I pay attention to ads. I know most people hate advertising and work really hard to ignore the ads around them, but I think advertisements tell me something both about the products being advertised and the media that carries the ads. It is always interesting to me to pick up a magazine and flip to the rear-most pages to see what is being advertised back there. Is it apartments for rent or employment opportunities, or meaningless consumer goods like the Topsy-Turvey Tomato Planters and Cat Scratcher with Springy Toy, or is it trashy stuff like Penis Enlarging Pills and Thigh Crème? The kinds of advertisements in a media gives me a clue to style and substance of a publication, and the readership of that publication.
Now for better or worse, I am not a subscriber to Daily Kos, so that means I get to see the ads that adorn the DK site. The ads are present all the time and they change every time a viewer refreshes the page or clicks to a different page, so one gets to see a wide variety of ads. In addition to the usual stuff like ads for PerfectConnectionGolfSwing.com and LG TVs, here are some other ads I have seen here on DK in the past couple of months:
- NewsMax.com - Romney vs. Obama
- FreedomWorks.com - Stop Obama
- MittRomney.com – Mitt Romney for President
- AmericansforProsperity.org – Obama's Green Energy Investments Continue to Fail
- Zazzle.com – Tea Party Bumper Stickers
- TraditionalValues.us – Immoral Sex Acts Taught in Elementary Schools
- Action.FreedomWorks.org – Stop Obama.
- FisherInvestments.com – What would happen to the stock market if Obama is
re-elected?
- TeaPartyInfo.org – Should we build the border fence?
- The-end.com: The End-Time is here. 2008 was God's last warning. 2012 is
economic collapse and Wolrd War III
- Townhall.com/2ndamendment – Tell Congress to support the 2nd Amendment. This
legislation faces an uphill battle through the democratic controlled (sic) congress
and White House
- Townhall.com/Veepstakes – Mike Huckabee for VP
- nanforcongress.com – Nana Hayworth, Congresswoman (R-NY). Dedicated to
lowering taxes.
- NRCC.org – Help us stop Nancy Pelosi
- TurnerforNY.com – NY Republicans vote Teus., June 26th. BEAT Guillibrand.
It has always struck me as curious that such ads would appear on this liberal web-site. First off, it is hard for me to imagine that there is a large audience here at DK for conservative-themed political messaging. Moreover, if I remember correctly, the site's founder Kos has even written that this site is aimed at supporting the Democratic Party and Democratic politicians. And then there was this statement published by Kos on May 17th
“But here's the thing -- through Election Day, we need to have a single purpose in mind. I won't say you can't bitch about the Democrats or the president, but if you don't like Obama, you're going to like Mitt Romney even less. So what do you think you are accomplishing besides satiating some apparent need for absolute purity? Feel free to unload on Obama the day after he is reelected. But for now, seriously, what do you think you're accomplishing? If Obama offends you so much that you consider him irredeemable, then become a Green and go somewhere else, because you're pretty much hopeless and a waste of everyone else's time here.” (full text here: http://www.dailykos.com/...)
It would appear as if some of the site's advertisers have not received the message.
To borrow from Kos's statement: what do these advertisers think they are accomplishing? To my untutored eye, these ads do not seem to be supporting the re-election of President Obama, or other democrats. It seems to me that some of these advertisers believe Pres. Obama is indeed irredeemable, and therefore the advertisers should be asked to go somewhere else.
This upsets my liberal sensibilities. Should I wish to express an opinion that is critical of Pres. Obama or the policies of his administration, I can expect a reprimand, or worse (full disclosure: I have on occasion written diaries that are critical of the president). But, if I am willing to shell out the moola, I can express that same opinion, and or something even more dark and vile, in a big bold brightly-colored banner right on the front page.
There is something grossly conservative about asking the hoi polloi bloggers and commentors at DK to adhere to one set of behaviors, while allowing the wealthy special interests carte blanche. This is one reason why I have never been interested in voting for conservative politicians: the promotion of policies by which the wealthy are allowed what is proscribed for everyone else (that, and the racism, the laughing in the face of environmental calamity, the elevation of party loyalty over competence, etc.). In my opinion, I don't think liberals should take on this aspect of conservatism for themselves.
I understand that DK is not my web-site, and the owners and staff can put on it anything they choose. It is up to me to decide if what I see here is worth a return visit. But I do get to decide where I spend my money. And I am not inclined to spend my money on a web-site that prominently displays banner ads of republican tripe, or where I can get banned for expressing an opinion. After all, I can see those same ads for free over at RedState.com, and I can get banned for expressing my opinions there (for free) as well.