Personal Democracy Forum – Bloggers paid to support Thune, oppose Daschle

Bloggers paid to support Thune, oppose Daschle
By Christian Crumlish, 12/06/2004 - 12:56am

According to Daily Caucus, Senator-elect John Thune of South Dakota paid two bloggers, Jon Lauck and Jason Van Beek, $35,000 over a five month period:

Nowhere on [the] "Daschle v. Thune" [weblog] was there a disclaimer that he was being paid $5,200 per month by a candidate.... These guys spent every day attacking Daschle and promoting the "Rock Star" Thune. They had perfect timing on issues like the last minute Daschle lawsuit. How could they have known? Because Dick Wadhams had hired them! Lauck admitted that he had access to information he wouldn't have otherwise.

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so our action item is...

Do we cut Zephyr a little more slack for demanding ethical standards for blogger/activists earlier in the campaign? Does Kos still have the same position? What do the current campaign finance laws say? Is something we as a society would like to prevent in the future? Naturally this would apply to televised pundits as well-- Carville and Begala staying on to host CrossFire, after being tapped as Kerry campaign volunteers...

By Jon Garfunkel at Tue, 12/07/2004 - 01:49 | email this page

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