David Markland is an Idiot
What do you do when you want to stir things up on your blog and jack up readership? Start a war with another blogger! Its certainly nothing this old, dead Republican mayor hasn’t done in the past and probably will do again when the mood seems right.
The latest bomb thrower is a guy named David Markland from a blog called Metroblogging LA. I don’t know David from Adam and only first heard his name a few days ago when he started posting some screeds in our comments section. Judging from his recent post on Metroblogging, David has read my blog far more than I’ve read his (which I actually can’t remember when or if I ever have).
To be fair, David correctly pointed out some statistical inaccuracies in a piece by Walter Moore. Walter to his credit revised his piece and admitted his error. When was the last time you heard Sherry (Shirley) Bebitch or Jack “Industrial Design” Kyser do that?
However Markland was out for more blood apparently and began a litany of mis-truths about the Sister City.
Markland is wet in his drawers that we posted a reader comment from State Bar President Shelly Sloane critical of Zuma Dogg. Apparently he thinks email is sacrosanct and that we shouldn’t have published this. However Sloan signed his name to the post and did not request anonymity. If you’re going to write to a media source and be critical of it, you can be sure the property is going to respond. Have you ever watched Bill O’Reilly or even 60 Minutes?
Markland attempts to do further damage to our blog (and it makes you wonder what powerful interest in city hall he is either in bed with, partial to, or supportive of) by claiming that my publication of Sloane’s critique means that any phone calls or emails we receive via our whistleblower hotline would not receive the anonymity required or requested by the tipster. Markland has absolutely no knowledge or evidence to claim this and I don’t think you will find one anonymous source that we have used in our 2.5 year history that could claim we “outed” them. Quite the contrary it was a combination of local print reporters, other bloggers and city hall sources that sought to out myself and my previous blogging partners at the time we were anonymous. In fact one blogger who claims to rule the roost went as far to publish where I work.
Back to the story at hand. Markland also takes aim at me for participating in the “Pay Per Post” program, a blog advertising program that seeks to make a few dollars for those of us who toil away writing for these sites for no recompense. He also tries to slam the blogs advertorial policy which evolved along with that of Pay Per Post itself and upon the advice of our readers and advisors. It should be pointed out and Markland is not intellectually honest enough to do this that I only posted four stories under the Pay Per Post program (for the grand total of about $34) and I have given far more space on this blog to charitable and other community efforts for free.
Lastly Markland whines that Walter did not acknowledge him for pointing out the error (anyone who read the article and Markland’s comments would know it was Markland) and that we do not feature his blog in our blog roll. Boo hoo. The blog roll policy is simple (and yes changes to some of the blogs we link to are in order and I will get to that as soon as I have a free moment). I list blogs that I feel have a major impact in LA – that would be Martini Republic, LA Observed, Franklin Avenue, Don Garza, even the WWG’s blog. I also list blogs I find to be interesting community blogs such as In The Oaks and Here In Van Nuys (both excellent). I will link blogs I find interesting that the blog owner has asked for a reciprocal link. I will link goofy blogs primarily those run by semi-obscure celebrities. And finally as a member of the Bear Flag Republic network, we run their blogroll of members.
I had reservations about even acknowledging Markland’s rant and sending him any traffic. Hence, I am not linking to him in this post. However I could not let some nitwit with what appears to be some sort of agenda to harm our blog post a bunch of crap. Of course its always fun to stir up some of what Doug McIntyre has accused me of in the past, “delicious troublemaking.”
Now back to our regularly scheduled program.
The latest bomb thrower is a guy named David Markland from a blog called Metroblogging LA. I don’t know David from Adam and only first heard his name a few days ago when he started posting some screeds in our comments section. Judging from his recent post on Metroblogging, David has read my blog far more than I’ve read his (which I actually can’t remember when or if I ever have).
To be fair, David correctly pointed out some statistical inaccuracies in a piece by Walter Moore. Walter to his credit revised his piece and admitted his error. When was the last time you heard Sherry (Shirley) Bebitch or Jack “Industrial Design” Kyser do that?
However Markland was out for more blood apparently and began a litany of mis-truths about the Sister City.
Markland is wet in his drawers that we posted a reader comment from State Bar President Shelly Sloane critical of Zuma Dogg. Apparently he thinks email is sacrosanct and that we shouldn’t have published this. However Sloan signed his name to the post and did not request anonymity. If you’re going to write to a media source and be critical of it, you can be sure the property is going to respond. Have you ever watched Bill O’Reilly or even 60 Minutes?
Markland attempts to do further damage to our blog (and it makes you wonder what powerful interest in city hall he is either in bed with, partial to, or supportive of) by claiming that my publication of Sloane’s critique means that any phone calls or emails we receive via our whistleblower hotline would not receive the anonymity required or requested by the tipster. Markland has absolutely no knowledge or evidence to claim this and I don’t think you will find one anonymous source that we have used in our 2.5 year history that could claim we “outed” them. Quite the contrary it was a combination of local print reporters, other bloggers and city hall sources that sought to out myself and my previous blogging partners at the time we were anonymous. In fact one blogger who claims to rule the roost went as far to publish where I work.
