CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Matt Naugle, who was Ken Blackwell's official campaign blogger during the Cincinnati Republican's ill-fated 2006 run for governor, is on the warpath against another GOP blog. Naugle says folks should tune out Matt Hurley's Weapons of Mass Discussion -- "let's ignore these vulgar basement dwellers." Both Naugle and Hurley are fixtures in the Ohiosphere, and they endlessly hammer liberals and Democrats. But it seems some of the partisan vitriol may be spilling into an internecine turf battle.
So far, there's been no response from Hurley, who has been gaining prestige in the world of conservative bloggers as a voice from Ohio. Hurley operates out of Butler County in the state's SW corner. Naugle says Hurley's blog is for dunderheads:
"If there are any conservatives in Ohio who are seriously interested in blogging about state politics, please shoot me an email (matt-at-naugblog.com) and I'd be happy to help you set up your blog."
Is it jealousy -- or self-promotion -- at the heart of it all? Feuds can be good for business, as Olbermann's swipes at O'Reilly have shown. Hurley is rated the most influential blogger in Ohio this week on BlogNet News while Naugle is No. 5. (The Daily Bellwether is usually somewhere in the mix on the same Top 20 list. But not this week because there were no posts for nine days during a Bellwether sabbatical.) Suspicion here is that the feud between the GOP bloggers is genuine. Naugle probably breaks more news than Hurley -- Naugle broke the story about former Democratic Attorney General Marc Dann's problems la femme last November, long before anyone else. He appears to believe that Hurley's blog is dependent on press releases more than any independent reporting.
[UPDATE: 9:45 pm -- The alert folks at Democratic-left Plunderbund (No. 6 on the BlogNet News influence list) have more on the back story. And it is an entertaining yarn about the blogspat's evolution throughout the day.]
i'd say that tells you all you need to know about Blognet news ratings.
ReplyDelete-posted by Matt N.
ReplyDeletenot that it matters, but I'm hardly a blogger and don't spend nearly the time Matt does on his hard-on-the-eyes blog. I'm a student and work full time. And my sitemeter averages about 1100 unique visitors per day, while Hurley's are in the 300-400 range.
BNN is useful, but influence appears to be based off of blogs linking to other blogs, number of comments, et cetera. I don't bring in a lot of traffic from other blogs- I just have a core readership which just checks out my site directly.... many of which are from government IPs.
But this is not a pissing match. This is condemning nonsense and vulgarity. But thanks for stirring things up, old timer. :-)
Nonsense and vulgarity, eh, Naugle? Slamming bobbleheads with golfballs, making sexual accusations about every state democrat, that is not vulgar? Harrassing a woman on your website and calling her over and over because you think she was involved with Dann, that is not disgusting?
ReplyDeleteNaugle, the WMD guys made a mistake. While, you, on the other hand, are a walking mistake.
This sort of crap is one area of true bi-partisanship. There are some bloggers on both sides of the political aisle who take themselves way too seriously. I don't get it. If I read a blog and don't like their style, content, or whatever I'll just stop visiting that site. There are millions of other websites to visit.
ReplyDeleteyes, matt naugle is against the first amendment. He is against blogger freedom...he is against, anything that does not fit in with his own little agenda....he is a sad and pathetic caricature of what a conservative is. It is no wonder most of the Ohio conservative blogosphere have exiled him and don't associate with him.
ReplyDeleteWhat is truly vulgar is wishing ill of someone because they didn't support your candidate, which naugle did in regard to a Matt Cox, whose son fell ill and Naugle said that the family deserved it because they supported petro. Naugle has published people's phone numbers and has harassed people on the phone to the point legal action was being discussed. That is vulgar. That is abnormal and odd. Then there is that ststststststststststst-stuttering problem.
I've read enough of both to get a good feel for them. Naugle blog is one of the better-written ones. He's sometimes funny and usually informative. On the downside, sometimes he's far out there and it's disappointing that he crumbled Right Angle Blog, which had been by far the best blog in Ohio.
ReplyDeleteWeapons of Mass Distraction is an embarrassment to conservatives. That is what liberals want conservatives to be so they say we're all stupid. Most of the content is reprinting press releases, with their commentary void of any intelligent thought. That little video of their's was quite classless, though unfortunately representative of the intellect the site brings on a daily basis. One of their many weaknesses is that it's quite clear if a politician gives them attention, they'll shill endlessly for them.
Wow, I didn't think it was possible to post something less important than Jean Schmidt's latest comings and goings.
ReplyDeleteCincyJeff,
ReplyDeleteYou just hate it that they don't like Brinkman and COAST, because you are a shameless shill for them. The guys just tell it like it is, and don't get preachy. Self serving womanhaters like yourself are what liberals stereotype conservatives as being, namely humorless neofascists who want to censor and bring down everything....
After reading WMD's classless post about Lori Viars and that little "video" of their's, it's clear to see they have nothing but contempt for women. That is, except women politicians who make them feel important by sometimes calling them.
ReplyDeleteThe above post from anonymous is a perfect example of their lack of intellect. Instead of telling us what makes Jean Schmidt so great, they resort to chanting "womanhater" against anyone who dislikes her. If this level of discussion makes your day, then WMD is a great place to be. If you really want to discuss the issues there are much better places on both the left and right.
The Viars post, to refresh everyone's memory: http://massdiscussion.blogspot.com/2008/06/somebody-ought-to-tell-lori-viars-that.html