Saturday, October 15, 2005

Maoz tries (and lies) again

And gives me what might be a backhanded mention
"In the sour grapes department, some bloggers whose sites the Monitor ignored made the preposterous claim that they were left off the list because of their liberal political views"
It's true I think the list was heavily conservative (a claim Moaz denies, and we prove below) and it's true that Maoz has an unhealthy hostility for the left, but there were no sour grapes from me: I was proud to be omitted from that list. I wouldn't want to appear alongside many of the blog Maoz names.

Which brings me to this: Over at Hirhurim, Gil, who made the second cut, is popping champagne. Gil, please. Where's your dignity? Do you really want to be part of a list that honors SultanKnish?

PS: Maoz says more than one blogger ("some bloggers") made the "preposterous claim." Who, aside from me, Gil and Miriam (who are brilliant, but non-lefties all the same) even mentioned the stupid list? Could Maoz be lying?

PPS: Maoz says "[O]f the fifty sites named, no fewer than eighteen -or 36 percent of the list- can fairly be described as neutral or liberal." Here Maoz is lying with statistics because of the fifty sites he names, only about 20 are proper political blogs, and among those are:

1 - A few neutral blogs
[Decision ‘08 (decision08.net), The Daily Howler (dailyhowler.com)]

2 - Many, many wingnutty blogs
[Neo-Neocon (neo-neocon.blogspot.com), Captain’s Quarters (captainsquartersblog.com/mt), InstaPundit (instapundit.com), Times Watch (www.timeswatch.org), Melanie Phillips’s Diary (melaniephillips.com/diary), Power Line (powerlineblog.com), Little Green Footballs (littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog), Free Republic (freerepublic.com/home.htm), Roger L. Simon (rogerlsimon.com), Right Wing News (rightwingnews.com), Oh, That Liberal Media! (thatliberalmedia.com)]

3 - And exactly three liberal blogs:
[James Wolcott (jameswolcott.com), The Politicker (observer.com/thepoliticker) and The Huffington Post (huffingtonpost.com)]

Moreover, among the 30 other blogs that are not true political blogs are many that lean right, and have written wingnutty posts (including Cross-Currents (cross-currents.com), CAMERA (camera.org) and Boker Tov Boulder) together with many (like Seraphic Secret) which appear to have no political views at all.

So who does Maoz think he's kidding when he protests that 36 percent of his list is "neutral or liberal?" Three of his honored blogs are liberal. Three. And almost all of the rest are either obscenely conservative, moderately conservative, or altogether quiet about politics.