Conservative Bloggers - the Chopped Liver of the Right

Conservative Bloggers, despite their massive success at wrecking up the leftist narrative, are the chopped liver, ugly unwanted stepchildren, of the American right. What else could explain the stunning lack of support for the dextrosphere by the very people who directly benefit from the largely thankless work that Conservative Bloggers do every single day?

Datechguy explains that the #occupy mobs raked in tens of thousands of dollars from liberals, just so that they could squat in parks (often enjoying gourmet food, at least in NYC anyway) and publicly defecate while wailing about how unfair their lives are, but Conservative Bloggers (who exposed all the #occupy crimes and depravity that the media tried to bury) can barely pay their bills. Hell, I can't even buy a can of fricken coffee right now and traffic here is at an all time high!

Is conservative new media worth as much as the occupods? (excerpt):

I must admit I’m a bit jealous of the occupods in one respect when I see this post at Don Surber’s blog.

Somehow, they were able to spend a few months in the fall camping out and protesting against the working class while not working themselves.
They are in that upper 1% who do not have to work.

I don’t begrudge anyone what they already have, if they are rich enough to hand out then that’s fine. My jealously is based on how, well their friends on the left (and in the unions until the useful idiots were no longer useful) managed to kick in to keep them in tents, food and protests for two months. The tens of thousands of dollars that occupy New York, Occupy Oakland and occupy Portland (before their 20 grand was stolen) came from somewhere.
The left makes an effort to keep those who fight their battles supplied and ready to fight. On the right it is a bit leaner. Consider when New York Magazine mentioned Mitt Romney raised over 10 million in under 8 hours what Stacy McCain wrote:

we are struck by the sharp contrast between how George Soros employs his wealth — to build a media infrastructure for advancing his broad political agenda — and how wealthy Republicans spend their own money: To advance the narrow personal ambition of Mitt Romney.
Why are rich Republicans so clueless? They are shoveling money at a candidate who suffers tepid support among the GOP grassroots and is therefore unlikely to win the nomination.

And lets remember when Jimmie Bize crunched the numbers further based on not even Mitt’s 10.3 million or Herman Cain’s 7 million sitting in the bank but on Charlie Crist’s 4.3 million dollar quarter from 2010:

Do you know how much good reporting we could get with a budget of just $500,000 a year? Think about it. Play with the numbers. You think I couldn’t land Vadum and McCain for 70 grand a year, plus add in Ace and Moe Lane for blogging power at the same amount? That’s only $280,000. Set aside fifty grand for tech stuff (hosting, design, troubleshooting) and advertising, another 60K for expenses (to pay reporters to go on the road and for freelancers), 60K for an editor, and 50K to me for supervising the whole operation and there you go. There’s $500,000 a year. And that doesn’t count any potential income the site might get from outside advertising, which you know it’ll get. As the site grows, the budget can creep up, but only for people who will add direct value to the site, but we add on as advertising revenues warrant the increase.

Think of a major league team building a farm system and look at the long terms from those numbers as Jimmie Does

Divide $500,000 into $4.3 million. That’s how long I could run a hypothetical conservative news site with the money dunderheaded conservatives gave Charlie Crist in just three months. Meanwhile, Stacy had to rattle the tip jar so hard his teeth ached to get just a few hundred bucks to do some original reporting in rural Kentucky. That’s ridiculous.

No what’s ridiculous is what happened a few days ago. Before the blogger conference call with Rick Santorum Friday Stacy McCain suggested I should make a point to record the call so I can use clips on the radio show. I replied I don’t have the necessary equipment for my line. He mentioned it is available at any Radio Shack for $50-75 bucks and I was forced to reply that I don’t have the $50-75 to spend for it.
The left is funding it’s occupods and its new media to the point where TPM is getting question time on GOP candidates conference calls. Meanwhile forget the $70K in Jimmie’s example. Since June I covered the St. Anselm debate in NH, the Dartmouth debate from the spin room, reported live from blogcon including reports on the occupods, Covered Herman Cain, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum in NH, Barney Frank’s press conference and teaparty and GOP events and more. Yet although the radioshow is managing to cover its expenses the results of my November fundraiser were so dismal that I’ve closed out my 401k (tax hit not withstanding) to keep up with the house bills for the next several months.  READ THE WHOLE THING

