Hugh Hewitt of the aptly-named blog HughHewitt.com made an appearance on Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Fact0r on Friday to comment about the Daily Kos scandal. Kos had taken money from the Howard Dean campaign in exchange for positive press on the blog. Hewitt’s comments on O’Reilly were similar to the ones made here, in his lengthy article about his FNC appearance:
Bloggers should disclose –prominently and repeatedly– when they are receiving payments from individuals or organizations about whom or which they are blogging. Period. Lawyers live with codes of ethics that detail conflicts, so I guess it is ingrained in some bloggers, but this is very simple. Transparency is the key. I take no money from political candidates or causes, only from my law clients –who are all landowners of one sort or another, from churches and schools to home owners or home builders– my law school, my publisher and various newspapers/magazines/text merchants who pay me to write, Salem Communications which pays me to talk, and various advertisers who run the blog-ads to your right or for whom I voice advertisements. I get paid to make speeches. I get paid to moderate debates. I am a professional opinion-giver, but no one owns or can buy the content of my political/media/legal opinions.
As Hewitt and O’Reilly engaged in discourse, Hewitt mentioned a couple of reputable blogs, including Power Line and Captain’s Quarters. “What an amazing opportunity for a blog, to get such publicity on the top-rated program on cable news,” I thought. “We should have paid Hewitt to mention Slowplay.com!”
Oh, the irony would have been just delightful…
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Nathan Novak at 12:01 am