Back to the story at hand. Markland also takes aim at me for participating in the “Pay Per Post” program, a blog advertising program that seeks to make a few dollars for those of us who toil away writing for these sites for no recompense. He also tries to slam the blogs advertorial policy which evolved along with that of Pay Per Post itself and upon the advice of our readers and advisors. It should be pointed out and Markland is not intellectually honest enough to do this that I only posted four stories under the Pay Per Post program (for the grand total of about $34) and I have given far more space on this blog to charitable and other community efforts for free.
Lastly Markland whines that Walter did not acknowledge him for pointing out the error (anyone who read the article and Markland’s comments would know it was Markland) and that we do not feature his blog in our blog roll. Boo hoo. The blog roll policy is simple (and yes changes to some of the blogs we link to are in order and I will get to that as soon as I have a free moment). I list blogs that I feel have a major impact in LA – that would be Martini Republic, LA Observed, Franklin Avenue, Don Garza, even the WWG’s blog. I also list blogs I find to be interesting community blogs such as In The Oaks and Here In Van Nuys (both excellent). I will link blogs I find interesting that the blog owner has asked for a reciprocal link. I will link goofy blogs primarily those run by semi-obscure celebrities. And finally as a member of the Bear Flag Republic network, we run their blogroll of members.
I had reservations about even acknowledging Markland’s rant and sending him any traffic. Hence, I am not linking to him in this post. However I could not let some nitwit with what appears to be some sort of agenda to harm our blog post a bunch of crap. Of course its always fun to stir up some of what Doug McIntyre has accused me of in the past, “delicious troublemaking.”
Now back to our regularly scheduled program.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 2/06/2007 12:17:00 PM
16 Comments:
For anyone who cares, David Markland did indeed spot for me a boo-boo I made in interpreting statistics about the county jail. I tried to e-mail him to thank him, but couldn't find his name, so I posted a thank-you at what I believe was his blog. I'll go revise my "thank you to the person who pointed out..." acknowledgement accordingly.
Walter don't go to trouble to please this self important clown. They're just jealous they're not LAist. Metroblogging isn't even worthy of wrapping LAist's fish.
I did take the liberty to execute a "BLOGGIN RECON" of Metro's(exual) David website. He is a "POLLONISTA" in Silver Lake Drag. He waded into the adoring crowds at the May Day Celebration of law breaking. He even took a shot at Joseph for trivializing the march on his Martini Republic website.
"RED SPOT OF REASON IN CD 14"
This site has always been a whorehouse.
LAist is viewed by four people. Five if you include the second half of a pair of conjoined midgets. I think you've got the fish-wrapping analogy backwards.
David Markland was nice enough to send me a "heads up" to the story.
Believe it or not, David was the first blogger in the city to contact ZD, aks about him, write about him, and all that. So he's a fan of ZD, the advocate, even if he doesn't always agree with my side of the issue. And he aksed for my response, so here's what I sent him:
Dude,
Thanks for the heads up. FIRST OF ALL, no one is really getting rich off of mayor sam. it's human nature to want to be compensated for the time and effort you puting to something that people are using, but i know i don't get paid a penny to contribute, and donations are SOMETIMES a ten here, a twenty there...but way too rare, and way too small amounts.
And i think if mayor sam was making anything but chump change for his ads, so far, he would be donating to ZD himself. I don't think Mayor Sam needs the money from this, although no one ever minds making MORE money...i think it's on principal that he would like the web site to support itself enough so that he can pay Big ZD, who is broke as hell, and needs gas money, at least to be able to continue driving to city hall, to cover the meetings.
Regarding the email from Shelly Sloan that he posted. My honest feeling on the matter is this: First of all he's a MORE than public figure. He is the Presdient of the California State Bar. A very powerful and influential organization, that controls a lot of things, and has deep, deep pockets to lobby for their special interests.
In Mr. Sloan's case, construction and real estate interested as refered to in an article about the former judge. And we don't have to bring up that ZD has been the biggest bigmouth in the city in hitting up the mayor, city council, wesson's housing and econimic; and reyes' planning and land use committees to remind them that there is charter mandated law requiring vacancy rates, tenant relocation notification and moving fees (paying out outdate rates from the 80's), and affordable housing requirements regarding all these condo-conversions that are steamrolling through the city, unchecked.
So now, thanks to the work of not only myself, but Chuck Tenant and especially, Noel Weiss (two of my "buddies" Sloan must be referring to), City Council, City Attorney and the LA Planning Department are all working together to start update the relocation fees to something more appropriate considering today's housing rates, not 1980's. And vacancy rates are now being looked at, and all that is up on the table for enactment. (It's all been written about in the local newspapers this month (Feb '07), and I wrote about it in October '06, as well.
