But what if instead of creating new blog readers they simply start vacuuming up existing ones — like, say, the 65 percent of HA commenters who hate my posts? Whither theWither my blogosphere?

Sorry, couldn’t resist fixing it for ya.

More power to FoxNation, especially as a counterweight to Huffo. As for myself, I’d probably not spend much time there. Different strokes … and all that.

Personally, I think the notion of objective, unbiased media is hogwash — a new-fangled construct foisted upon us by progressives in ye olde days of yellow-dog journalism. I’d be perfectly fine by the media wearing their preferences on their sleeve, logo and masthead.

To whit, the New York Democratic Times, The Fox Conservative News, The Star Liberal Tribune, LA Progressive Times, Fort Worth Independent Telegraph etc.

Heck, Obambi’s favorite “hero” & “role model” would often correspond with only the media that were behind him, not giving the time of the day to the oppo media. Obambi ought to do the same in his pressers–lock out the conservatives. Bring.It.On!

Seriously, though, what do you guys think of it? Portfolio and Inside Cable News note that Fox has basically abandoned the “fair and balanced” motto by launching a site this partisan.

It’s not clear that the Fox Nation site is all that partisan–this is their “statement of purpose”:

Our Purpose
The FOX Nation Statement of Purpose

The Fox Nation was created for people who believe in the United States of America and its ideals, as expressed in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Emancipation Proclamation.

It is a community that believes in the American Dream: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. One that believes being an American is an honor, as well as a great responsibility—and a wonderful adventure.

This is a place for people who believe we live in a great country, a welcoming refuge for legal immigrants who want to contribute their talent and abilities to make our way of life even greater. We believe we should enjoy the company and support of each other, delighting in the creativity, ingenuity, and work ethic of one and all, while observing the basic rules of civility and mutual respect and, most importantly, strengthening our diverse society by striving for unity.

The Fox Nation is for those committed to the core principles of tolerance, open debate, civil discourse–and fair and balanced coverage of the news. It is for those opposed to intolerance, excessive government control of our lives, and attempts to monopolize opinion or suppress freedom of thought, expression, and worship.

We invite all Americans who share these values to join us here at Fox Nation.

Most people (including liberals) who watch cable news know that Fox News is more conservative than CNN, MSNBC, and the alphabet networks, and Hannity&Colmes, which used to be a left vs. right debate show, has now become simply “Hannity”, who sometimes invites liberals onto his “Great American Panel” but tries to shoot holes in their arguments.

But where else can conservatives get honest news on TV?

If Fox News is launching a major conservative blog, it might get lots of liberal trolls who call into the “Hate Hannity Hotline”, but they might also read comments from true conservatives, and some centrists might be convinced by their arguments.

As for the danger that a Fox Nation blog might swallow up some of the conservative blogs with smaller memberships, that could go both ways. Conservative commentators like Michelle Malkin probably have a larger following after being on Fox News, where a large audience can hear them expressing conservative views on TV. Also, conservative bloggers could post comments on Fox Nation with links to their own blogs, which might attract new readers if Fox Nation proves more popular than existing conservative blogs.

Let’s give this a chance, and try to cooperate with Fox Nation–whoever is for us is not against us. This might be an attempt to unite the “dextrosphere”, and we should welcome it.

But what if instead of creating new blog readers they simply start vacuuming up existing ones — like, say, the 65 percent of HA commenters who hate my posts? Whither the blogosphere?

Where can I go to purchase this reader-cloning device of which you speak?

I’m here regularly and I will stay. I also go to Michelle’s site several times a day. I did go to FoxNation.com yesterday and posted several times. I don’t like having to wait on moderation because there’s no sense of continuity IMO. I got tired of waiting for my comment and just left the thread.

I think it’s GREAT that Fox is allowing people to comment and talk. We’re living in scary times and I think it’s helpful for people to be able to talk and realize “we’re not alone.”

This site, like FNC’s main site, somehow looks a bit chintzier than CNN’s or MSNBC’s, although I’m not quite sure why… Any ideas what the problem is, web designers?

There’s no flow to the site. No overall design feel. The scale of everything is just “off” in relation to everything else. Most conspicuous example: the prominent fonts are all either too small or too big.

