Does Money Influence Coverage by Daily Kos?

The hot topic of the day is this post from March which responds to another post (no longer on line) which accused Kos of changing his position on Hillary Clinton in response to ad revenue. The argument against Kos has become even weaker in subsequent months after the ad ran completed and as we do not see Daily Kos turning into a hot bed of support for Hillary Clinton.

As I’ve noted from time to time in relation to his posts on John Kerry and Bill Richardson, Kos does sometimes misrepresent the views of candidates. Obama supporters have similar criticisms, which I’ve also noted. There have also been other signs that Kos does not always do his homework before expressing opinions.

Not being able to read his mind, I suspect that in many cases this comes from Kos taking statements, sometimes out of context, from a single news story which reinforce his personal beliefs without bothering to get the full story. This actually happens quite frequently in the blogosphere, but is more frustrating when done by Kos in light of his prominence in the blogosphere. It remains unclear to what degree his financial ties to the Dean campaign influenced his misrepresentation of Kerry’s beliefs, either intentionally or subconsciously, especially considering the manner in which he changed his claims about Kerry after November 2002 as his support for Dean increased. The case that he is being influenced by ad revenue this year is even weaker, but should be kept in the back on one’s mind. This is true for all sources of information.

My post from March has periodically received links from discussion boards and blogs raising the question of whether Kos is influenced by ad money. It has regained considerably increased notice this week when this diary on Daily Kos linked to it.

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