Pamela Geller sees the problem as well (and the among all of the other amazing things she does in the fight to preserve our freedom from islamotyranny, she also works to help young women in danger of being "honor killed" by their families and has saved people's lives - Pamela has a button at Atlas Shrugs where you can donate to support her work, BTW):

What's Wrong with the Right?

Let me add my voice to this rant. New media is slaying dragons, kicking ass, taking names, breaking stories and doing the heavy lifting, and still is doing so despite years of results, despite relentless attacks by the left and the mealy-mouthed limpwristed establishment on the right. 

Pamela then shares that post from DaTechguy, which I excerpted above, that you need to go and read. it is a sad irony that Peter, the blogger known as Datechguy, couldn't get a $50-75 piece of technology that would help him provide unique and exclusive material to his radio show listeners and blog readers due to lack of support from his fellow Conservatives, isn't it?

Speaking of tech issues, the 1389 Blog has been trying to raise money for months to upgrade their server because they were having all kinds of issues getting the blog to load when there's a lot of traffic. 1389 is a counter-jihad blog that provides a lot of coverage, that you would be hard pressed find elsewhere, regarding the genocide and displacement of non-muslims in the Balkans. The islamophile media will never let on, nor will most of our politicians, but Bill Clinton had us helping the wrong side in Bosnia; it was the Christian Serbs who suffered (and are still suffering) horrifying atrocities committed by genocidal islamic supremacists bent on conquest for islam. 1389 does important work, but due to the tech issues, the 1389 Blog has not been able to add new posts or have comments made to existing posts since yesterday and only just got back online a short time ago after switching to a new server. I am sure they'd appreciate some help in their tip jar to recoup the expense.

While I am on the subject of tech trouble, my own ability to stay connected to all of you will be severed, the day after Christmas, if I am unable to somehow raise the $128 I need to stay online, my bill is bundled, so I will also lose my phone service and TV too (there is no reception on TVs without cable here in the sticks where I live). I have mentioned some of the other things I am dealing with which I could really use some help for here, here and here recently. In the two weeks since my Savagelanche, traffic has at least doubled and I have had nearly 40,000 page views to this blog in the past 30 days, but only three hits to my tip jar (from friends). I would really like to be able to get my kids a few reasonably priced Christmas presents and be able to cook something nice that day for dinner, but right now I am struggling just to pull together enough money to meet our most basic needs, and we still need to fix our furnace. If one percent of my readers could sport out five bucks, it would make a huge and positive difference in my life and that of my family, even a one or two dollar donation from 10% of my readers would keep me from being silenced and push the wolves far enough from the door that I could better focus on providing content here that I think you will enjoy. If I am unable to raise the finds needed and forced to go on hiatus, I will try to get back as soon as possible. 

Bloggers who are struggling financially often have to resort to the humiliating bleg to try to get help from readers because there are simply no other entities on the right who are willing to help; they would prefer to throw their money away on silliness instead, as Conservative filmmaker Ladd Ehlinger Jr. recently discussed over at his place:

I've tried to work up solutions to solve this problem as well.
Unfortunately, major obstacles remain, and there doesn't seem to be a solution in sight. Conservative donors don't use teh internetz. Conservative donors would rather donate to celebrities like Chris Christie or Mike Huckabee, or presidential candidates they'd prefer to see win - without recognizing how much "oomph" a particular blogger or other might give to that candidate's efforts.
Through all of this, one has to wonder why Mike Huckabee needs a PAC. Or Karl Rove. What exactly are these PACs doing? Are they "winning" anything? Or are they simply churning donor money for the aggrandizement of the celebrity?
Soros and his ilk fund Media Matters, Think Progress, et. al. Conservatives toss their money into landfills.
And for those who may be tempted to jump into the comments and screech about the Koch Brothers, as far as I can tell, their pattern of funding is the same as all the other conservatives. I may be wrong, but the impression I get is, when they're not funding NPR documentaries on string-theory, the Kochs are tossing their cash into the celebrity landfill, too. READ THE WHOLE THING.

