Nutroots bloggers whine: Democratic groups won’t advertise on our sites!

In which I join with my nutroots jackass brethren. File this one away for the next time you hear some lefty snark about “wingnut welfare.” And let the blog money flow!

“Most want the easy way — having a big blogger promote their agenda,” adds Markos Moulitsas, the founder of DailyKos. “Then they turn around and spend $50K for a one-page ad in the New York Times or whatever.” Moulitsas adds that officials at such groups often do nothing to engage the sites’s audiences by, say, writing posts, instead wanting the bloggers to do everything for them.

The behind-the-scenes tensions go to the heart of the role these bloggers have created for themselves in Democratic politics — they’re basically advocates and operatives with big platforms — and their future role, too. They argue that their efforts and fundraising helped drive the Democratic ascendancy. Yet even the Dem party committees are reluctant to advertise with them, raising the question of whether the party will ever be willing to seriously invest long-term in this new media infrastructure.

“We don’t invest in the future, and Republicans do,” says John Aravosis, the founder of AMERICAblog. “The party committees really get that we can be effective as their partners and that we’re happy to help, and they take advantage of that. But even so, very little ad money comes from them. It’s more than just wanting to share in the spoils. We are small business-people who are fighting to survive economically in a really bad year.”

Really, Aravosis? Republican blogs are way ahead in the money game? I encourage HA readers to e-mail Michael Steele and make John’s prediction a reality. Michelle isn’t willing to sell out but I am. Pay my rent, Republican movers and shakers! We’re fighting to survive, too. A pro-FMA post is just a thousand-dollar donation away.

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