crushing of dissent in Kosworld, not the side note about traffic.)
However, in my defense, or quasi-defense, I will say this. To the extent that I did think the point through, I wasn’t trying to use InstaPundit-to-Loy and Malkin-to-Loy traffic numbers to prove a lack of ideological insularity on the part of right-wing blog readers, as Wright infers. In fact, the level of right-wing insularity was never on my radar screen at all. I was talking only about left-wing insularity. My point, such as it was, was simply that the paltry Kos-to-Loy traffic suggested the existence of ideological insularity on the part of left-wing blog readers. Wright is right (heh) that my traffic proves nothing about whether ideological insularity also exists, or doesn’t, on the part of right-wing blog readers.
So, why did I even mention the InstaPundit-to-Loy and Malkin-to-Loy traffic? I suppose just to establish a very rough baseline for the sort of traffic that links from major blogs can hypothetically bring in, regardless of ideology. The point being, as Mickey says, that “twenty-three hits just ain’t a lot of hits, no matter how you cut it.” (Yeah, so why didn’t I just say that? Well, if I had, I wouldn’t have been on Bloggingheads.tv!)
It’s admittedly still a flawed argument — which again goes back to the fact that it really was intended more as a snarky aside than an “argument” at all — but it’s not quite as flawed as Wright says.
P.S. In comments on Bloggingheads, Mpecsek defends me more articulately than I just did.
P.P.S. Hey, maybe I’m being too hard on myself! More defenses keep rolling in, from Knemon and dogmobile and petty boozswha.
UPDATE: Since being linked by Kausfiles and Bloggingheads, I’ve gotten 88 hits from the Kaus link (which basically defends me), and only 40 hits from the Bloggingheads link (which accompanies a video clip that basically slams me). Clearly, this means Bloggingheads viewers (at least those on the Wright side of the aisle… hehe, get it, “Wright” side?) are unwilling to step outside of their ideological cocoons! ;)
On a related note, sometime in the last couple of hours, Bloggingheads changed the title of the segment concerning my post. Instead of referring to Kaus as “dumb,” he is now called merely “dense.” See for yourself after the jump:
THEN:
NOW:
Mickey must have made that change to insulate himself from Wright’s barbs. Cocooning all around! ;)
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Categories: The Media & Blogs
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October 20th, 2006 at 3:07:57 am
There are so many plausible reasons for cross traffic from one set of websites and not another website.
How about the fact that you basically drool over Malkin, Little Green Footballs, and Instapundit, and their readers have picked up on that so they’re more likely to even WANT to come over?
In other words, the cross linking traffic demonstrates a ideological insularity among very conservative websites when they come over to someone (IrishTrojan.com) who has at least SOME …what’s the right word…admiration?…appreciation?….for their own points of view. You’ve developed a pretty clear non-skeptical bias towards websites like Insta, Malkin, and Little Green Footballs, so of COURSE they will take the time to come read your links and comments about their favored websites.
You have it all backwards. The cross linking says a lot about you and the kinds of readers you draw from conservative websites and their insularity. It says nothing about KOS, given it’s a SINGLE post and their website and its readers aren’t going to go out of their way to view this website after a SINGLE link, especially given that it was a clearly hostile one– in stark contrast to your generally positive comments, dare I say usually GLOWING, references to Malkin, Insta, and LGF. To sum up, you’ve gained a reputation amongst Insta, Malkin, LGF readers so they’ll come here.
It’s easier to attract flies with…well, I was going to say shit, but let’s be relativistic about it and call your postings “honey.”
October 20th, 2006 at 3:45:46 am
Brendan,
I watched that blog-pundit head-to-head with acute awareness for as long as I could. I heard something about you being a right winger linked to right-winger blogs, but to be honest, I had my eyes closed and I didn’t know whether it was the gentleman on the right side of my screen or the bald guy on the left. I opened my eyes (perhaps I had missed a few minutes) and the guy on the right was mentioning the bald guy’s law degree. I’m sorry I don’t have more of a substantive opinion here, but God knows I tried.
October 20th, 2006 at 7:06:41 am
Anonymous, I don’t believe I’ve ever said ANYTHING, pro or con, about Little Green Footballs, and I’ve certainly not been linked by them regularly (maybe during Katrina — I don’t recall — but that would be it).
As for Malkin, I regularly make lukewarm comments about her, basically every single time that some anonymous commenter tries to claim that I’m, like, in love with her. It’s just not true. I don’t hate her guts like so many on the left do, and I will defend her against the vile racist taunts she is so regularly subjected to by “liberals,” but that’s the extent of it.
I do think InstaPundit is a great blogger and a good guy. If that’s a strike against me, well, I wear the strike as a badge of honor.
Anyway, you need to get your facts straight if you think I “basically drool over Malkin, Little Green Footballs, and Instapundit” and I’ve “developed a pretty clear non-skeptical bias towards websites like Insta, Malkin, and Little Green Footballs.” At best, you’re 1-for-3.
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