Robert Stacy McCain noted the other day that a billionaire has announced that he is giving $20 million to the Newt Gingrich campaign, but of course there is no love for bloggers from such people, and we're not asking for millions either - many of us would be delighted to find a notification of donation received for $5, $10, $20, $50 or $100 in our inboxes, and like I said, even donations of a dollar or two can add up and make a huge difference in someone's life. Stacy is one of the countries hardest working journalists, widely considered to me The Last REAL American Reporter, and one of very few journalists who are on our side. Stacy works his butt off, traveling to important Conservative events, researching and reporting on new and interesting information with both great intellectual capacity and engaging wit - and he does it all on donations to his tip jar. Stacy will be headed to Iowa just after Christmas, where he will be able to provide us with the best coverage of the big primary election that you'll be able to find anywhere. The dinosaur media will not report anything of any real importance to Conservative voters, as they are all in the tank for the left (yes, even Fox News - just look at how Chris Wallace interviews candidates and moderates debates). If you value honest reporting and news you can actually use, you should hit Stacy's tip jar to help him with his Shoeleather Reporting Fund.

Last summer I asked you, "Do You Want America's Future Decided by the MSM or by The People?" and made the case for why Conservative blogs are so very important in the fight to preserve our liberty. (Excerpts):

We must fight for accurate information and ignore a media with an activist, propagandist agenda.  It has gotten down to that: the media vs. the people.

The above quote is from Pamela Geller's article at Human Events, The Next President. It is now more important than ever to support those who fight to bring truthful information to the People, information that the media and most of our political class do not want you to know.
...

We must fight for accurate information and ignore a media with an activist, propagandist agenda.  It has gotten down to that: the media vs. the people.

The above quote is from Pamela Geller's article at Human Events, The Next President. It is now more important than ever to support those who fight to bring truthful information to the People, information that the media and most of our political class do not want you to know.
...
If it weren't for Conservative bloggers, it is quite likely that far left radical nutjobs like communist racist Van Jones and Mao fan Anita Dunn would still be holding high ranking positions in the Obama administration. If it weren't for the blogs, it may never have become known that the Fort Hood massacre was islamic jihad, as was the attempted Christmas Underwear bombing, as was the attempted Times Square bombing, as was the shooting outside the Arkansas Army Recruiting office... I could go on, but hopefully you get the idea. If it weren't for the blogs, you would probably not know that the recent violent and brutal "flash mob" attacks popping up all over the country involved large groups of racist black thugs attacking white people specifically because they are white and for no other reason. If it weren't for the blogs, nobody would know about corruption like the Pigford scam, the deadly "Fast and Furious" scandal, or most of the other treasonous and illegal acts of the corrupt anti-American Obama administration and his goonion thug cronies. If it weren't for the blogs, nobody would likely know that Obama has us helping Al Qaeda and other jihadi terrorists in Libya. If it weren't for the blogs, you may have never heard of the Muslim Brotherhood or been made aware that their stated official goal for the United States of America is to destroy it from within. If it were not for the blogs, people would probably still think that the far left drug addled Tuscon killer, Jared Loughner, was a Sarah Palin operative. There are so many important things that would never have come to light if the right-blogosphere had not exposed them and banged the drum persistently until media and politicians could no longer afford to ignore them, I could easily go on all day, but I hope you get the point: the right blogosphere is critically important to our nation's future!

Conservative bloggers don't just provide information though, quite often they are the catalysts for making positive changes. Last fall, this blog was barely a month old when I put it to work, successfully, towards my own corrupt far left Congressman's electoral defeat. The right-blogs played a crucial role in giving the leftists the "shellacking" that they so rightly deserved in the 2010 election and they will be more important than ever leading up to 2012.