VeniVidiVidic on March 30, 2009 at 8:56 PM

I agree 100%. I am a conservative Fox news junkie, but I have no interest in joining that site.

Also, Foxnation is going to attract a ton of leftist trolls mobilized by the Huffington Post and Daily Kos whose sole goal is to disrupt. if anything, the left wing sites may be the ones who lose most of their users to Foxnation.

This site, like FNC’s main site, somehow looks a bit chintzier than CNN’s or MSNBC’s, although I’m not quite sure why… Any ideas what the problem is, web designers?

I’m late to the game but my take on the design is that it’s too “auto-generated” looking. All the sites like CNN are auto-generated of course, on extremely sophisticated publishing platforms, but they have highly customized details.

Fox’s is more straight-out-of-the-box with not nearly enough human intervention especially in the initial creation of the templates. I assume this must be on purpose – maybe they think that loose, unfocused, repetitive design is more “bloggy” somehow?

And about white space – it’s not a good thing when it’s too evenly distributed like it is over there. Positive and negative need to look intelligently and functionally grouped. Not just “padding: 30px on everything” if you know what I mean.

It does say beta though so maybe they launched before finalizing the design.

Any ideas what the problem is, web designers?

Too much white space in the wrong space – the top. It looks like they started to create a banner and forgot to finish it. It may sound trivial, but the gray background and rounded corners on the CNN site go a long way toward making the site look more polished.

I don’t understand the notion that a website should look like a newspaper. It’s a bit like designing a cellphone to look like a telegraph key

1: Daily Vent
2: Daily Vent
3: HotAir fan reports (HA citizen journalist vids)
4: Daily Vent
5: Allahpundit cage match
6: Daily Vent

Over at FOX it is going to be like trying to storm the beach in Normandy….during spring break.

Limerick on March 30, 2009 at 11:57 PM

Good God, when I read your comment I had this visual in my head of Geraldo, saggy body & all, in swim trunks with a rose in his mouth storming the beach at Spring Break chasing all these scantily clad Girls Gone Wild type babes, like the ones O’Reilly likes to loop on his show.

It just made me crack up laughing.

Over at FOX it is going to be like trying to storm the beach in Normandy….during spring break.

Limerick on March 30, 2009 at 11:57 PM

Now that’s funny…LOL.

keep the change on March 30, 2009 at 10:02 PM

You make an excellent point. I hadn’t heard of HotAir until I saw a few of Ed’s polls on AOL. After I linked over to the site a few times I decided to eliminate the middleman and come directly to Hotair from that point on.

And after coming to Hotair, I found out about the great cartoon Day By Day and several other very good sites, so getting the word out through any means can only be a good thing.

As far as taking bloggers away, well, I make the rounds when I can of several sites throughout the day. Anyone who leaves to go to that site was probably not going to stay here anyway.

I like Ed immensely, and even though I disagree with AP often, I still enjoy his posts and laugh at his attempts (sucessful and otherwise) to tweak some of the more brittle members here. (like saying Obama should still speak at ND with his pro-abortion philosophy even after implying that the science/technology school did the right thing in uninviting Ben Stein from speaking due to his anti-science philosophy) It’s all in good fun, and more importantly gets people talking.

Anyway, for better or worse, I’ll still be here. I waited too long for enrollment to open up to leave, lol.

Nah….HotAir is where Palins and Joe Plumbers can rub elbows with the Krondikes and Savages. Over at FOX it is going to be like trying to storm the beach in Normandy….during spring break.

But what if instead of creating new blog readers they simply start vacuuming up existing ones — like, say, the 65 percent of HA commenters who hate my posts?

Came here from Captains Quarters,not going anywhere.
Learn a lot from Allah/Ed’s post but would like to see some guest posters here to.

I think this is a great idea by FOX and don’t care about hearing the “bias” blather either because liberals control over 75% of the MSM.

The more involved people can get in bypassing the filter of liberal media the better.

I think in the end,it will get more conservatives involved in getting their news from the internet/blogs which will eventually increase traffic here and other blogs like:
Patterico,Red State,Instapundit,Ace of Spades,Newsbusters,Michelle Malkin,Long War Journal,Micheal Yon,Micheal Totten,Powerline,Big Hollywood,gateway pundit…etc…etc…etc…