Hot Air’s Future Up In The Air [Update at 1901 / 2007]
From Mediaite, Colby Hall reporting, we learn:
…Mediaite has learned that leading center-right web site Hot Air has been acquired by Salem Communications for an undisclosed sum. Sources close to the deal claim that Michelle Malkin, the conservative pundit and sole owner of Hot Air, has been in talks with Salem for some time, but the announcement was timed to coincide with the Conservative Political Action Conference, which opens tomorrow in Washington D.C.
Hot Air is one of the biggest, most influential conservative sites on the Web and was launched on April 24, 2006, with Michelle Malkin as founder/CEO (though she remains editorially focused on her own blog MichelleMalkin.com and her own writing and television appearances.) Hot Air is managed on a day-to-day basis by editors Ed Morrissey and the mysterious AllahPundit, who are reported to be part of the deal in the sale of to Salem, and absolutely essential to the core value of Hot Air. We are told that, from a user’s perspective, Hot Air will remain the same despite the change in ownership.
Salem Communications also owns Townhall.com, which is a site I rarely visit since they took it over for the same reasons as Chris Wysocki:
Please God, don’t let them do to HotAir.com what they did to Townhall.com. Because Townhall is definitely not my #1 conservative website.
In fact, Townhall has got to be one of the most annoying websites in the universe.
Check [out] this crapulous example of graphic sludge, popovers, popunders, animations, blink tags and other web page bullshit gone wild.
Who is responsible for this dog’s dinner of stinking slush? Uncle Jethro? Baby Huey? The last six art directors fired from Porn.com? Does it matter? Nope. Not at all. Trying to read something on Townhall is like getting hit in the face with oozing semi-liquid spam every second.
And don’t get me started on their never-ending, unable to unsubscribe even if you jump through all the hoops they’ve set up, email blasts. Townhall pimps more “get rich quick” investment scams than a Bronx boiler room operation. Even worse, somehow I got subscribed to their cruft twice so I get two copies of each piece of junk email they pump out.
I sure hope that Ms. Malkin (and co-bloggers Ed Morrissey and AllahPundit) know what they’re doing here. Hot Air really is one of the top conservative websites. It had better not succumb to any of the irritating webpage pestilence which infects Townhall.
Like I tell myself when I contemplate clicking over to Townhall:
Don’t do it Bob — life’s too short and your RAM’s too precious.
Hot Air is one of those must-read-everyday-sites for those of us in the VRWC, I hope they have not sold their souls to the God of Annoying Internet Sites.
UPDATE at 1901…
-Over at The Other McCain, Stacy posts about it and reserves his opinion, but he does offer this interesting bit of history:
…In 2008, Salem purchased my friend Nathan Tabor’s site, The Conservative Voice, and shut it down. No notice, no archives, nothing — the URL just became a re-direct to Townhall.
Like Michael Corleone said, it’s just business.
-If you followed the Wrestling in the 1970’s then you’ll remember Chief Jay Strongbow. As I had discovered I was part Injun*, he was my favorite. In the first half of his matches, he would always take a beating, but, at some point, he would have enough, slam the mat, and start dancing some wild Injun dance. The announcers would always announce ‘Chief Jay Strongbow is on the Warpath!’ And his opponent would run away if he knew what was good for him. Well, Little Miss Attila is not very happy about the buyout, so, folks at Salem, r-u-n a-w-a-y!
*Though I wear a shirt and tie, I’m still a Redman deep inside.
UPDATE at 2007…
I am happy for my blogging role model, Michelle Malkin, and I do hope Salem will not do what a lot of corporations do when they buy an independent operation, that is screw it up. I would hate to see all the users, and commenters purged, or the blog changed into something totally different than what it currently is. As I have said,it was reading Hot Air, that inspired me to start this blog, so I have a special place in my heart for it….
-And what will happen over at the Greenroom? Donald Douglas has an idea at the end of his posting over at American Power.
Trackbacks
- Hot Air sold to Salem Communications « The Daley Gator
- The Yackety Yack On CPAC III: The Miracle Of The Martini « The Camp Of The Saints [New Main Site]
Comments are closed.
The Camp Of The Saints 
One way to silence dissent is to purchase its platforms. Socialists have an abundance of money, being trust fund babies of inherited conservative fortunes or simply successful one-off thieves (principally attorneys). Ironic that that money should be used to silence conservative voices, which produced the fortunes. Needless to say, the socialist trust fund babies and one-off thieves/attorneys are conservative with respect to their fortunes. They don’t give till it hurts.
Rush made an important point today: politicians control businessmen, not vice-versa. The rap is that evil businessmen control politicians. No, politicians extort businessmen, who are no less or more prone to evil than anyone else is, but the point that ultimately they are at the mercy of politicians and know that they are. Thus they go along with evil such as “cap and trade” and “health care reform” and “affordable housing,” because they have no choice unless they shut their businesses — or unless voters convincingly cover their back-sides, as some business leaders now seem to believe voters have, at least with respect to “cap and trade.”
In Vedic terms, it may be put this way: Kshatriyas (warriors/politicians/lawyers) always have the upper hand on Vaisyas (producers/businessmen), not to mention laborers (Sudras). The only group having the upper hand on Kshatriyas is Brahmins (teachers/clergy).
If the Brahmins go bad, as they have today, the civilization sinks.
One tiny group has the upper hand on Brahmins: saints and sages.
Therefore the call for monastery, actual and spiritual, the ancient Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian and, yes, even Muslim call. What passes for Muslims today are Mohammedans, idolaters with positive hatred for sanctity. One has yet to find a Muslim.
I feel better knowing that you’re a saint and I’m just a humble sage.