Unlike the well funded left, Conservative bloggers get no support from any big organizations, there are no blogger Sugar Daddies for Conservative bloggers, not even from the right, as Jimmie Bise explains at the Sundries Shack:

Let me toss a few number at you. These are fundraising totals, for the first half of 2011 (candidates’ figures from Open Secrets).

• The Republican National Committee: $36.6 million ($6.7 million in June alone).
• Mitt Romney: $18.3 million.
• Ron Paul: $4.5 million.
• Tim Pawlenty: $4.5 million.
• Michele Bachmann: $3.6 million.
• Herman Cain: $2.55 million.
• Newt Gingrich: $2.1 million.
• Sarah Palin’s PAC: $1.7 million.

If we assume that half of the donations received by the RNC and SarahPAC will get spent, in some form or fashion, on the 2012 Presidential Race, we get a grand total of $45.1 million donated in six months for a campaign where we won’t see a real election until mid-February. Mind you, I didn’t include the fundraising totals for the RNCC and RNSC, because OpenSecrets doesn’t have a tally for the 2012 election cycle yet. It’s safe to say that between them, you could probably double that total.
Why do I point this out? Well, I’m afraid I’m back on my new media hobby horse again. See, this week I’ve had a few blog posts hit my RSS reader and little of the news has been good. Let me give you some of the highlights.

• Pete Ingemi, Da Tech Guy, is in urgent need of $1,800.
• Iowahawk had a monster flood sweep through his man-cave.
• My friend BiasedGirl is now a two-time victim of the Obama Recession.
• Stacy’s tip-jar is feeling a bit neglected and he has some bills coming due.
• It’s yearly fundraising time at Chris Muir’s Day by Day Cartoon.
• The Lonely Conservative is feeling, well, lonely!
• Thomas LaDuke, another victim of the Obama Recession, was looking at some pricey auto repairs and, though that need was met, still finds himself out of a job.
• Dan Collins and Joy McCann are trying to make a go of a conservative community with all manner of good stuff for your eyes and ears.
• Duane Lester, father of a rather large family, made a ridiculously inexpensive e-book he’s selling to make ends meet.
• Zilla, whose husband works one job and is trying to get a business off the ground in his “spare” time, is on the ragged edge.
• Wendy Sullivan is trying to get some real help to a very worth cause.

