Little Green Footballs

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Pajamas by any other name.

It seems churlish to bash PJ Media's re-labeling itself as "Open Source Media" before tomorrow's grand launch, but we'll do it anyway. It's our job.

Firstly, what a terrible name. Leaving aside the uncomfortable fact the name belongs to someone else, It's clunky. Try saying "Open Source Media" three times quickly. Sensing that, Charles and Roger suggest "OSM". Catchy, huh? Nearly as good as "MLE" or "EKS".

It's dishonest as well. The naming allusion is to "Open Source Programming" which at least 3% of the population know is a way for many people to collaborate on software development. But the operating model of OXN... uh.. OSN.. whatever... is anything but "open". It's top-down content management by Republicans Johnson and Simon and their hand-picked wingnut "Editorial Board", (the part of Alan Colmes being played by David Corn). And does anyone really think that Editorial Board is going to have any say in what gets posted day to day? Nah, it's gonna be Charles and Roger, new bosses same as old bosses.

As a fine example of Pajama-Speak, ponder this pomposity from Simon:

Citizen journalism at its best means the pursuit of the truth above all things, above partisanship or the financial interests of the medium publishing it." (Roger Simon, OSM Founder).

He also told AP the following:
The site will transcend labels and include bloggers of all political leanings."

All political leanings? Oh, please. "Above partisanship", really?

Just look at OSM's Blogroll.

If it leaned any further right it would fall right over. Partisan? Uh...

Why are Republicans such liars?

P.S. - to listen to streaming audio of Judith "Queen of All Iraq" Miller's address to the Pajama People at their Inaugural Ball, click on www.pajamasmedia.com Weds AM for a link. We'd provide a hyperlink here, but Mr "Openness" Johnson has blocked links from this site.




No comments: