home

Friday Night Blog Fight

There's a new blog spat emerging. It's between left wing bloggers and Pajamas Media. I've received several e-mails today telling me that TalkLeft is in the dust-up. But, really, I'm not. I've been aware for several months that PJM excerpts or links to TalkLeft posts occasionally. And I don't mind at all.

Here's the deal: Pajamas Media, which highlights blog posts in their center space, is trying to be more non-partisan and excerpting posts of left-wing blogs, (with multiple links to the originating blog). Several of these blogs are upset and demanding PJM cease the practice immediately.

I am not upset. When PJM picks up on something they see on TalkLeft, they always do so in a way that encourages their readers to click on the link provided to TalkLeft where they can read the entire post. They post without any kind of commentary or mocking. I welcome the opportunity to reach beyond the choir and I appreciate the extra traffic from their readers, who might not otherwise read TalkLeft.

It's clear from the left column on their site that TalkLeft is not a member of PJM. Perhaps because I regularly check the site anyway, I know that the center column is not meant to suggest that individual authors have posting privileges. It's more of a "best of the day" type feature. The bloggers who are complaining think that it appears to readers that they have posted the item on PJM when they haven't.

I don't see it that way. To me, PJM is more of an aggegator, albeit a selective one, with editors picking their favorites blog posts and driving traffic to those sites.

I'm no patsy when it comes to others posting TalkLeft's material as their own. TalkLeft's material is copyrighted and reprinting of even excerpts without attribution is not allowed. Reprinting entire posts or TL's original, copyrighted graphics even with attribution is not allowed without permission. The few times I've been made aware it has happened, I've e-mailed the re-printer and asked them to remove the post or graphic.

I just don't see that what PJM is doing is objectionable. Others can disagree, but th