Quite the contrast, eh?
On one hand, the professional politicians — not just the candidates but their staff members who jump from campaign to campaign each season — are doing pretty well. On the other hand, folks in new media are sucking wind to pay their bills each month. But why should that be? Which group does more to aggressively advance conservative causes; take on pernicious media bias; and dos battle with the well-paid and full-time hacks in Media Matters, Think Progress, and the Democratic Party every day? I’ll tell you, from the looks of my e-mail inbox and my RSS reader, the new media Army of Davids is beating the socks off the professional political class on a daily basis.
Let me point something else out as well. Every election cycle, the Republicans rattle their voluminous tip-jars for candidates we then have to fight for two, four, or six years to do the things we put them into office to do. They plead poverty and reap millions, then spend those millions on overpriced and arrogant advisers like Mike Murphy and Ed Rollins. They pay tens of thousands of dollars to “geniuses” like Fred Davis who produced such flops as “Demonsheep” and “I’m You”. When I mention this, though, my friends who have been on the inside of political campaigns assure me that we on the right must hire these people, that their expertise is indispensable.
I wonder, though. If they’re so darned good, why did their candidates lose so badly? Why don’t they have a few recent successes under their belts?
Let me point out one other thing. The Republican National Committee, for all its millions, has virtually no new media presence. They have one, perhaps two people, who work their tails off to cover the whole nation. No one is making videos and pushing them out on YouTube or Vimeo with any great frequency. No one makes regular outreach efforts to bloggers. I can’t recall that Chairman Priebus has had more than perhaps a couple conference calls with bloggers since January. Surely the RNC could have set aside a million or so this year, hired 6 or 8 established bloggers and videographers, and set them to work at the soft underbelly of the Democratic Party, but they haven’t. Now I understand that Michael Steele left the committee in horrible financial shape. I get that the “establishment” sees new media as the junior varsity. What I don’t understand is why anyone with any internet savvy at all would look at the Return On Investment (ROI) potential of new media and not at least give it a try. It’s not as if the RNC hasn’t spent money on media aplenty already.
But what does that have to do with you? I’m glad you asked.
[...]
Here it is. Every month, we’re bombarded with donation requests from politicians and parties who assure us that the $20, $50, or $100 we send them over and over again will be well-spent. They promise us that they will use our money wisely and we believe them only to learn, usually after  another losing election, that they spent the cash on overpriced fripperies and could have done just as well with half the money. I think they could do just as well with a little bit less. Their consultants and ad “geniuses” can bring their rates down a touch without falling into the peril of eating Mac and Cheese a couple times a week.
So here’s what I”m suggesting. Instead of donating to a candidate or a party, donate to a blogger or a podcaster. Make a regular habit of it. If you’d normally give $100 to a candidate, give a blogger $20 a month for five months. Heck, give $20 to five different bloggers. Let them know, in paying green fashion, that you support and appreciate what they do. Tell your friends, too and point them to the same bloggers to whom you donate. Get a little contest going among your friends and family to see who can get the first blogger to post about how their tip jar exploded because of all the cash that you all stuffed into it. Make it last at least through the end of this year and see how it works. If you can keep it up into 2012, when the new media will be even more important, do it. I know times are tough, but I think we can all come up with $10 or $20 a month somewhere.
And there’s another benefit. If you put that money into new media you can see what you get every day — blog entries, podcasts, videos, or any combination thereof. As Stacy said, it’s not a donation but a payment. You’ll get something out of it — real solid news or commentary you can send to people you know or use to bolster your own political chops. You also get regular, direct contact with the person to whom you’ve donated either through e-mail, other places like Twitter or Google+, or the comment section of the site. You can’t buy that from a candidate unless you pony up tens of thousands of dollars and even then, you won’t get that contact every day.
So your money buys not only global reach and regular output but also real access to real people who are hitting their licks for conservatism every day. If that’s not a deal in a day when parties are not exactly the model of transparency, I don’t know what is. And there’s no better time to start than now. RTWT

...
Conservative bloggers provide a valuable service, so it is not unreasonable to hope for some sort of compensation via Tip Jar hitting in return for that service from the people who benefit from it. Is it?  MUCH MORE HERE

Did you see the list of bloggers who were struggling in Jimmie's post from this past summer? Well most, if not all of them, are still battling to keep their heads above water. Jimmie's idea for a Great Tip Jar Rattling was a stroke of genius, because the politicians and those who donate the big bucks to them care nothing for the hard working bloggers whose work they benefit from, we are little more than doormats to them, if they deem to notice us at all. We are chopped liver; PACs and the politicians, even when they are unelectable losers, are kobe beef to them. Which is why Conservative Bloggers so very badly need support from their readers, because nobody else appreciates the work that we do. It is a much different story on the left, which is why they have the advantage, as The Lonely Conservative addressed HERE.

Most conservative bloggers have other jobs and other responsibilities. We do this because we believe the United States is the last best hope on earth, and we want our kids to grow up with the same opportunities we’ve had. Most don’t do this out of some love of the 1%. We do it out of love of freedom. We lose sleep, and work at night and on the weekends.
I’m not whining, I just want people to realize that the conservative new media is doing a heck of a job without any help from the likes of billionaires like George Soros. Imagine what we could do with funding. RTWT

Christmas is just around the corner, why not spread some joy by hitting a few of the tip jars of your favorite bloggers? I an guarantee you that it will be welcomed and appreciated! And if you can spare anything at all, please help me to stay avoid being silenced by hitting my tip jar. Thank you for reading, and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a very Happy New Year.

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