Nyhan II

-- by John Emerson

More and more I think that Nyhan set up TAP in order to get visibility. With Wonkette's help, he hopped right to Time magazine with his whine.

To the traditional "big-media liberal" category (Alan Colmes, Richard Cohen) we now have to add the "big-media blogger". When Time decided they needed a representative of the blog demographic, they unerringly chose Cox. Why? Because I think that could tell that she would be willing to play ball. Nyhan is superficially very different than Cox, but I think that he's been working that same angle: he'll play ball with Time, but not with TAP. (I could see that coming with him a year or two ago, just as I could with Cox).

By now, in any group of ambitious young liberals or young Democrats with journalistic aspirations, there will be a few who figure out that 1.) being too liberal or too Democratic can be a serious career disability and 2.) there's a niche for someone who's willing to play ball with the media while purporting to represent liberals and Democrats.

"Being willing to play ball" = "being a team player" = "getting real" = "getting with the program" = "knowing what you can say" = "knowing who to blow" = "omerta".

I've watched two whole generations play this game by now.

Posted by John Emerson at September 21, 2006 7:44 AM