The Economy Warms – For Nick Coleman
By Mitch Berg
Mark “Mister Dilettante” Heuring, writing at True North, is reacting to the news of Nick Coleman’s buyout the way any good capitalist does.
Life has given us (the conservative bloggers who’ve spent the past half-decade correcting Coleman on issues great and small) lemons. Mr. D is looking for someone to whom life gave vodka, to make a Lemon Drop.
He’s putting his “money” where his mouth is:
Nick, you can work for me. And you can start tomorrow.
So what are the advantages of moving your operations to Mr. Dilettante? Oh, there are so many.
* Prestige galore. The Mr. Dilettante brand is known throughout the blogosphere for a devotion to discussions of politics, music and the arts and there’s reason to believe that at least a few dozen other bloggers have read Mr. Dilettante in the past. And as a contributor to True North and Truth vs. the Machine, you’ll have the opportunity to leverage your readership into triple digits, easy. Based on the current circulation numbers at your soon to be former employer, you’d have to be thrilled with that. I’ve actually met Gary Miller and Andy Aplikowski and would be happy to put in a good word for you.
* Complete freedom. No nervous bean counters or supercilious metro editors here, telling you what to say or suggesting that you tone it down a bit. In fact, I’d be highly supportive of letting you say whatever you’d like, Nick — may I call you Nick? The more outrageous, the better. And I’m reasonably certain that you’d see a lot of links from other bloggers, who are always eager to offer their trenchant analysis of your work. Conservatives are very supportive and nurturing that way.
* A commitment to lifelong learning. At Mr. Dilettante, we’ve been able to triple the usual readership of this feature from time to time by picking the right people to insult. You’ve never been especially hesitant to criticize someone, so you have a leg up on other potential candidates for this opportunity. I’ve noticed that have not been in the habit of criticizing Jim Oberstar much, but I’d be happy to teach you. I’d even be willing to share my secret methods for getting web hits by mentioning more arcane targets. For just one example, you’d be amazed how many hits you can get by mildly criticizing Eric Carmen’s solo career.
* A very steady, devoted readership. No reason to worry about declining readership here — this blog almost always gets double digit hits every day. Click on the Sitemeter and see for yourself.
* A generous compensation package. I’ll be willing to split the proceeds I make from publishing this blog with you 50/50. Try and get an offer that generous from anyone else. Just try.Nick, I think this is a wonderful opportunity for you. It would be a shame to see your voice be stilled just because the economy has hit a rough patch.
And for my part – Katherine Kersten, if you want to write for True North and/or Shot In The Dark, the door is wide open!
December 17th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Thanks for the nod, Mitch. And I’d propose that all MOB bloggers take a similar approach. Perhaps Brad Carlson could give Lori Sturdevant shelter from the storm, or maybe Bike Bubba might find room in his domain for Tim O’Brien’s hugely influential “Blog House” feature. There are a lot of people in need right now and we need to be charitable.
December 17th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Peev could probably shelter a few Strib wacks… but how would you tell the difference?
December 17th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Perhaps Brad Carlson could give Lori Sturdevant shelter from the storm
I actually was hoping to cross paths with her earlier this year when RINOs Kathy Tingelstad (MN House 49B) and Jim Ramstad (CD3) retired. I figured she’d be at the respective nominating conventions to write their obits.