Greenwald joins Salon.
In response to some reader complaints Glenn wrote:
But there is a more nefarious sentiment underlying some of these complaints, and it is pervasive and significant. There is a strain of belief, found among some on the left (and again, I think it’s a very small minority), which perceives issues like funding and income-generating models as some sort of insult, as something unethical and impure. And then there is another strain which is about unbridled personal entitlement — the belief that they are entitled to access whatever they want, and have everything they want, without the slightest amount of expenditure or effort on their part (all the effort, expenditure and sacrifice should be from others).
I’m sorry that there are people who think that clicking through an ad (or subscribing to avoid it) is a grave insult and an outrageous imposition. It also can be an inconvenience for bloggers (or political analysts or activists of any kind) who — driven by passion and a desire to contribute in some way to improving the state of the country — spend 3 hours per day or 8 hours per day or 12 hours per day on their work without being able to earn a living. To begrudge someone the ability to do so — or to act as though they are engaged in an act of betrayal or even some kind of corruption — because they find a way to work on behalf of their political ideas and earn a living doing it is truly bizarre.
I have a hard time understanding this “controversy.” The blogosphere isn’t one uniform place. There isn’t one way to be a blogger, there isn’t one way to be a liberal blogger (whether Glenn is actually liberal is a topic for another day). Nobody has written a uniform blogger code of conduct, and if someone did nobody would sign it.
However, the small number of talented bloggers who have decided to make their writing into a primary career have to pay the mortgage, feed kids and occasionally see a dentist using nothing more than money that comes in from words that they put out for free. It seems like a positive development in terms of the quality/quantity of their output and a good sign for the growth of our medium that people are even able to do that now. Take it as a sign that traditional forms of media know that we’re important. Whatever means (legal of course and if conflicts may be involved, disclosed) that full-time bloggers find to pay the bills and keep free words coming strikes me as entirely their prerogative.
As for me, I have a career that I enjoy quite a bit. I don’t take any money from blogging and if somebody offered it to me I would turn it down. The last thing my busy day needs is more pressure on top of the expectations of my readers and that annoying writer’s itch. But it seems like nothing but good news that the medium has matured enough that the best can go pro.