Partisans Start Nonpartisan Website?
By amba | Related entries in Blogging, General PoliticsThe political operatives on both sides who are founding Hotsoup.com, a glossy attempt to co-opt the anti-partisan groundswell, must have ulterior motives. And they do: to create a clubby atmosphere in which to reach out to “opinion drivers” —
Hotsoup’s founders estimate there are 30 million such opinion drivers scattered across the country whom friends, neighbors and fellow citizens rely upon for advice.
Citing public opinion research, Fournier said, “At least one out of 10 Americans tell the other nine what to buy, how to vote, where to eat, and that literally is the group of people we’re going after.”
(Callimachus, to whom the hat tips, was offended by that last bit and so am I.) And once they reach out to them, what are they going to do? Try to get them to tell those other nine Americans to vote for their side, that’s what!
Wolf in sheep’s clothing, if you ask me. (Or is it rams in lone wolf’s clothing?) But I should reserve judgment. Hotsoup debuts in October.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13th, 2006 and is filed under Blogging, General Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 13th, 2006 at 6:53 am
Well lah-dee-dah. I’m one of those opinion drivers you mock. My opinion is sought and studied and ultimately followed. 9 out of ten times.
Trouble is, when I go to the UK, turns out that opinions drive on the other side. I almost got squashed just trying to cross the street!
July 13th, 2006 at 10:17 am
As I noted over in the comments at DWM, I fit that profile very well–and, gee willikers, I blog, too! Like that means I have a herd of sheep following in my wake. I’m inclined to think it’s rather the opposite.
LOL.
That said, this venture is new, and some of its ideas are laudable ones. Who knows how it will evolve?
I will say two other things: 1) I found the picture on the Hotsoup’s website to be rather revealing, and 2) a veteran of Grassroots. com, a similar effort (without the 1-out-10-
Americans thing) dating back to 2000, has a useful take from someone who’s sort of “been there” and has, apparently, worked with at least two of the people involved in the Hotsoup startup.
(Please note, that site appears to be having difficulties just now, though it was fine last night, so I’m not directly linking to the post. But it’s date/time stamp is 7:57 a.m. on June 12, so it shouldn’t be hard to find when the site comes back up.)
July 13th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
Can you really control the opinions of opinion leaders? Is it like a pyramid scheme? You give me a box of opinions which I give to nine less-opinionated friends who each give it to nine less-opinionated friends until it reaches the bottom and everyone loses…except Ponzi Pundit at the top?
Makes you wonder how other’s actually view their fellow citizens.
July 13th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
And so on and so on and son … what old TV commercial is Alan’s riff reminding me of? I can’t place it. Something to do with a hair product, or a hair-removal product, I think … but the allusion is eluding me (thus proving illusive?).
Yikes, but I’m in a weird mood this afternoon.
I should probably stay off the ‘net … .
July 13th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Makes you wonder how other’s actually view their fellow citizens.
Ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-a …
July 13th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
Look at the media, the talking heads and the politicians and I think you can answer that yourself.
There’s an art to this, and I don’t know if HotSoup is really the best brush to paint a masterpiece. We shall see.
August 23rd, 2006 at 2:17 pm
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