Apparently, a pro-fascist blogger's comments have convinced Bob Hertzberg, the only non-leftist LA mayoral candidate, to cease his advertising on "conservative" Roger L Simon's site. Or so the LA Times reports. Never mind that Simon, while a Iraq-war proponent, is socially liberal and favored Kerry in the last election. But I guess that the Times' standard for conservatism is different than mine....
Hertzberg has been taken to task by one local blogger — http://www.martinirepublic.com — who complained last month that Hertzberg was advertising on a website run by conservative commentator Roger L. Simon, who among other things labeled opponents of the war in Iraq "pro-fascist."In any event, I was considering giving Hertzberg some campaign money, but cowardice in the face of criticism from the looney left gives me pause. I'd buy the spin that he cut other ad buys, too, except Hertzber's online notice of martinirepublic's criticism gives that the lie.
Hertzberg responded to the critique on his own site, noting: "With all due respect, the decision regarding blog advertisements was made not on the basis of the blogger's ideology. Rather, like all media buys, the decision was made on the basis of the blogger's readership."
Hertzberg's online critic noted that he appreciated the candidate's reply.
The campaign is no longer advertising at Simon's website.
Actually, Hertzberg suspended most advertizing for now, including his ad on Boi from Troy. This is the second time he had ads, then stopped. I think he is using each ad launch as a way to generate publicity.
This is just more crappy reporting by the LA Times. Go figure.
Posted by: boifromtroy at January 3, 2005 09:56 AMHaving the largest online presence of any of our fellow mayoral competitors, we constantly monitor and chime in on many issues throughout the blogosphere, including Martini Republic.
In this case, Boi From Troy was absolutely correct in his assessment. The ad buy had merely run it's course, and will continue on with future ad buys when useful. The decisions of where to purchase ads are based on traffic, as anyone who handles media buys will tell you, and last as long as appropriate.
This is a smart and basic business 101 lesson which I think everyone should appreciate in their Mayor.
Posted by: Brian Hay at January 3, 2005 01:54 PMNever mind that Simon, while a Iraq-war proponent, is socially liberal and favored Kerry in the last election.
Simon not only supported Bush fanatically in the last election, he argued that, if elected, Kerry should be impeached ab initio based on the swift boat liars "expose."
The decisions of where to purchase ads are based on traffic, as anyone who handles media buys will tell you, and last as long as appropriate. -- Brian Hay
Brian, with all due respect, maybe a mayoral candidate ought to refrain from placing ads on a site where the proprietor labled millions of his potential constituents "pro-fascist" for opposing Bush's incompetent and unnecessary WMD snipe-hunt in Iraq.
That's Politics 101.
Posted by: Alex at January 5, 2005 09:24 AMPolitics 101 will also teach you that you need to communicate with ALL of your constituencies, not just those that are convenient and agree with your points of view all of the time. LA is a huge city made up of millions of people with millions of different viewpoints. Selectively choosing which ones to communicate with doesn't make any since either. No one constituency is any more important than another. We advertised on many different sites, both local and national, regardless of where they stood on the issue of Iraq. If you don't like his opinions, don't go to his site or promote traffic to it. If you didn't visit his site to see the ad, odds are you would have seen one of our ads on other sites such as Martini Republic (if they accepted them) that you agree with.
Posted by: Brian Hay at January 5, 2005 10:00 AM