So I guess Sloan is starting to hear "no", where he used to hear "yes".
And point is, although Mayor Sam has introduced the whisltleblower's hotline under the promise of anonymity, the guy signed his name and he his a very high profile elected/appointed official who is paying thousands to the mayor and each and every councilmember.
I get emails all the time, and they are always VERY SPECIFIC when they want to remain anonymous (if we know each other). And some people simply don't sign their name, at all. Or use a monikor.
AND, AND, AND...IT WASN'T A WHISTLEBLOWER TIP. It was a weak-ass complaint about ZD from a guy who isn't used to having the public have any impact against his money. You CAN afford to be a hell of a lot lazier, Shelly, when all you have to do is hand over some money to have people listen to you. Try doing what I just did for the past ten months (long, boring, early meeting through the worst traffic in the nation), monitor radio 24/7 for those moments to call in, and I've called four, five, six days a week, sometime up to two, three calls a day (during the last election season), all the writing and blogging, video editing and myspace stuff...and I've been doing it without permanent residence, much of the time out of my van, not enough gas to get around, and hungry and cold as hell, y'all...So yeah...Back on point, a public figure, who signs his name, does not request anonymity, and it isn't a whistleblower tip, but "letter to the editor" doesn't bother me. But, I'll say to Mayor Sam...Since people are now going to be skeptical and hesisitant, perhaps now, why don't you just set up a separate email address for the pueblos.
Zuma Dogg
Public Advocate of the Community
it makes you wonder what powerful interest in city hall he is either in bed with, partial to, or supportive of
Hahahahahah. Conspiracies everywhere! More level-headed readers than you will note that Markland wrote a considered post about what he felt were potential credibility issues with a blog that he otherwise found very accomplished. You're the one that's stooped to "bomb throwing" and name calling.
And seriously, what the hell does any of this have to do with LAist?
My guess is if the intent of this was to drive traffic to Metroblogging LA, David might have picked a site that actually has traffic to speak of.
According to Alexa Mayor Sam has next to no readers, not a good target if you are trying to boost your ratings. Also, it's interesting that there are no links in this post to the Metroblogging LA stories being talked about, while the posts on Metroblogging LA all have links directly to the articles in question on Mayor Sam, even the ones Mayor Sam deleted after the fact. It's pretty obvious who doesn't want both sides of the story read. It's pretty obvious who is trying to hide something.
Meanwhile, the City Attorney was accused of being a crook this morning in the LA Times by a former staffer -- and none of you idiots give a shit.
Mayor Sam is the only blog that gets tons of hits daily. None of those other blogs get any compared to Mayor Sam. So jealousy and attention is a factor. Walter you should be feathered and tarred for making "a mistake." You owned up to it and moved on. So should these losers who obviously put a lot of credence in Mayor Sam by continuing to bad mouth this blog.
which part of deleting the original post and then not linking to the other side of the story "owning up to it?"
LAist gets more hits than Metroblogging. Its also more interesting.
Oh by the way David's remarks about Mayor Sam were lies besides no one asked his opinion and Mayor Sam had never mentioned that blog (as far as I know).
We're straying from the point here. Walter Moore made a huge mistake in a post on his first day of being Chief Economist and Legal Analyist for The LA Policy Institute. Once confronted with the mistake, he deleted the post and made passing reference to a reader who had helped him with a "draft" of his argument. Walter should have edited the post and left the comments up. Bloggers know that there is no such thing as a "draft" post -- if you publish something in error, you admit your mistake gracefully and don't remove any trace of your mistake.
And what's with the need to make money off the blog, anyway? I have seen tons of ads on the site for many months and every now and then I'm diverted to an annoying "pop up" ad over the site. When you combine this revenue with the "pay-to-blog" posts, isn't that enough for a few hours of your day? Walter has said he has accepted nothing and expected nothing, and Zuma only says he wants donations (which Mayor Sam can give without contributions). Why a pledge drive? Mailander thought it was unnecessary too.
Jim Alger posted a lot of ads on here, soon he becomes a contributor. The head of the State Bar sends a private e-mail that is used as a blog topic. Can anyone blame Markland for doubting the credibility of the "Mayor Sam Fraud Hotline" when all of the above is considered?
I love how some 2 bit commentator, full of tard-riffic ideas can become the leader of a "policy institute" just by sitting his can on yet another piece of cyber-space. Way to go Chief! Don't crap on yer boots!
741 you are clueless.
Mayor Sam can run his blog how he wants - if you don't like it don't read it.
You're twisting things around and you're probably David Markland.
Sean Bonner is now lying about Mayor Sam at Metroblogging. Whatever. How can you trust a blog that posts ads in its stories?
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