Cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles.
My ranty screed thing the other day about Jane Hamsher (“Why I will never post another word at My.Firedoglake.com”) brought out a series of quite interesting responses. The version at Daily Kos drew almost 1,000 comments and earned me five donuts in the Tip Jar. Apparently it’s okay to call the hundreds of thousands of Obama supporters who are the thin hopey line between the President RomneyPawlentyPaulPalinBachmannCainGingrichPerryMcCotterHuntsmanDuke and the White House the “stupidest motherfuckers in the world”. However, it is decidedly NOT okay to say, “Fuck you, Jane Hamsher”.
One commenter suggested that take my disgust with Hamsher to Redstate.com (I don’t get it either):
This is the most disgusting display of mindless hateful comments I have almost ever seen here. Unbelievable. I do seriously wonder as to the mental health of alot [sic] of the commenters in this diary.The people who see so much “hate” are the people who have so much “hate” in their own hearts. When you are filled with it inside, you will see it everywhere outside. As above, so below.
That is just how it works.
Are you proud of yourself, Electablog [sic], for stirring the hate-pot? Is this a win for you?
You complain about a hateful comment at FDL, and then spread the hate yourself. It only shows how ugly it is here at DKos. Conratulations [sic]. Good job.
You could copy all this straight to RedState and you wouldn’t know the difference.
One of Hamsher’s fawning fans made it over to my blog to drop this steaming pile on the floor:
Ah, did Jane hurt yout wuttle feelings. Poor baby. Now go run to the teacher shrieking and be sure to try to jab her in the eyes in the process.Jane hurt my feelings so i am going to go smear her on DK.
What a pathetic little weasel.
Apparently quoting Hamsher’s own words is “smearing” her.
But the best came in an email from one of Hamsher’s employees.
The chances of you becoming a paid front pager somewhere have dropped significantly …Jane will never forget and she will bad mouth you to the major blog owners if your name comes up. She is a friend of Marcos [sic] and Josh Marshall and the guys who run the American Prospect and pretty much anyone on the liberal side of the blogs and you’ve made a major career fuck up.
Did I mention that this came from a Hamsher employee? Great boss ya gotchyerself there, my friend.
So this is what we are dealing with when we have someone like Jane Hamsher as a self-declared spokesperson for “The LeftTM“. She has now become a vindictive, egotistical gate-keeper, at least in her own mind. Anyone who wishes to become a “professional left” blogger (i.e., get paid to write on one of the main liberal blogs) must be vetted and okayed by Jane Hamsher. So anyone wishing to advance must lick her boot and say only nice things about Queen Hamsher or risk being blacklisted by her, never to work in this town again.
How very liberal of her.
Well fuck that. If the cost of being a paid liberal blogger is kowtowing to someone who will try to destroy your career if you say something negative about her, I won’t pay that price. I probably make more money in my day job than Jane does keeping the internet safe from pragprog1 Obama supporters and I can blog circles around her doing it as a hobby. While she spends her time alienating the ground troops that will make the difference between President Obama and President RomneyPawlentyPaulPalinBachmannGingrichPerryMcCotterHuntsmanDuke, people like me are firing up the troops, reporting on what’s happening around the country to shine a light on our true enemies and generally being activists. Because that’s the difference between someone like me and someone like Jane Hamsher. I’m in it to help make the country a better place by promoting activism. She’s … not.
Will I ever get on teevee to represent “liberals” or “progressives”? Will I ever be a front-pager at Daily Kos or Think Progress? Probably not. But it won’t be because Jane Hamsher went around bad-mouthing me. It’ll be because I controlled my own destiny and took a different path. When all is said and done, one thing you’ll never have to say about me is that I threatened people on my own team simply because they said something mean back to me after I said something mean to them. I’m cool with that. Her kind of vindictive, childish, un-liberal behavior is pathetic and sad and it’s hurting our cause. I am also highly dubious that someone like Markos Moulitsas vets his employees by running them by Hamsher anyway. He’s got a whole stable full of good writers that give away their writing on a daily/weekly basis and help make him a shit ton of money. I am dubious that Hamsher’s opinion on the matter factors in at all.
How about you? Have you ever been threatened by Queen Hamsher or any of the other self-appointed “True Liberals” for speaking out against them? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
Adding…The only reason that I shared part of the email from Hamsher’s employee is that I feel pretty certain that it was sent at her request, as a way to “send me a message”. I would be shocked, frankly, to find out that someone who would write to tell me that “Jane will never forget and she will bad mouth you to the major blog owners if your name comes up” would have the nerve to send me that email without her knowing. If you work for someone that horribly vindictive, you would be too afraid to send those words to a semi-prominent blogger. There was actually more than one email in the exchange and the tone changed from the previous one to that one. It came across very much as a threat, a warning not to cross Jane Hamsher and that, having already done so, I should be afraid.
Well, I’m not afraid. I have nothing to lose and something to gain by standing up to bullies who threaten other liberals and who are actually harmful to the cause of keeping the GOP out of the White House and out of Congress. What I have to gain is my self-respect.
My message to Jane: Message received, message ignored.
1 pragprog = Pragmatic Progressives
