Pearls Before Swine
Tim Blair takes issue with Andrew Sullivan for taking $200k from the blogosphere and still needing a vacation:
Planning his vacation, Sullivan thanks readers for “the financial support that has kept this blog alive and well.” (Two hundred grand and he still couldn’t afford a blogroll? Way to share the bloggy wealth, Andrew.) Other sites—many other sites—have done more with less.Sullivan’s massive blog earnings have ended up funding a Euro-Middle Eastern stroll with time off to write a book. His next pledge drive might deliver a substantially lower return.
Sullivan was one of the first bloggers I read, and in the aftermath of 9-11 I read him, Den Beste and Instapundit more than newspapers or magazines.
However, Sullivan was always flakey. His sexuality overshadowed much of what he wrote, and I often wished he would keep the subject away from his penis. It wasn’t his best writing.
Beginning awhile back I noticed that Sullivan was becoming more unstable, and I found more consistent writing elsewhere. I haven’t read him in almost two years.
Still, I’m disappointed that the first professional blogger didn’t set a better example for the rest of us who pay for the privilege of spouting off, and get the same traffic in a year as what he gets on a good day.
